Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Bento Boxes

Our Geography studies last week took us to Japan. We did several activities like we always do. I also thought I'd try my hand at bento boxes for lunch. Of course mine isn't as elaborate as a Japanese bento box nor does it contain sushi but it was a fun way to eat lunch. I'm thinking of looking into buying a couple of lunch bento boxes. Anything to make eating fun!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Chinese Lanterns

Last week in our Geography studies we learned about China. As usual it was fun learning some new facts about a country we don't know too much about. For the craft we made Chinese lanterns. It was a pretty easy craft for the boys and kept them busy since they had some cutting to do.......keeping them busy means a few moments of silence! I found the instructions for the lanterns here.
Jojo busy snipping away.

We added some "jewels" to make the lanterns fancy.



 

Friday, January 27, 2012

Week 19 - Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I had small group yesterday and a busy day in general so I tried this pin. If you click on the picture of the muffins it will take you to the blog where you'll see the darling muffin liners that were used. Of course I don't have the cute liners but will definitely be buying them in the future. This recipe was super easy and my boys also loved it. I will definitely be baking these again.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Week 18 - Cinnamon Crescents

This week's creation would have also been easier if I could buy Pillsbury crescent rolls here in Russia.
I made my dough the day before.


I think I used too much butter for the filling because during the
baking process these made a HUGE mess.



 Thankfully they turned out fine.......phew! Jon had to take 
these to meeting and I kinda panicked when I took them
out of the oven!


  
There were only a couple left for us to taste test and the boys loved them!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Snowmen At Night

Over a year ago I began following an art teacher's blog called "Deep Space Sparkle". I absolutely love her projects and it's been a great inspiration for me to do several projects with Josiah and Nathan throughout the school year. In the past we have also had Jojo's friends join in on the fun. Last semester though was absolutely crazy and every week I planned to do an art project something would come up or Jojo's friends would get sick. One of my New Year's resolutions was to re-start the art projects so yesterday we finally got to work on one.

Since it's Winter time and we're living in a wonderful Winter wonderland I thought we'd try out this "Snowmen at Night" project over at Deep Space Sparkle. I don't have the book though and it would have been nice to read the book and then work on the project but oh well!

As we were working on our project it was snowing.



Mod Podging some tissue on to look like buildings.



Nathan's snowman in the night.




Jojo's snowman. Jojo had the idea of painting arms and so
everyone else then added arms. Notice the snowman's left
eye has red on it...........Jojo said it was a bloody eye. At
one point Josiah was going to start painting something in 
black on the snowman's hand but I stopped him. I asked 
him what he was going to do and he said he was going to
paint a gun for the snowman to hold.  BOYS!!!!





Everyone's creation. I think they all turned out great!!!






Sunday, January 15, 2012

Week 17 :Orange Coffee Cake

This weeks Pinterest find was a Paula Deen orange coffee cake. Of course it called for Pillsbury Biscuits which meant I had to make biscuits from scratch. I made the cake for small group and the girls liked it but I think there was something missing............the biscuits just seemed to make the cake bland but it did turn out well thankfully. For those who live in the States, this is an easy recipe to make if you buy the Pillsbury Biscuits. I wasn't crazy about it so I don't think I'll be making it again. You can go here to see the pin!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Night Time Reader

Jojo has recently been borrowing my flashlight that I got from a white elephant gift exchange 6 years ago! I love hiding around the corner and listening to him read.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Good-Byes

If there's one thing about ministry that I enjoy the least it would have to be the good-byes that are involved. Yesterday was a real difficult day for me and one that I have been dreading for a real long time. I always knew it was coming from the day my Russian friend married a Ukrainian. I did say good-bye to her over 3 1/2 years ago but by God's grace her husband wanted to come and attend the training program here. I was so relieved when they returned to Samara but I knew that yesterday was inevitable.

Several friends came to the train station to say good-bye.

Not only has Christina been one of my closest
friends but she has also taken great care of our
boys. They love her like an auntie and both boys
were so sad yesterday. Nathan even cried at the
station. Today Jojo told me he woke up missing
Christina, Zhenya, and baby Martin.



The train starting to leave.


I was a basket case all day yesterday.
My eyes hurt today from all the crying. 
I am really happy for them of course. I
am excited to see how the Lord will
use Zhenya and Christina in the Ukraine.
I also hope and trust that we will see 
each other again.




Thursday, January 5, 2012

Stuck?! January 1st Sketch

So, this is my first time ever entering any sort of online sketch challenge. It is actually one of my goals for the year to enter 1 challenge so I am happy to cross it off my list. I really need to get to scrapping again and I figured this is a great motivation. Obviously living in Russia doesn't make things easier for this hobby of mine. I've basically got to work with whatever I have...........so as I compare my layout with others, I'm a bit embarrassed. Lot's of bling going on in so many layouts and  my style is pretty much classic. I always  desire that my photos be the centerpiece of a layout, but that's not saying that I don't like using bling or glitz because I certainly do.

So, here's the sketch:



And this is my layout.



I probably could have spent more time on this layout but
I needed to start somewhere. One thing is for sure though,
entering a challenge like this is great motivation to 
try my hand at more scrapbooking!



Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Grocery Store Souvenir

Look at what I brought home from the grocery store yesterday!


The grocery store workers here in Russia don't bag your groceries, and I'm assuming it's probably this way in most of Europe. When we first moved to Russia we were told to bring your own bags to the grocery store and to quickly begin bagging your groceries or sticking them back into the grocery basket. Whenever I have several items I just put all the items back into the basket and that's what I did yesterday but there was something going on with a customer and a cashier that distracted me. Instead of going to the little table near the exit to bag my groceries, I walked straight out of the store with the grocery basket and straight home. I didn't even realize what I had done until I was walking up the stairs to the elevator of our building. I started laughing hysterically and when I got home I quickly showed Jon what I had done. He  told me to take it back right away but truth is I was so embarrassed about what I did that I fed my family lunch first and then sheepishly returned to the grocery store to return the basket.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Week 16 : Egg Rolls and Sweet and Sour Chicken

For New Year's Eve we had a nice Chinese meal. We actually have a pretty decent Chinese restaurant here in Samara which Jon and I usually go to when we go out on our date nights. Not too long ago I found egg roll wrappers at a deli kiosk in the mall and I couldn't wait to put them to use.
My little food critic about to enjoy his
meal. He loved it by the way.


The recipe for the egg rolls can be found here on Pinterest.  And the recipe for the sweet and sour chicken is here.  This is the second time I make the sweet and sour chicken and it is absolutely so easy and delicious. It is a big favorite for our family. The recipes calls for 1/2 cup of vinegar and at first it seems like that is way too much but it really turns out great.

Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year's Day

Last year, I started the tradition of giving the boys their stockings on New Year's Day. I know this is against the norm but I never grew up with stockings and Jon had to actually "coach" me on what goes inside of them.
Nathan was up first on New Year's morning and decided to wake up his 
brother. Jojo was upset because he said he was having a good dream.
At least Jojo cheered up when I let them get into their stockings.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year's Eve

Our New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful in comparison to the way most Russians celebrate. We stayed inside, played lots of games, and had homemade Chinese food for dinner. As night time came every once in a while we could catch a brief firework show right outside our living room window. Jon and I stayed up until 1:00 so that we were tired enough to sleep through all the partying.
We played several rounds of UNO!

We also enjoyed playing the Wii. As you can tell Jojo was really
into it!



During our trip to Spain this summer I bought some turron. I 
remember growing up as a child and having turron every 
New Year's Eve. 


Aside from myself, Nathan is the only one who liked the turron.