Conference photos

They announced that the professional photographers' pictures from the conference will be available in three weeks. Our few photos might be online before then. The one above is my favorite.

Nice neighbors

We're back from a very wonderful conference and very difficult trip. Yesterday, just after we had arrived and while we were all lying around, trying to recover, Bogdan was outside running around. (He slept on the Odessa to Nikolaev leg of the trip.) He came in and told me, "Babushka Olga is here." I asked him if she was just there outside, or if she was actually asking for me. He insisted that she wanted to see me. So, I went out to talk to her. No, she hadn't called me, but she said that since I was out there, why not cut some peonies for me? And now those peonies are sitting by me here, where I can smell them as I write.

Family Day

We're leaving this afternoon for a week near Rovno. It's time for this year's Agape School students to graduate, and then there will be an Agape conference there, too. So, we'll "see" you in a week.

Before leaving, I did get photos from the Family Day uploaded. I wrote more about this event last year. Oh, one thing has changed since then. It's now held in the Park Formerly Known As Lenin. Also, Asya has grown so much since last year! I didn't let her go with the choir last year, because she just seemed too little (and she had a bit of a sore throat). This year I didn't think anything of sending her off at 9:00 for art school, class photos, and choir practice, telling her that we'd meet up at 3:00 in the park.

Raia's picture of her "Ukrainian" family

The mayor of Kherson voting in the art contest
(photo from the art school's page)

Asya the Flag and her entry in "My Ukrainian Family"

Children's choir

Our church's clowns

Watching the clowns

Some of the spectators

The adult choir

Trampoline!

Ice cream!

Yum!

Face painting!

Tricycles!

Bocci ball! (I think that's what it's called?)

Bubbles!

And Bogdan's buddy!

Jaan was there, but he spent most of the time with his friend from another church, so he didn't end up in any of my photos.

It looks like last year my blog post right before Family Day was about the local Bible institute's Missionary Day. That was great again this year! Photos are here, including a beautiful one of Asya.

Crimean Tatars

Yesterday was sad the anniversary of their deportation, not a day that I would have noticed a year ago. Now I know.

We love our neighbors, and we have so enjoyed getting to know a bit of their culture since they moved here last year. Right now, they're visiting relatives back in Crimea, but three of their friends are still here in the other half of our house. One is a younger woman who has seemed so shy that she's almost afraid of us. Yesterday she came to get me, though, because the washing machine was "acting strange." She's never used one before coming here, so she was baffled and terrified that she had broken it. Hopefully she won't be so scared of me, now that we've spent time together, lying on the bathroom floor, feeling around the insides of an ancient washing machine, looking for its filter.

At times I think it's a little funny that we get to be part of introducing them to Ukrainian culture and sometimes to city life, but maybe that makes sense, since we're foreigners, too?

Recent photos

School time

One garden helper

The same school readings in both languages

"Lollipop radishes"

Another garden helper

Matching shoes for church

Easter photos

I only posted one quick photo after my favorite holiday of the whole year. Here are more:

All the candles lit again

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Bogdan's face when he came out and saw the candles and heard the music. I tried to stage a photo after the fact, but he said that he could only do it once. He was so excited and so cute, though.

I had fun with natural dye this year.

Explaining the empty tomb to Bogdan

Waiting for breakfast

Христос воскрес!

"It's pink inside!"

"And mine is yellow."

The girls went to church early.

And then the rest of us followed.

At church (both girls are up there)

Afterwards we took some photos, and then home again...

A special dinner guest?

He wanted kulich before dinner.

After we ate, we rested a little, and then we were going to go to a park, but instead we waited an hour for a bus that never came. Everyone was still tired and very out of sorts, though, so we ended up just going back home. But, the next morning we went to the park and had a wonderful time, so there was a happy ending anyway.

We had a wonderful day celebrating Christ's resurrection!

Snickerdoodles

Last Friday the girls and I made snickerdoodles to get ready for the plein air. One of our babushka neighbors had been helping Jaan outside with our trees, so when the cookies were ready, Asya ran a plate out to her. By then, all the babushki were sitting around chatting, so they all sampled. Before long, an edict went out that I needed to translate and share the recipe. It was pretty much the same scene the next day, when we shared the cookies around. If it turns out that all of Kherson starts making snickerdoodles, you can blame us.

"En plein air"

On Saturday the girls and I went to an outdoor painting session and picnic with their art school. We had so much fun! The art school's photos are here, and these are ours:

A theme?

On the second day of writing quick notes, I think I see a theme: "I planned..., but...." We did have another lovely morning of school. Then we came in. I had planned to use quiet time to work on turning my rough notes from Saturday's board meeting (exciting stuff! starting to build homes for kids who grow out of Tsyurupinsk orphanage) into real meeting minutes. However, our power is off, so I "had to" read instead. It's a hard life. And I did more school with Raia, since she came back from her balalaika lesson, begging for me to read to her.

By the way, I wrote this on my Kindle. He protested, but eventually cooperated.

Need to write

I need to write more. For myself, if nothing else. Lately I haven't had time to think one thought after another in order, and when I do sit down to write, I get distracted by uploading photos or something. I think I'll try to write little bits more often, sometimes without photos.

So, I'll start with today....
I had planned on a regular school day, even though today is officially a holiday. But, even though it's a holiday, Jaan and Raia both had a lot going on with music school. Jaan was actually double scheduled this morning, with a piano lesson and preparation for an upcoming contest both set at overlapping times. It turned out that while the older two were busy with music school homework and then heading off to classes, Asya and Bogdan and I had a great morning of regular school. We sat outside under the cherry tree, read, narrated, drew, and Bogdan wrote his name by himself for the first time ever!

Quick garden update

I won't go on so long this time, but I just had to update and say that I think the asparagus we planted from seeds last year is coming back! The little sprouts are so tiny that we were actually out there inspecting them with a magnifying glass yesterday morning and still aren't quite sure, but it really might be. I was thinking I would have to roast some ducks, too, because they got some of the big fat sprouts off the special asparagus roots that I ordered and planted, but as of today all three of those root crowns have big, fat shoots on them again or still. And we also have radishes and spinach coming up.

Happy Easter!

Easter was almost a week ago here, and almost two weeks ago elsewhere, but the Easter season continues....

Christ is Risen!

Sad and happy

Last week one of the boys called from the orphanage and told me that two of his friends, boys who I have worked with very closely, had been transferred. And they were transferred, not to the closer, nicer nursing home, but to the far away mental institution where Sergei and Slava are.

Kirill and Sasha enjoying craft time a few months ago

We had actually talked in general about their transfer the Saturday before. I knew they were dreading it, but the staff had been holding on to them for some extra time, and I thought they would be able to do that longer. I also thought that at least Kirill would make it into the nursing home, where the more independent kids go. A very loving orphanage worker had really been trying to prepare him for that. I don't know what happened, but I've definitely been mourning their departure.

It's also been very hard to see those who are left behind. Saturday was a really fun visit (more below), but the little boys left in Kirill and Sasha's group just couldn't get into the fun. One in particular just kept shaking his head and saying, "They took our boys." And that was already several days after it had happened; he was still in shock. Our own children, especially Jaan and Raia, are having a hard time with this, too. Today Jaan wrote a sweet letter to Kirill, since Kirill can read some. I'll send that soon and pray that it makes it to him and is a comfort. Jaan is also asking if he can go the next time I visit out there; I don't know if that would be wise or possible, but it's something to consider....

But then the happy part: instead of my usual Saturday morning orphanage visit, I went out after nap time. I took our computer and internet and set up Skype to call Oksana in America. Because I didn't know in advance if it would work, I hadn't even mentioned it to the kids. But it did work, and it actually worked really well. I went from bed to bed and let everyone say hi, and then set up at a table for more people to talk with her for longer. I think everyone was encouraged, all around. We certainly all had fun talking!

Oksana will be coming back to Ukraine for the summer, because of her visa and a gap in her treatment. I would really like to find a place for her to stay with Christians in Kherson, instead of having to go back to the nursing home in Kakhovka. Please pray that I would be able to find the perfect situation for her. There are a lot of factors that make that complicated, but I know God is able.

Pascha preparation

When the West has already celebrated Easter, we're finally settling down to prepare for it ourselves. We just started the week-long version of Lenten Lights (in Russian*), yes, a bit late, but with lots of enthusiasm. The almonds and figs you can see in the photos were a Holy Experience idea.

Afterwards, and after we had sung what Asya was calling serious songs, Bogdan requested his own favorite. I got a little bit of video of him singing it. It's "I want to fly like a little butterfly," or his version is more like "Wan' like lil butter' voom."

Also, here's an article about Palm Sunday (yesterday) here in Kherson. Raia ended up in one of the photos, just her back, though. And there's this cute picture of Asya from someone we don't even know on Facebook.

*So excited to see that she's writing about Charlotte Mason now!

Spring gardening

(Oops. I never actually clicked on "Publish," after the photos uploaded.)

Our children have been missing having a dacha. (I haven't. I'm happy to live in a house.) Recently Jaan asked, "If we can't get a dacha here, can we just buy a piece of land where I can set up a tent?" And they've been asking and asking about spring break from school and about planting. So, this week, when music school and regular schools were having their breaks, we rested a bit and started planting.

Monday, I just needed a break, and everyone was completely set on the fact that it's spring break, so I let them play. It was nice. Then, the next day Jaan and I went to the central market to get some seeds and strawberry plants in the morning. After lunch, the girls and I had planned to go to the massive home and garden store for some other supplies, but Raia changed her mind and didn't want to go. Asya and I had fun, though. Then we ended up doing a little bit of planting in the evening. And Wednesday Will worked outside some, while we got back to school inside. (Spring break fever was completely solved by just two days off. Nice.) Then we planted some more seeds later in the day, while he was at the office. We're also in the midst of spring rains, which complicates things a bit; the mud is almost bad enough to swallow us up completely. But that will be perfect for getting seeds started!

I've noticed a weather pattern of a whole week of rain every year, right at the beginning of spring. If we can plant before that, it's perfect, but usually there's not much warmth before that. This year was another when we didn't make it before the rain started.

Over the years, I have come up with a few things that I always want to grow. At first it was broccoli, but I think that's off the list now. It's easy to grow, and it's in the stores now. (Fresh broccoli used to be one of those hard-to-find items. Not anymore.) My current list is strawberries, asparagus, and sweet potatoes. We had the most wonderful strawberries at our dacha in Russia. I didn't plant any when we moved to Ukraine, because we felt so temporary in Dneprorudnoe. But, as the years went by there--without our own strawberries--I told myself that the next time I had a place to plant, I would put in strawberries right away, whether or not I knew how long we would be there. So, first thing last year, Will made me a raised bed, and I put in strawberries. I think Bogdan got to eat one, before they completely succumbed to hail, slugs, and ravenous ducks? So, we replanted this year. And we'll be replanting again already. Will is reconfiguring the little fences in our yard, so one naughty duck got overnight access to the strawberry bed... and that's all it took.

Asparagus... we've been trying to start it from seeds. It grew okay last year, but didn't come back this year. Bogdan and I started more seeds this year, and he's having great fun watching them grow. He keeps asking when he can eat them, and "five years from now" just isn't a satisfactory answer for a four-year-old. However, I ordered some roots online! Exciting! And I just had to add a butterfly bush to my order, even though we really don't have much room to plant. Those should be coming soon.

And sweet potatoes... I got the idea of growing them because it is so hot here in the summers. But they're almost impossible to find. Will bought a few in Zaporozhye a few years ago, and I planted them at our dacha, but that was while we were getting ready to move, so I never knew what happened to them. I bought one along to Kherson and grew it indoors through the winter, but it died just before spring. Then, just recently, when I was in Kyiv, I saw them in a grocery store, but I couldn't bring myself to spend 150 griven for one sad-looking potato that might not even sprout. So, again, I ordered online. We'll see what happens there. There's a man in Kharkov who collects sweet potatoes. I ordered some sprouts of standard orange and a few purple (echoes of PNG!) from him, but communicating with him has been quite an adventure, so we'll see what happens.

Also, this isn't exactly gardening, but I just learned how to do sprouted buckwheat for salads. Grechka is already our children's favorite food, and they're excited about trying it sprouted for the first time today.