Decorating Fever

The way my husband put it is, "I can tell your homesick because you just have to decorate."  I LOVE decorating and I love to leave a place prettier than I got it in.  I don't always get a chance to do that, but since we are staying for 2 weeks, except for Sundays, at our home church, the decorating bug that has been "itching" me has bit pretty hard.  I have been able to decorate some rooms for my pastor's wife, I'm working on the prophet's chamber and Pastor said I could decorate the nursery.  I am super excited to help with that.  He likes the idea of using scripture prints so I have been working on ideas for pictures.  This is one of them...

Fitting verse for the nursery, don't you think? ;)

I also took this picture for my pastor's wife.  She loves her horse and I knew she wanted to have a horse room, but didn't have enough decorations for it.

Only 2 more weeks until we travel to GA to see my family!!!  Can't wait, but not too excited about the drive.

I have also had a few opportunities to speak to the ladies at our churches and will be teaching a ladies' Sunday school class on Sunday and a ladies' meeting on next Thursday.  I think I have everything prepared for Sunday, but I still have a few more things I'd like to get together for Thursday.  I will also be decorating for that and planning some games.  If I feel up to it (still waking up every 2 hrs with a baby), I might even make a few Ukrainian recipes.

There are SO many pictures on my camera waiting to be shared.  The kids are growing way to fast!  But that will have to wait until I have more time.  The Lord has recently blessed me with a NEW camera and the pictures from the last two posts and this one were taken with it!  I am SUPER excited...though, my little Kodak easy share has been pretty good to me these past 5 years.  He won't be far - in my purse for "special" times.

 Just wanted to let you all know that we are still here.  Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Want to know where we'll be?
June ~ GA
July  ~  MD
August - October ~ ME
End of October ~ VA
November ~  HOME!!!

Tastes from Ukraine

 

When thinking of Ukrainian food, this may not be the first thing that comes to mind.  In fact, it may not come to mind at all.  But for us, we remember mayonnaise chicken.  I'm sure it came about just from the creativity of the Ukrainian housewives.  They use a little of everything they have with delicious results.  Whenever they could afford it, this is what Kristina usually fed us.  Because my husband was craving it, I decided to fix some the other day...and a few more days after that as well.

Ingredients:

Mayo (1-1/2 cups)

1 egg

juice from 1/2 a lemon

some or all of the following (onion, green onion, garlic, salt, pepper)

Spices/fresh herbs (I used rosemary this time because I was craving the flavor, but you can use whatever you have...dill, oregano, basil...)

Mix all of the ingredients together.  Spread over chicken pieces in pan.

Cover with tinfoil and bake at about 325-350 for about 45-1 hr.

Any additional cooking, I usually cook at 425.

Ukrainians usually use chicken with the skins and bones.  I've done both skinless and with skins.

Moms ~ Making Memories

 Isn't he getting so big?  His cheeks are just as soft and kissable as they look!

A mom...growing up, that's what I wanted to be, just like my mom.  

She made the job look so fun!

Yeah, some may have criticizes her when there were dishes in the sink,

but while others were doing dishes,

she was cuddling and giving kisses.

 'Cause dishes, they will last,

but time soon will past.

You put up with imperfect jobs done, so that we would learn to do it too.

Now that I am a mom, I know how hard it is to not just 'do it yourself'.

You sat on my bed with me and listened to my worries.

You had warm cocoa waiting on winter days

and blankets warmed in the dryer to cuddle with on the couch.

You always told me

"When you are hurting, sad or lonely, reach out to help someone else."

You were always ready to play a game of cops and robbers or baseball.

Even though other moms had "successful" careers,

you were there for us...

and we knew

you'd rather be a mom to us 

than the most influential woman in the world.

 

One of my most precious memories of you

is waking in the middle of the night (or at least it seemed that way)

to see you praying.  I knew it was for us.

Thank you for teaching us God's Word.

Thank you for teaching me to make memories with my children

and I can't wait to share them with you.

I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU LOVE ME!

(Text on pictures from the book "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney...our bedtime book.  This post does not contain entire text from book.)