Boundaries for Leah

A few weeks ago I told Leah she is no longer allowed to play in my room. She would come in here everyday and turn the room upside down. She would cut up paper into thousands of little pieces, bring all her "dollies" in here, leave crayons all over, walk all over my desk like a little monkey, jump on my bed and so much more. She loves my room. Whenever I ask her to clean up she is either too tired, she didn't make the mess, Andrew did it, or no one is helping her so she refuses to do it herself. When she wants to, she can do such a great job cleaning up! 

Anyway, she said "ok I won't go to your room." For a few days afterwards when she came in here, I'd say "Leah do you remember that you cannot play in here any more because you leave messes?" She would quietly walk out. It was so funny-she was taking it in such a "mature" manner. 

Anyway, today after a long 12 hour day I came home and saw baby high chairs with dollies in them, and cookies on my desk, and cookie crumbs in my bed. My first reaction was, Lord give me patience. My mom does not even get a chance to see the mischief they involve themselves in because they are always so speedy quick! My little cousin was over also, so they had even more fun. I got a picture later again, when they were on my bed, jumping. They are just so cute, but I had to make my expectations clear,-Leah you cannot play in my room. Maybe she will stay out of my room for a few days...

Blessings,

Set Apart

I could listen to this video over and over again. It causes me to think and think some more.  
I especially like it where she asks us to question what we put the majority of our energy into each day. It made me think about when I do my Bible reading, my praying? Usually before bed when I am tired and worn. 
There were other things I thought about. I hope this video serves as a blessing to you as it did for me!

Blessings,

Veggie and Dog Love

I planned on studying all day today, but when Diana told me to come over for a veggie burger I could not resist-I have not had one before.

It tasted soo good-I did not have high expectations but this burger exceeded them. I will definitely be making them myself.

Diana too, decided to plop the dog onto my lap. There was a bit of shrieking on my part, but I held the dog and even placed him back on the floor-well Diana made me. I came over with my book. This doggy was helping me study :) Later that afternoon I went in to observe parent-teacher conferences and had such a great time. It was a great learning experience and will help me to better know the students as I start student teaching on Monday! 

Blessings,

Dog Victory

I am afraid of dogs. Very afraid. As I've gotten older I've come to tolerate some dogs, like little dogs, unless of course they are running at me or next to me and I think they might jump up at me at any moment-then I run. (And they chase you- I know I shouldn't run). Anyway I've never held a dog or  cat because I get so scared of them. I know it sounds silly. Anyway, Roman and Alena got a dog and the first thing Roman did when I came over was put the dog in my hands. 

I actually held him for most of the evening while talking with Alena. I surprised my own self!! He even took a nap on my lap. Little by little I am starting to become more comfortable with dogs. They brought him over our house and the kids loved him! He is such a smart and obedient puppy.  

The brothers- they were watching football.

Blessings,

New Year. New Ministry Goals.

Today we had such a wonderful time starting off cell group meetings this year. New year-new cell group goals. Tanya did a beautiful job facilitating the meeting and I pray that God works through us as our goal is to become more involved in the community. 

The girls at our meeting. Not everyone was able to come. We talked about growing weary and realizing that it is through Christ we achieve greatness and He is all powerful. We might not realize why this or that is happening in our lives, but it is Christ who leads us and controls our every moment. 

And more importantly-the food. Just kidding.

Then we headed to our youth group choir party and a time to set new goals and desires in this new year, regarding our choir. I really believe the Lord can use us mightily/work through us to reach souls if we seek and serve Him in this ministry with all of our hearts. I need to remind myself of that constantly. In the midst of life's busyness I pray that I do not grow weary as we talked about at our cell group meeting today, to serve God daily, and in the church ministries He placed me in. 

How cute is the coffee/tea setup. I've learned to appreciate soooo much when others (like some of the youth this time) takes time to make fun things happen, and even more when they make things extra special and cute :)

 Blessings,
 

Sunday's Best

My brothers and cousin in my Sunday school class wearing their Sunday best :) They look too cute in their matching cardigans. I could already envision them as cute teenage boys in a couple of years!

Blessings,

Forgiveness

It’s the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those that don’t deserve

It’s the opposite of how you feel
When the pain they caused is just too real
It takes everything you have just to say the word…

It flies in the face of all your pride
It moves away the mad inside
It’s always anger’s own worst enemy
Even when the jury and the judge
Say you gotta right to hold a grudge
It’s the whisper in your ear saying ‘Set It Free’

It’ll clear the bitterness away
It can even set a prisoner free
There is no end to what it’s power can do
So, let it go and be amazed
By what you see through eyes of grace
The prisoner that it really frees is you

These are just some of the lyrics to the song-the lyrics that define forgiveness. 
I love the story behind this song Forgiveness by Matthew West. Check it out!

Blessings,

Little Peoples' Concerns and Conversations

Hi all.

Yep-she's mad but so cute even when she's upset. Last night I did not give her my iPad so she was pretty upset, but oh so cute in her little skinny jeans. She also said Lena is not her sister anymore because she "puts passwords on her ipod."

!

5 minutes later she was all happy :) I asked my mom if she was sad that Leah was growing up because I was. Leah responded, "no she is not sad because I will help her cook when I grow up." Earlier that day I hugged her and said why are you growing up so fasr?! Why are you such a big girl. She said, "because I am 4." I repeated myself and she got irritated and yelled with an attitude"because I am 4!"

Compare this

To this. They look so much older now, and so little in this picture.

Today I heard this little conversation between Andrew and Leah.

L: Sorry doesn't help
A: Yes it does
L: No it doesn't! (In her high pitched frustrated voice)
L: Ok how does sorry help
A: It forgives, like forgives other people
L: Silence
Lesya: Leah what did Andrew do to you?
L: Nothing. He said sorry helps, but sorry doesn't help. Andrew said it does.

Andrew said he said sorry because they were eating alphabet cheese-its and he ate part of her name. That was the trigger for this conversation. So funny.

(I was writing this on my phone as they were talking just so I did not have to rely on my memory when I go to write it down). 

Blessings,

Pinterest Fail

Pinterest has become such a "go-to" website for soooo many different things. I love just browsing and pinning things I will never maybe do. There is just so much. 
My favorite things to pin are recipes, and because the reviews are so great on so many of the dishes I am always anxious to try them. A few weeks ago I pinned a Honey Chicken recipe. 

Doesn't it look so good?? I thought it did and the comments were great regarding this chicken.

 
 Pinterest-Honey Chicken

I couldn't have disagreed more. It was not great at all. I did not mess up on the recipe. Let's just say the whole family ate and we still had plenty of leftovers. Clearly, it was not so great. How I love recipe fails. My aunt Nina did come over, and thought it tasted fine so I mean it was edible. I just always find it so hard to believe how people can talk so highly of not-so-great chicken dishes. 
Maybe they haven't had better? 

And another thing: American Cakes. I've given "American cakes" sooo many "chances" and Red-Velvet is their only decent cake in my opinion. American-cake lovers really need to try some Ukrainian cakes! 

I'll stop my rambling now :) 

Blessings,

Driving and Baby

Yesterday I got in my car to drive over to Tanya and Diana's house for a healthy vegetarian lunch. We wanted to hang out since I had just come home.
I felt like I had not driven in years although it's been a little over a week. When I was in Carolina, I remember thinking how much I missed driving. But at home, I tried not to complain about how annoying it got to get in and out of the car 8 times a day some days. One week I got to the point of just counting how many times I got in and out of the car to go somewhere, out of curiosity. Even with something like driving being removed from me for a week made me realize-"you never know what you got till it's gone." I should count it a blessing to be able to drive to get to places I need to go!

Diana played some guitar for me :) I love that has taken up this hobby of learning to play the guitar. She's definitely capable.

My aunt had a baby on January 7th so I visited them last night. This baby is sooo cute!!!! His name is Joshua. I miss having a baby at our house so much and love seeing my baby cousins.

Blessings,

Visiting Cousins

These are all snapshots I took when I was visiting my cousins in North Carolina. I wish I took more pictures but oh well. This last week was soooo out of the ordinary for me, but I loved it and it was such a wonderful getaway.

Philip who is already 12! He is such a nice sweet boy. Ever since he was a young child I was always so good and obedient. We went shopping one day, and were at the mall all day-by the end he was so tired but complained so little. He is so smart and fun to talk to.  

Diana and I. This girl has such a beautiful voice!! I played and she and Phillip sang Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) at church. We had fun practicing and I loved hearing her sing other things too. She is also so girly amongst two boys!

Timothy or Tima as we call him was so much fun to be with. He is sooo smart for a 6 year old and is already reading chapter books!! I played pool with him and it was so cute listening to him explaining all of the directions to me :). He is the little boy that no matter how many times he gets in trouble you just can't stay mad at him. He will talk his way out, apologize and is so loveable!! I already miss him. 

I hung out a lot with the church youth and with my aunt we went to different places almost every day. I tried many new foods and of course, I can't not take pictures of food :)

I brought my school study book along (book 1 of 3) and studied sometimes. I was just listening to a sermon and the preacher was saying that handwriting activates the brain more, so I guess I won't be typing my notes out anymore! I'm praying God gives me strength to focus and wisdom for the next month in studying for two NYS exams.

Blessings,

North Carolina

Hi all. 

Last Friday I flew down to visit my cousins in North Carolina. My aunt has been wanting me to come down for a while now and so I decided to fly down after the New Year- after being so busy with New Years cooking and right before the busyness of student teaching. I've been hanging out a lot with friends as well as relaxing. I have so much time just to think! I like to set goals for myself, you may or may not know, and reflect on them. I got a chance today to read a lot of my blog posts and reflect on where I am now and what I am doing. I've been trying to figure out when it would be best to take the remaining 2 teacher certification exams I have left. It's hard for me not to "zone out" on life, in fact, I even brought one of the study books for one of the exams with me. 

On another note besides hanging out with the youth I told my aunt I wanted to make some new foods for her. I made a few of my favorite dishes and she's shared some of her recipes. Cooking and baking are one of the most relaxing things for me- unless you're cooking for 500 (then its fun but not so relaxing). 

Overall I love Charlotte. I talk about moving here for teaching and could see it totally happening once I get my Masters although they don't require it here. We'll see what the Lord does. I can plan all I want but God's plans may not be my plans. Maybe I need to have more faith about getting a job in NY. Like I say, it's easier said than done when it comes to moving and leaving friends and family behind. 

Blessings,

New Years Cooking Moments

New Years is over-and the stress of it is too. This is my cousin Natashka who was such a great and faithful helper. God bless her!

Desserts are always fun to make :) One thing for sure: I'm never committing to making 10 cakes. The rest was so much fun though :) I think Diana and I had the most fun planning what desserts we would make.

Natalya-another faithful helper and friend. I told her several times throughout the week, especially on the last day. She never picked or chose what she wanted or did not want to do-she just did what she saw needed to be done-even if it was tedious work that everyone else seemed to disappear for!

And Diana. The girl that took me along on this journey of cooking for 500. Last night, after we finally finished cleaning the kitchen I called her and said that our text messages can now be about something other than New Years cooking and planning like they had been for the past month. I would not want it to have been any other person to work with because it was seriously God who grew our friendship and even for New Years planning we were shocked over and over again as to how alike we though and how we just worked so well together.

Setting up the serving table was another task difficult in its own way. Thanks to my brother Nick and Dad who made our "3-tier" servingware a reality.

Teamwork at 5 p.m. New Years Eve. Seeing this I knew we would be ok:)

Blessings,