Thanksgiving Break

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. No matter the circumstances we may be in, we should always be thankful for the death of Christ on the Cross and for the eternal life we have through Jesus Christ!

This was what my Thanksgiving break looked like. I apologize for the awful quality of the photos. I'm still getting a hang on the iPhone and need to focus the pictures better. Also, when I send the pictures from my phone I think I need to send them in actual size, if you all know what I'm talking about.

Celebrated Diana's birthday by going out for sushi, then a little Italian cafe.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year at our house. We always have so much fun preparing in the kitchen-especially if the little kids aren't there to bother or begging to help us.

I love this salad. My aunt brought it in.

A classic. My other aunt brought this one in. (Yes, my mom and I actually did make some a lot of other salads, appetizers, and sides).

We had a bunch of desserts. My well-rounded cousin (who is the go-to person for mini cupcakes) made these and they were so GOOD. My other cousin made a German Chocolate Cake. I have a picture, but just didn't upload it. I loved it! I made pecan pies and apple strudel squares.

Blessings,
Lesya

Wedding, Babies, and Mexico

Hi all. 

For Roman's wedding we did soo much desserts. I would come home from work and we would bake all evening. Even if I didn't put it on the blog, I don't think I would forget how much time we put into baking. So a lot of my summer weeks were spent baking: 

Another little craft I did was create menus for the bridal party. It was a great idea, but went differently than we imagined. Thanks to cousins like Igor and brothers like Mark who were willing to run back and forth to the trailer with me in my heels, for some dishes. The poor bridal party had to wait, but at least the table looked more elegant.

You all know we have cousins coming over ever day during the summer...well one day as we were baking these two boys were over and we started talking about twins; well I took these two to see the chickens and back and boy they were a handful! But it didn't make me change my mind about still wanting twins ;)

Sunday afternoon I am leaving to Mexico on a Mission's trip. Keep us in your prayers please. The Lord has been blessing us so far, even with the little things. At work, they didn't know what to do with a bunch of Brockport t-shirts (75 of them), so I said I can bring them to Mexico. They were so glad to give them away, and these shirts will be a blessing to those who receive them in Mexico.

(Yesterday I began to feel indifferent about the trip, and even questioning where I am making the right choice with going. Of course, the same day God sent people to encourage me about it and I am looking forward serving God and the people of Mexico.) Speaking of Mexico, I need to go pack! 

Blessings,

Lesya 

Lena's 11th Birthday

Hi all. 

On July 4th my "little" sister turned 11 years old. She was the sister I prayed sooo many years for. I remember crying in the car one night driving home telling my mom she didn't care about me because she wouldn't get me a sister and that she only cared about the boys because she always got them brothers. I'm surrounded by 4 boys so I had the right to feel that way ;)

She NEEDS to always have a birthday party. So there was no question, she got just that, this year. 

Lena opening gifts.

Also because the 4th of July is such a good day to be all patriotic, I tried sticking with red, white, and blue for all of the desserts I whipped up Tuesday night. Sorry, I love writing about food and what I've been making as much everything else. 

Before serving I added whipped cream to have white on the cheesecakes. 

Andrew was so excited when I let him put the blueberries on the cupcakes. (I made them from scratch, more cake-like and not as sweet compared to the store cupcake mixes). I actually have a strong dislike for cupcakes made from a box. Also, I think this was the very first time ever I made cupcakes because I always thought they were for "lazy" bakers. LOL. Actually, there are some GREAT cupcake recipes out there. I made the other half with blue frosting. The frosting is almost like a cake frosting and not overly sweet, like with most cupcakes I've had. 

Watermelon sugar cookies. We decided to see how these turn out in because we might do them for the wedding. They were gone fast-I don't know if it was because they tasted good, or if they just looked good. (Exception to my patriotic theme).

Red Whit and Blue-Glass Marble Jello I believe it's called. 

A lot of our older cousins came too. As you can see they treat the chickens like pets sometimes. Our rooster crowed this morning. My mother was very excited. They all love the chickens.

It was after 6 when I went to Parma to see what they youth was doing. We hung out at the park and then went to see the fireworks in the city. It seems to me like every 4th of July feels the same with celebrating Lena's birthday and then hanging out, but I enjoy it of course.

Blessings,
Lesya

Cell Group Meetings have begun!

Hi Friends!

I hope everyone's week went well...I have to say that being home on a Friday is out of the ordinary for me and it feels nice waking up knowing that I don't have to go anywhere. For the past 8 weeks I taught that Ukrainian class and afterwords it so happened that I would go to the mall to "return something." Now I'm just plain sick. Sick of all the clothes-not the good deals though, of course. 

Anyway, this past Sunday the 6th of November was our first cell group meeting. We are off to a good start! And now, some of the food that was present...

Apple season! I made some kind of dip to go with the apples. Still on the look out for a good apple-dip recipe.

My mother's homemade salsa. It is always a hit!

I love this chicken salad (with celery) so I decided to make this too. 

Diana and her mother made this apple cake. It was good! Yay for apples!

Traditional Ukrainian dessert...

I did not get much photos of the girls oh and the sandwiches! They were so very good. Diana and I actually left church early to prepare but only half of our group showed up. Oh well. Also thanks to Tanya and Diana for hosting the first get-together!

Last Friday I had a little party for my Ukrainian class but I don't want to put any pictures up as I didn't ask for permission. 

This morning my mom comes in with Leah into my room.

 I say, "Leah come lay down next to me.

Leah: "No"

I say: "Why not? Please. I love you Leah."

Leah says: "because I don't like you" (and puts this little smirk on her face)
The other day I asked her why she didn't like me and she said: "because you are not my boyfriend!" Where did she get that from??!!

Oh Leah what are we going to do with you....little girls aren't suppose to be like this!!

Blessings,

Lesya

Favorite Recipe Sites!

Hi all!

Busy day today, but I thought I'd post some of my go-to websites for recipes! Oh how I wish I has time to cook and bake these days...

Tammysrecipes.com

I love the consistency of new recipes being put up and the variety. Her pictures are great, and best of all most of the food I've made from her site tastes good!! 

Natashaskitchen.com

Truthfully, I haven't made anything from her site, although I've meant to...but she really does put out good recipes an such.

Also you may have seen on the side bar, I follow blueskiescooking.blogspot.com

I don't know what attracted me to the recipes...but I liked quite a few and hope to actually make a few of her recipes soon!

Thepioneerwoman.com

Great recipes on her site too!

So go on over and check the sites out.

There are many more great places online for awesome recipes but the few I look at most often already make me feel sad since I can't make anything from them due to lack of time so I don't go on much other sites these days.

Blessings,

Lesya

School, Food, Fun

In midst of writing my paper, I felt an urge to blog, so here I am.

Hi all!

Yesterday was a day of unexpected occurrences.  

I had planned to go to the preschoolers, teach the Ukrainian culture class, write the paper (that I am currently writing) have dinner with Kelly and go to church.

My lunch ended up being this at McDonalds. How's this camera on my new phone? Not so bad I'd say...

Basically, the school asked me to be a substitute for the 4th graders for the afternoon. It was very unexpected but of course I said yes! This was right before I left. I knew I had to document my first time officially instructing a class. We did some history, and English during the afternoon and went outside for a bit at the end. Dismissing them was a bit chaotic because I'm not familiar with the school procedures and "bus waves." They also asked me to teach an elective course on Ukrainian culture Friday mornings, so yesterday was the first day as well.

I was out of school by 3:30 and met up with Kelly at T.G.I. Fridays. I've been meaning to take her out to catch up, ask how her Mexico Trip was celebrate her belated birthday. I really like it there. I don't know why we don't go more often. We got fried mozzarella sticks as appetizers and this steak for the entree. I loved the garlic buttery sauce on it. This is only half the steak in this picture. Also, sweet potato fries are so good, it was my first time trying them.

This was our dessert :) Yes, it was good! We shared the meal because neither of us was really hungry but we ended up with left overs still.

June

We look quite different in a few short months. 

September

Blessings,
Lesya

***I added a recipe in the "My Recipes" section of this blog. Do check it out.***