Weeks 3-4

School was different the past two weeks, since I was gone for half of that time. We started before I left for Poland. When I went away, I left math pages and audio playlists for Jaan and Raia for their books that are available that way... and they didn't touch them while I was gone.

Then, when I got back on Wednesday, I needed a nap instead of school, so they each listened to what I had left for them then. Raia absolutely amazed me with her narrations from that: she had six different selections to listen to in a row, so I didn't really expect much back from her, but she did beautifully. I was happiest with what she had to tell me about Beauty and the Beast from the Blue Fairy Book. It's almost an hour long! She contrasted and compared it to Аленький цветочек. Oh, and by the time she finished retelling it to me, she thought that she had listened to it in Russian.

Jaan didn't narrate so much, but he and I did have some good discussions after he had listened to his audio books for a while. He was finishing up Pilgrim's Progress, and he made some good connections between what he had heard and real life. He also just about drowned in homework from music school, but with lots of help from Will and some from me, he seems to be caught up there now.

And then, because I didn't write anything about these two cuties, here's a photo of them from our walk in the park today:

Videos

If you have a slow internet connection, skip this post! Two videos here: the first is from about a month ago, when Bogdan was just starting to walk. The second is from a few days ago. It shows how he has started "reading." I think both he and Jaan were speaking Chinese there.

Please pray for Bogdan and me as we travel to Krakow. Thanks! Sleep on the train tonight would be so nice.

Spring-summer prayer letter

I have a current prayer letter ready for you to read, pray over, print out, and share. It took me a little while from the time I started writing until I got it pulled together, so the prayer requests are for now. Please come take a look....

Week 2

I almost forgot that I wanted to post about each week of school here.

Week 2 flew by, mostly without any bumps. Again, Raia finished everything (and begged for more); Jaan is still making progress with work from before. My favorite part with Raia was narrating Damon and Pythias with a doll king and two stuffed animals. Jaan is much more a just-the-facts-ma'am kind of student, so Raia's creative bent is something new for me.

Jaan floored me in math by showing that he already has a basic understanding of negative numbers. He was supposed to write a subtraction with the numbers 5, 4, and 9. Just a regular problem; his lesson had nothing to do with anything below zero. He came up with 5-9=-4, and then he showed me a bunch of other similar problems and how he was figuring them.

Bogdan woke up before the end of school one day,
so he got to watch Raia's Ukrainian video with her.

We could all use your prayers on Fridays. They have traditionally been our hardest day of the week with school. First graders in our family just get a nap instead of school on Fridays, but we don't have any at that age now. This year Jaan also has two classes at music school every Friday. One is piano, which isn't a problem, but the other is solfeggio, a long, baffling class with a very unsympathetic teacher. I have noticed progress since last year, but it's still a rough day!

Week 1: Done!

I would really like to post weekly school updates this year. We'll see if I can keep up with that. I can at least write now about our first week. We pretty much follow Ambleside Online as written, so you can see Jaan's and Raia's weekly lists there. Jaan is still finishing up some of Year 2, but he's also starting into Year 3. Raia was able to get through everything I had planned for her; Jaan still has a little to fit in as bed time readings over the weekend or something. Both loved just about everything we did. The only complaints I heard were when I didn't let them do more... and when we got to today. We were all just tired by today.

Jaan and I especially enjoyed starting American Tall Tales. He and I laughed so hard over the first chapter and then talked about it enough at dinner time that Raia and Asya had to know more. So, I found a little book about Paul Bunyan in Russian, and now Jaan's reading that to them.

I had chosen Lermontov as our poet for the first term of Year 3, and today we discovered that one of his poems is a hymn that we sing at church. So, we'll have to make that the Russian hymn we're studying, even though I had a different one planned.

I'm sure there were some other highlights that I wanted to write about, but they've slipped my mind, so that's all for now.

First of September

September 1 is the first day of the school year in this part of the world. After a week of camp, I didn't plan much for today; we were just too tired. We did get dressed up and go out to take photos. I think some of them turned out great! And then we came back for tea to celebrate the beginning of the school year.

On Monday we'll actually start. Jaan will be in Ambleside Online Year 3 and Raia in Year 1. Raia can't wait to start; Jaan says that he doesn't want to. He doesn't want summer to end. I don't think he'll have any complaints about his school work, though. Asya and Bogdan will continue to learn about the world around them through as much contact with nature and life as they can take in.

Oh, this made me laugh: when we were out, everyone was picking wildflowers. Jaan gave me a beautiful bouquet, saying, "So that you'll teach us well." Will looked at me after Jaan walked away again and asked, "Was that a bribe?"

P.S. I put the rest of today's photos here.

Camp update and childlike faith

Thank you for praying! Please keep it up. Camp is going well. So far, both days we have had a small group of kids, but that is fine, because we have a small group of workers, too.

Who is praying for the weather? Yesterday was HOT, but today I could feel your prayers as everything cooled off. A storm blew in, but held off for most of the day.

And for Bogdan and Will? Bogdan seemed to feel better yesterday, but then he was miserable again today. Will has finally found a medicine that helps with his allergies at least some.

Of course, the most important: please be praying for all the children!

This morning I led a group of children through the city to camp, with all of them chanting loudly in "Polish." (Karen, is it really Polish?) They love this game that one of the visiting helpers taught them yesterday:

And then, childlike faith: today's Bible story was about Adam and Eve sinning and temptations in life. When we got to church, a Forbidden Tree had grown up there. It was covered with all kinds of treats, but a sign at the bottom said not to take anything. Of course, Asya can't read, so I pointed it out to her, and asked her what she thought it was. "Presents!" But then I read the sign out loud. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh, that means they just want to give us everything themselves later." The whole idea of temptation went right over her head, but I thought it was a really sweet reaction. When God tells me no, do I assume that it's because He wants to give me presents a little later?

Camp!

Camp starts tomorrow! Please be praying for the children, the workers, the weather and everything else that you can think of. I just found out that I won't be a group helper, I'll be a group leader... without my faithful helpers. So, I had to scramble to pull together the Bible lesson for tomorrow. Also, Bogdan has been teething or something, and he has been miserable. Since the teeth people get later are called wisdom teeth, these must be the anger teeth. Please pray that he'll be happier, or that I'll figure out how to juggle him and a whole group of preschoolers. And for Will: he has been feeling pretty awful with allergies. Thank you!

Continuing the theme

Photo of the day

Technology news

First, I took our children to the central playground this morning, and I was floored to find out that there is now wifi there. I felt like I was in America. I had my Kindle with me, optimistically hoping that Bogdan would give me a few minutes to read Anna Karenina. So, when I saw people out there with laptops, I tried to connect, and sure enough! It worked. Amazing. No more sending Will to Zaporozhya to reset my Kindle after it freezes up now.

And second, the AO forum that I have been working so hard on is open now:

In just the first few days, we've already overloaded our server. Overall it is going well, though. We're almost up to 1000 members: 996 at the moment, to be exact. It's going to be a great resource for the AO world! I have really been enjoying the fellowship there, and I've been learning so much about CSS and PHP and everything behind the scenes that sometimes it feels like my head can't hold it all. That full head is a very good feeling for me.

Third, tomorrow we're leaving technology behind for a day at our dacha. We haven't made it out there since we got back from our big trip, and we all can't wait to see it again!

Baptism

Today there was a baptism service. We hardly even know the new couple who was baptized, but it is very good to see them joining into the life of the church. I only got three photos before someone asked to borrow our batteries, and none of them were very good. Maybe I'll get some more pictures from Yana later, but here's one of my three for now:

(I also added more photos to the post before this.)

Florida pictures

We've been back for a month now, and I still haven't gotten around to posting many photos from Florida. Here are some. I hope to go back and fill in more there, at least from that one little overnight trip.

If I add more there, I'll edit this post and add them here, too, so watch this space....

EDITED: from here on, there are new photos. You can go browse through the whole album, but I'm including a few highlights:

3D hands

I don't understand the draw of Pinterest at all, but I got a fun idea from there via a blog, and we tried it yesterday:

Today we've been working on footprints, using the same general idea. Fun!

Talking?!?

For quite a while Bogdan has had a very few words that he says and a few that he signs. He understands what is going on around him, but really doesn't say much. He does discourse with all kinds of expression, intonation and gesturing, but all with his mouth closed, just making noises in his throat. It's really cute, but hard to explain. And it's definitely not anything we can understand. Then, yesterday he started saying a very clear "nyet" except that it's missing the T on the end. Just now, Jaan went outside, and Bogdan was left behind. Bogdan went to the door and yelled, "Jaa! Where are you?" ("Я! Де ты?") His first sentence!

Keeping cool

Here are just a few photos from the past week or so. It has been very hot here: 38C/100F today. We've been swimming a lot, and we got an air conditioner! (That last part was not just spur of the moment for this heat wave. We had been talking about it and dreaming for a l-o-n-g time.) Bogdan finally decided that we weren't trying to kill him when we put him in his baby float. Now he really enjoys running around in the water with it to hold him upright. Oh, and we've been drinking smoothies; that's the last photo.

The church really hasn't had any questions about Will's sabbatical. In fact, he's had a sermon ready for three weeks now and hasn't had to use it. So, we're enjoying more time with Papa around.

That's about all I can think of to write now. Photos....

Prayer request

Dear friends far and near, 

Phyllis encouraged me to pass on this prayer request to all of you who aren't in our home churches, but would want to be informed of this need. 

I talked with church leadership here last week about my taking a time of sabbatical, a break from my over-involvement in various ministries (in a church where one can never do 'enough').

They approved a sabbatical, at least a short one, and I will be mostly pulling back to 'only' preaching on Sundays, helping lead congregational singing, and singing solos myself.
(I will also be involved in periodic meetings w/the youth as we prepare for an upcoming VBS at the end of August.)

Please pray that I can graciously explain why I need/want this break to people who have never considered the idea. I may meet with condemnation, manipulation, or accusation. (i.e."No youth meetings?? Those young people will leave the church and walk away from the Lord - and it'll be your fault!!")

It's truly a foreign concept to many here. They live under the driving need to 'do more for God' and heap guilt upon themselves and others when they think we fall short. (Which we always do, don't we?)                   

       

I've already had one rebuke in passing "Come on, you just had a month off in the States - how can you need time to rest - jump right back into things!"

  

Pray that I may use these conversations to talk about a life lived by grace, in dependance upon the Lord and His strength.

Also be praying that this can be a good time for our family to spend together, as well as a time to  consider direction for our ministry in the future. 

Thank you for your faithful love, support, prayers and concern!

Baby steps (and more)

Bogdan is trying hard to walk these days. He has been much, much slower to take off than any of his older siblings, but he did take four steps the night before we left Florida. Since then, he has discovered that he can get around upright quite well when he borrows Asya's doll stroller, and so he does. He rolls it up to where he wants to play, parks it while he is busy, and then takes off again when he's ready. He's still not walking on his own, though. The first two pictures are just of something he loves to do: crawl around with shoes on his hands.

And the "more" part of the title is that I'm sorry I've been neglecting writing here. I've been very busy with a big project online. (AO friends, have you heard rumors of a forum coming? ) Plus, I've just been really enjoying being back in Ukraine: playing outside, talking to neighbors, swimming and going for walks. It's been really hot, so the swimming part of that list has been especially wonderful. I'll be back to writing more regularly sometime soon, I'm sure. I still have a lot of photos from our trip that I want to share, too.

Mountain photos

I already wrote a Part 1 of our trip to the states. Since we got back, I haven't had much time to write more. I just started uploading photos, though. Now you can see part of our trip to the mountains.

Please keep praying for Bogdan to readjust to life here. Well, actually just to sleeping here. The rest of us are doing quite well, but he seems to be terrified of going to sleep. He's always been a really good sleeper, so we hardly know what to do with him now. Before we went, I was very worried about how he would do in the states, because he was going through a stage where he was really afraid of people and places that he isn't familiar with. I prayed and prayed about that, and he did just beautifully. God definitely answers! Now we just have to pray for Bogdan on this end of the trip.

Home again

We made it back to Ukraine. Thank you for all your prayers. To those who we got to spend time with: thank you for all you did for us. It was so wonderful to see you all!

The trip back was really exhausting. We all went to bed early last night, and now--after 11:00 am!--I'm the only one awake. Bogdan got me up earlier, but now he's asleep again. I figure sleeping in is the best birthday present we can give Will.

I hope to be able to post lots of photos from our time in the States soon.

Oh, by the way, one of our checked bags didn't make it here. This is actually a wonderful blessing, because it's already been found in Viena and will be delivered to us soon. Without this, we wouldn't all have been able to fit into the car that met us in Dneptropetrovsk. So, that's an answer to prayer for any of you who were praying for smooth travels for us.