The return of the sun!

We hadn't seen much of the sun for a while, but this week is all sunshine! Two evenings ago--the day that the sun first reappeared--I was out with the children, and we caught a beautiful sunset down at the beach. So, last night we dragged Will out to see another one. And we took the camera!

Our 3rd chatterbox

She makes me laugh so much!

This morning on the playground, as I pushed her on the swing, she was listening to another toddler cry:
"Baby is crying. Poor baby!" [pause] "I'm not poor. I'm Asya!"

Lenten Lights

We started reading Lenten Lights tonight, even though Will is in Odessa. We'll just read the first part again with him when he gets back. I have tried a few times to get candles, but without success, so we just gathered what we had lying around. Instead of setting everything up in a pretty arrangement by myself, I let everyone help. . . and the result is just beautiful!

We lit the candles, enjoyed their beauty, Asya recited her verse, "Jesus is the light of the world," and then we read and blew out the first candle. It wasn't such a surprise this year, because they remembered it from last year. Jaan and Raia were waiting for it this time, ready to explain the symbolism to Asya: "Mama, when will you blow out a candle to show the darkness of sin?" And then we sang our song from last year. I want to choose a new one to learn this year, too, but last year's remains one of their absolute favorites.

This evening was a simple, thoughtful and lovely beginning to our preparations for Easter.

Sunday school

A week ago Alina and I started a Sunday school for the littlest children. There aren't very many of them, and they're such a sweet little group! Here are a few photos from today:

A fishing game

Eating "loaves and fish"
(I don't know what Jaan was doing.)

Taras brought his niece and stayed for a little while.

Singing

The "snow flower" that Raia found after church

Winter fun!

In honor of the dirty kasha covering everything outside now, I'll post some photos that I took last week, when everything was pretty.






I had actually started out, planning to go for a long walk and take photos of the beautiful frozen reservoir in the sunshine. We didn't get that far, though, because we found this little ice slide. It was the perfect size! Almost as good as the one that was always there in Kovrov winters. There's a great sledding and sliding hill near us, but it's really too big for Asya, and Raia gets intimidated by all the big kids there. So, this was much better. It was just a dip in the path, where someone had poured water and polished it up. We never did get down to the sea, but I got a bunch of photos of a different kind of beauty.

Time for thanks!

It's Monday! Time to stop for a minute and list a few things that I'm thankful for. Last week, I said that I'm thankful for my "busy life." I think I want to amend that. I'm thankful for:

467. My simple life (that keeps me busy)

468. The snow we've had this winter
469. The ice slide that we found a few days ago!
470. All the giggles and fun at that slide
471. "Snow fish"
472. A son who's really reading!
473. That the mud here dries up quickly
474. Children playing quietly together
475. A new Sunday school class!
476. My Sunday school helper
477. Will's long and involved "readings" of picture books