Happy Valentine's Day

Rather than getting cards for each other this year, we made a Valentine's tree. (Perhaps you'll recognize these sticks.)

Early in the week, a week in which we were insanity-inducingly homebound due to heavy snow, Dietrich did some water coloring. I cut out hearts, and whenever we had a spare moment, we wrote down things that Dietrich loves about Daddy. Daddy did the same when I wasn't around, and Eric and I both wrote some mushy notes to each other. (My favorite from Eric, "I love Josie because she makes a mean pizza." Dietrich was very confused by that use of "mean," as it generally applies to monsters.)

After a mean pizza lunch on Valentine's Day, Dietrich "picked" the hearts off the tree and we read all the notes aloud.

It's so unlike me to create a tradition; I generally just steal my mom's. But I like this one. I think it might stick.

From the freezer

Last week, I accidentally paid $2.18 for a zucchini. I say "accidentally," because if I had noticed the price, I would have made a more-frugal vegetable choice. But, while in past years I would have felt very cranky about paying so much for not-great-quality, chemical-laden vegetables, this year I just added it to the list. The summertime freezing list.

You see, for my birthday last year, my parents got me a freezer. It resides on our balcony, where I'm pretty sure it's actually keeping the food warmer this winter than it would be if I just threw it all in a big heap on the balcony floor. We've had a very cold winter.



But, obviously, when I froze the freezer's contents, it wasn't cold. It was August and September. The markets were full of lush end-of-summer produce. A time or two each week, while Dietrich was with his nanya, I took the empty stroller to the full market and bought kilos and kilos of vegetables. Every naptime (Dietrich's), I washed and chopped and cooked down.




So this winter, we've enjoyed a steady diet of sliced sweet tomatoes, basil puree, spaghetti sauce, bell peppers and raspberry puree.



As we've eaten through our stash, I've learned that I significantly underfroze. Twice as much would have been about right. Also, we arrived back from Home Service too late in the season to freeze much fruit, but this summer, I'll add strawberries and peaches to the stash. And last year, I opted not to freeze anything that required blanching, but this year, I'll try green beans, broccoli and, of course, zucchini.

Happy New Year!

On New Year's Day, we were supposed to host a potluck brunch for our SEND small group. Instead, we all got sick. We made up for it a week later, however, and the wait was worth it. Missionaries can COOK, I tell you!


People take their shoes off when they go inside an apartment in Ukraine. Good hostesses provide slippers for their guests. I did not.


The grown-up table.


Kian and Dietrich at the kiddo table. Our family shares a nanny with Kian's family, so twice a week, she watches them together.


Cutie-pies watching a DVD while the adults chatted.

Oh boy!

Our formerly modest Player to be Named Later abandoned his Puritan ways on Wednesday, and immediately showed everyone in the room that he is, indeed, a HE.

Dietrich seemed a bit nervous the whole time (the dark room, mommy lying down on a bed that he couldn't climb onto), but our clever ultrasound technician did take a moment to make Player to be Named Later appear to play peek-a-boo with D, which was a hit. He also was excited when he realized there were TWO SCREENS in the room (one for the technician, one for the momma).

At one point, the baby looked right at us, smiled, then took a huge gulp of amniotic fluid. Awesome.

Then I went to have a blood test. Incidentally, I think I've had at least four AIDS tests since becoming a missionary -- didn't realize we were such a high-risk group. Anyhow, Dietrich wanted to observe. He had blood drawn once, and it did NOT go well, so I was happy to show him that people can give blood in a calm, relaxed and painless manner.

Before my next visit in three weeks, I will spend the better part of a Saturday at the clinic, first giving blood, then eating, then waiting two hours, then drinking glucose, then waiting one hour, then giving blood again.

Having a waist is overrated

21 weeks and lovin' it.

Snow week

We were treated to a nice, thick snowfall last week. At this point, it's all iced over and good only for sledding, but Dietrich and I did spend a morning in the park with our friends when it was nice and fresh. What I learned: Some Ukrainians take their snow creatures very seriously.


Little boys, all bundled up.


See that soon-to-be snowball? It's coming at me.


Impressive snow sculpture No. 1: A kitty. With whiskers, which I found out is the same word as mustache.


Detritus of holiday celebrations.


A snowman peeks out at us. He also was covered with celebratory tinsel.


Impressive snow sculpture No. 2: A lion, with built-in seat on which kiddos could pose. Dietrich actually knocked off the lion's nose, which was colored with tomato juice. I found the nearly empty bottle of juice on the ground nearby and repainted it, with my bare finger. As soon as I finished, I panicked, having just stuck my bare finger in some stranger's spit. Five days later, I've not fallen ill. Whew. That was not my finest moment.

Christmas in Ukraine

Ukrainians, in general, celebrate Christmas on January 7, with the rest of the Orthodox world. December 25 is referred to as "Catholic Christmas" here. Further confusing things, our church celebrated on December 24, so last night we were free to celebrate with Oksana, Zhenya and Toddler Nikita (we used to call him Baby Nikita, but he's grown).

Oksana always makes delicious meals, and I always mean to take pictures so that I can blog about them. Last night, I actually remembered to do so!


We started off our meal with kutya. Soup-like in consistency, it was made of wheat berries, walnuts, poppy seeds and honey.


Then we had zrazi: mashed potatoes stuffed with meat or cabbage, fried and served with sour cream. These were so good, and I got to take some home for lunch today!


This salad, called vinigret, was the discovery of the night for me. Potatoes, carrots, onion, beets, peas and pickles, chopped tiny and flavored beautifully. I was in taste-bud heaven.


We finished off the meal with cheesecake topped with poppy seeds and walnuts. Drinks were also homemade: uzvar, a juice made from dried apples and pears, and kissel, a sauce-like concoction made with cranberries and thickened with starch. You can read more about the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve meal in the New York Times this week.


A festive feast! And feast we did -- Eric was too full for breakfast today, even after burning off some calories in a snowball fight on the way home.