We're famous!

http://acertainwoman.blogspot.com/#!/2012/03/ukraine-ministry-part-5-hope-life.html

check it out...

The making of the блины. 2012 edition.

The staging area. Ingredients: 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 1/2 t of oil, a pinch of salt, and 2/3 cup of flour. Batter will be very thin. Heat up a pan, brush it with oil,  pour in 1/4 cup of the batter and swirl it all around so it looks like this...

... swirled batter in hot, hot pan. Flip it over after a couple of minutes.

The insides of the блины from left to right. творог (a local cheese that reminds me of ricotta) with сметана (sour cream) and сахар (sugar); творог with сметанa, сахар, and шоколад (chocolate); сметана; вишневое варенье (cherry jam). 

Close-up shot of the творог.

Solomiya was helping me. Actually, she was crying throughout the entire process because she wanted me to hold her. She stopped when I started taking pics of her... I think she thought I was going to give her the camera.

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Aerial footage.

Assembly of the masterpiece.

Fold it like so.

Inside view.

Ready to try it. You can see from S's face that she was still recovering from having to sit in the chair while I cooked.

They were really good. Mike had one of his friends come over to work on some translation stuff in the afternoon. He tried one and said they were very good. We have a Ukrainian's stamp of approval.

If you come to see us, I will make you some.

Time Change

So... a couple of weekends ago the time changed in the US and we were then only 6 hours ahead of our NY fan club, instead of 7 hours. We thought, based on a newspaper article from a few months back, that Ukraine was no longer going to follow the time change thing. But... they are now! This past weekend the time changed; clocks were turned 1 hour ahead. So, now we are 7 hours ahead of y'all like before. Just so you know.
Tomorrow we are going to experiment with making 'blin-chi-kee' (aka crepes):


They are very popular here. Look at all the possibilities:






These are quite versatile little things.
Will post the recipe and directions if all turns out okay.
Will post a more serious blog, too.

No, this is not a crepe. But, I am starting to have daydreams about them...

What we have been up to this past week...

Our 1st house guest! We were honored to have our friend, Mary Jill, stay with us.

Solomiya enjoyed looking at pictures of herself on Mary Jill's camera.

Mary Jill in our living room with Jim and Laurie Sliz (formerly from Watertown, NY and now fellow missionaries; they live at a transition home for young girls leaving the orphanage).

We really enjoyed having a guest this past week. Mary Jill is the mom, mom-in-law, and grandma of some of our most favorite people in NY- the Ackerbauer's!
We like Mary Jill a lot and did not intend for her to get locked into the living room at 4am or have the sofa bed she was sleeping on slope down at a 45 degree angle where your head goes.

Oksana & Sasha with their daughters, Angelina (4 years old) and Anichka (2 1/2 weeks old).

Ukrainian pigeons. They look just like NYC pigeons. This was for you, Fred...

We went on a walk with our friends Oksana and Sasha on Saturday. Actually, it was the 1st walk outside with their new baby, Anichka- so we felt very special that they asked us to accompany them! Oksana and Sasha were two of the people who cleaned and fixed our apartment before we arrived (and made us dinner, showed us the ropes at the grocery store, helped us get Internet setup, gave us rides to church, and have just been very special friends to us since we have moved here).

Enjoyed having Pastor Vince from Changepoint Church, NY at our apartment Saturday afternoon!

Solomiya posing for the camera.

We have had so much fun this past week with the team from NY and Alaska and Hungary! We have only been here for about 1 1/2 months, but it was so good to see our friends from the US: Pastor Marlow and Tonya, Pastor Vince and Deidre, Jack and Deb (from Alaska), and Mary Jill (a former Changepointer, aka River Churcher). And... they brought us 4 suitcases packed with our things from NY (most of it contained Mike's clothing and he is ever grateful), peanut butter, as well as a couple of things from our families- including sunglasses for Solomiya (see below).
They were a huge encouragement to us. We really appreciated the time Vince took with us to make sure we were doing okay! He had some good wisdom to share with us!
Thursday, March 8th was a holiday called 'Women's Day'. It is a day to honor all women of all ages and to give them flowers and chocolates. The team planned a women's conference at our church for this day and Deidre, Tonya, Deb, and Mary Jill all spoke. There were about 75 women there (if not more)!
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp
The above website has some interesting history behind this holiday. They should bring it to the US.

Evidence that people from NY/Changepoint are here...

We had a meeting with the Hope & Life team and the team from NY/Alaska at the Life English office on Tuesday. Volodya gave the schedule out for the week and talked about the different places they would be traveling to.

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At the end of the meeting, The NY team prayed for Edic and Timea!

Random pictures...

This past week, Mike was sick with strep throat. Solomiya and I took turns taking care of him, making soup, and going to the pharmacy for natural remedies. I think what kicked the strep in the butt was all of your prayers, extra vitamin D and the iodine and eucalyptus throat spray.
Thank you so much for praying for Mike's health!
We are looking forward to this week! A team from our church in NY is coming! Pastor Marlow and Tonya, along with Pastor Vince and Diedre! Also, our dear friend, Mary Jill (another missionary from our church who was sent out about 15 years ago!) is coming from Budapest and we are very honored that she will be staying with us and will be our first guest! We are looking forward to hanging out with her. She also has a blog: http://acertainwoman.blogspot.com/
We'll keep you all updated on what takes place!

Grocery shopping at the bazaar on a Saturday afternoon. This was Mike's maiden voyage outside after being sick for a whole week.

You can buy raincoats here as well as a variety of chicken body parts (background).

On the way back, Solomiya was having a meltdown, so we stopped here to give her a break from the коляска (stroller). This is some kind of "kid's magical play land" situated inside a grocery store. It was the only (clean) place we could find to sit down.

Solomiya recovering as we look on at the festivities.

Really enjoyed some spring temperatures and the melting of the snow and ice last week.

Our apartment building.

Our front door and some random graffiti.