Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! 

A little New Year's Inspiration

Dear Master for this coming year
Just one request I bring:
I do not ask for happiness,
Or any earthly thing—
I do not ask to understand
The way Thou leadest me,
But this I ask: Teach me to do
The thing that pleaseth Thee.

I want to know Thy guiding voice,
To walk with Thee each day.
Dear Master make me swift to hear
And ready to obey.
And thus the year I now begin
A happy year will be—
If I am seeking just to do
The thing that pleaseth Thee.
–Unknown Author

A series of Christmases

This season went by in a whirlwind of pain and joy. The loss of our friend definitely changed our perspective this holiday season. Despite the grief we felt, we put our hope in the writings of Paul to the Corinthians:

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to G*d, who gives us the victory through our L*rd Gsus Chr!st. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, alwaysabounding in the work of the L*rd, knowing that in the L*rd your labor is not in vain.”  (1 Cor. 15-54-58)

Despite the difficulties we were also able to celebrate with all of the usual Christmas festivities. In fact I did about two weeks straight of baking!

Here are a couple new recipes I tried out this month:

By far my new favorite Christmas cookie: Chocolate Chip Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Another good one: Candy Cane Blossoms

I also tried out an idea that I have seen before, but never done myself, for Christmas Gifts this year:

My Russian Teacher loved hers!!

Curtis said that I am not allowed to Bake or entertain again till Valentine’s Day! I agree that I will probably not bake on a large scale till about Valentine’s Day, maybe just here and there for pure joy and nothing more!

So, what did I do all this baking for anyway? You wouldn’t believe the amount of gatherings that we had this season!

First we had a gathering with all of the expats in town to sing Christmas Carols and just be together corporately for Christmas.

Then we had our annual Student’s Christmas Party. I will tell you, it might have been the last time we do it here. It felt like a little too much this year and since we have so many friends now, and we have the café in the English Center, we might just have our friends over next year and do a small party for our students in the Café.

Despite the difficulty, the party was fun, we did a gift exchange, ate lots of sweets and even got to share the story of the very first Christmas 

That was the Sunday before Christmas, and the week before Christmas was filled with many more festivities with friends, co-workers and teammates.

On Thursday we had a work party, we ate good food and our “Secret Angels” were revealed. It is basically the same thing as Secret Santa. It was a lot of fun.

That afternoon we made sugar cookies with our students. I prepared the dough and frosting ahead of time and they rolled them out and decorated them. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work!

On Friday we fed the homeless as a part of our monthly service program that we call “Prosto Tak.” It is basically something that we do each month to serve the community “Prosto Tak” – which translated directly means “simply so,” or because we can.

On Saturday (Christmas Eve) we had another gathering with our team. We all brought something to give to Gsus for his Birthday. It is a really special tradition that we have been a part of since we came here. I brought my earbuds (headphones) because I want to spend more time in silence before Gsus, listening to Him. Curtis brought his Calendar because he wants to give him his plans and his days. He has been extremely busy and knows that it will continue as he continues to work on the curriculum for his new class, but he wants direction from our Father in how to spend his days, busy or not.

Saturday night, Christmas Eve, we had some of our closest local friends over. It was another opportunity to share the Christmas story and just relax with friends. It was a real blessing and far from stressful. It was probably the most relaxing gathering of all besides the one on Christmas Day 

We had lots of gifts to open because we received two packages before Christmas, one for Chris (Curtis’ Mom) and one from my sister Tara.

Curtis and I also exchanged gifts, we both got a little creative this year. He made me an ornament and I made him some nifty coupons.

We had to wait a couple more days for my sister Angela and my mom’s package to come, but when it did, we had a second Christmas!

We also hosted Christmas dinner for the very first time, which wasn’t as stressful as I thought it might be. It was a simple chicken pesto pasta dinner since we had turkey and pork the day before. I also made Guthrie salad, carrots and garlic bread and for dessert we had pumpkin pie with real homemade whipped cream!

We didn’t have a white Christmas, the snow came late, but boy did it come! We got a dumping of snow last night! It looks like New Year’s will be white, which is special for the people here since New Year’s is their special holiday 

This season was crazy, but truly a blessing because we were able to really enjoy those around us and not focus too much on the sadness we felt at times. Though we miss you all dearly, we do feel blessed to have those that G*d placed in our lives here. These people are very special to us and we are truly grateful for the beauty and the support of the body around us and back at home as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

30 days of Thanksgiving

This month I have been reflecting on my life a lot. I have been thinking about what I am thankful for. I have seen lots of posts on facebook about 30 days of thanksgiving and although I didn’t do it day by day like many others. 

1               The wonderful cross and the promise of eternity

2               My best friend, my husband, my strongest companion

3               My amazing one-of-a-kind family, I’ve been realizing that most people don’t have a family as close or nearly as large as mine and in those two things, I am so blessed!

4               Dad’s provision of family overseas in the form of our team

5               Good friends in America

6               Good friends Overseas

7               My Parents- I am so proud of my parents who have been married for 42 years now! This is probably my favorite picture of them, it was taken at my wedding and it just reminds me of how they have held hands through the good and bad times of life.

8               My Sisters – My best friends, I love you both more than I can say!

along with my sisters I am also thankful for two very awesome Sister-in-laws, Brenda & Sheila

9               My Brothers- They always make me laugh. I really enjoy family times with them 

and my two crazy, silly, awesome brother in laws

10           Curtis’ Family – I am especially thankful that his Mom (Chris) and Grandma Angell and Aunt Diana as well as Aunt Sabina and Uncle Allen all came to visit us this year in the spring.

11           Curtis’ Sister Theresa- This deserves a special place of it’s own because Theresa is probably the biggest miracle I have ever witnessed. We are so proud of her and so excited about the big things that Dad is doing in her life!

12           My nieces & nephew

13           My extended family- Aunts, Uncles & Cousins – I only got to see them briefly this year when I was home. But I am still thankful for them and all the memories that we share and the closeness that I still feel with them even through the years of separation. I love them all very much!

14           Our Ch*rch family & Supporters back home: This is a picture of some of our friends who are very dear to our heart whom we used to have a home study with.

15           Our Students: They are our reason for being here!

16           My Russian teachers and friends that I can speak to in Russian: on the left is my friend janna who works in the cafe. I love speaking Russian with her. It seems so easy.

17           Our great city. Thankful for the warm temperatures most of the year and the beautiful flowers and trees that line the streets.

18           The English Center: There is so much that is great about this place and it is getting better day by day!

19           Our New Apartment

20           The opening of the Cafe: working there has been difficult at times, only because there are so many other things that I need to do as well. But what I am most thankful for is the way this place brings our site together and really creates a community atmosphere.

21           My Russian Progress: Despite the difficulty of this crazy language, I am making progress and really enjoying being able to communicate with people here!

22           My home city and the gift of going back over summer: So much about being home this summer was amazing and special! I am just thankful beyond words for this experience and the love that I felt while I was home this summer. I am also thankful that I got to see the ocean again, I was beginning to feel like it no longer existed, but there it was, a mere 10 miles from Camarillo in all it’s beauty and former glory!

23           The ability to travel through Italy this summer: A.M.A.Z.I.N.G

24           The Word: I am so thankful for the refreshing that it brings to my life each morning when I open it up. I am also starting to understanding more and more the reality that it is a love story written specifically for us by our he@venly Father.

25           My health: as I get a little older and experience more aches and pains than I did in my youth, I realize how blessed that I am to be in good health. Although I have some minor setbacks, like allergies and asthma, I have generally good health and in that I am blessed!

26           A warm bed to sleep in, warm apartment and warm winter clothes! This year my winter clothes are really nice because I was able to get new ones which are more suitable for the cold weather than the ones I had last year. Also our apartment is much warmer than both of our previous apartments!

27           Movies & Entertainment: These things just generally make life more fun 

28           Good Coffee: I LOVE COFFEE! I am thank for those of you who send us Decaf coffee in packages and also for the delicious coffee in the cafe 

29           Baking. I Love it! PERIOD.

30           Last but definitely not least, the fact that our Saviour came to Earth in the form of a baby and the whole month of December we get to celebrate this wonderful gift with the holiday of Christmas, but better yet we have something much more precious than just Christmas, we have eternity with Him to express our pra!se and thanks for all the good things he has done for us!

And here is to a beautiful Christmas season! From our home to yours 

Everyday

Yesterday we celebrated our four year Wedding Anniversary. It was a really special day filled with surprises for both of us 

The very first surprise was for me from Curtis. He set up a whole spread on our coffee table. He put out a bunch of romantic movies and games and activities for us to do and then made me a nice breakfast and some coffee. The movie part was special because he doesn’t usually like to watch movies during the day.

The first surprise that I couldn’t wait to give Curtis was a slide show that I made him. I have made this a new tradition in the last few years to create a simple slide show of our year together. This year I felt like the one I made was really special because it was a really special year. We did so many great things together including going to Rome, Venice and also home for the first time in two years!

The song in the video is called Everyday and it is about celebrating life everyday. I had heard it before, but I heard it again for the first time in a long time about a month ago and this time I heard it differently. So much so that it made me teary. I especially love this part of the song:

Everyday of our lives,
wanna find you there, wanna hold on tight
Gonna run, while we’re young
and keep the faith
Everyday, from right now,
gonna use our voices and scream out loud
Take my hand;
together we will celebrate,

I realized all the days when I am so negative and Curtis always tries to point out the positive things about our life. He also tries to make me laugh everyday.

I tend to take things quite seriously and it is really wonderful to have Curtis in my life reminding me to celebrate simply because it makes life better and because we are called to live an abundant life, that doesn’t mean hiding our real feelings. It means loving with abandon, when I am hurt, I cry and he comforts me, but then he guides me towards the good things and reminds me how blessed I am.

You can view the video here on youtube: Curtis & Katina’s Anniversary Video 

The whole day was very special. I couldn’t wait to give Curtis his gift since I bought it this summer in America. It is called “The Book of Us.” It is a book in which they ask 150 questions about your relationship from the very beginning. I took time to answer as many questions as possible and was so excited to give it to him. He was happy to receive it and we read through it together throughout the day, laughing, crying and reminiscing. We decided to make it an anniversary tradition to read through it and update it together.

After we watched a movie together we went to a local restaurant that has delicious Hot Chocolate. Then we went to dinner at an amazing Italian Restaurant in town called Mozzarella where we ate some awesome four cheese pasta and creme brulee, which was so delicious I am determined to try to make my own creme brulee, so stay tuned!

After dinner we went home and Curtis had another surprise waiting for me!

He also wrote on a bunch of balloons the things that he loves about me and scattered them around the room.

It was a very special day with many reminders of how blessed we are to have each other!

Holiday Breakfast

Any excuse to make pancakes. But really, what is better on a holiday than sleeping in and eating a big breakfast? Even if it is not an American Holiday… No Monday morning meeting, no obligations. So, we made pancakes. I have been trying to use recipes from CookingLight lately and I was so jazzed this morning by how amazing these banana pancakes were.

I did modify the recipe a little bit, but I think it made them even better! The recipe calls for buttermilk, but I didn’t have any and when I looked on the internet for possible substitutions it told me to simply add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk and let it sit for about 5 minutes. I thought it sounded a little weird, but I tried it and the milk seemed to get thicker in that time and the recipe turned out perfect too 

I added a couple other things to make these babies simply perfect. I added a 1/2 cup of oatmeal and also 1 teaspoon of Penzey’s Baking Spice which I got from Curtis’ Aunt Sabina. It is one of my new favorite things! You can use it instead of cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves to give your baked goods an extra kick. I normally would have added cinnamon and I think it would be a good choice if you can’t get your hands on this wonderful spice.

We topped our pancakes off with some beautiful strawberries, which, much to my satisfaction, are in season here now! I love it here in the spring! Bon Appetit!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all of the wonderful Mothers in my life!

To my Mommy! A very strong and inspirational woman. A loving woman, from whom I get my love for hospitality and entertaining. The woman who taught me about my creator and held me during my first heartbreak. A woman that I cannot wait to embrace this summer when I get back. It’s been almost two years since I hugged this woman. I miss you mommy and can’t wait to see you soon!

To my beautiful sister Tara who now has two precious children! I can’t wait to meet #2! She is beautiful and looks just like her mommy! This woman is so special to me, she held me during heartbreak #2 and helped me to make good decisions and stand strong against the wrong guy. She was like the cool aunt because she was ten years older than me and I love her so much. I can’t wait till we can have kids together. Love you Sis!

To my sister Angela. My “soul mate.” As I used to write in cards. We have shed many happy and sad tears together. We have driven in cars late at night and laughed our fannies off. We have gotten obsessed with stupid romantic comedies and at times been the annoying little sisters to Tara. Now you have a little girl of your own, just like Lorelai and Rory, just like us. I hope that you two have even more good times together than we had. You are an amazing Mommy!

And to my creative and spirited sister in law Brenda. You were the first one in this generation of girls to be a mommy and you have done it beautifully! I love you so much and I am so proud of you and your beautiful girls. You are strong and you love your creator and have clung to him through trying times. I am often inspired by you and am proud to call you part of my family!

And Finally, my wonderful Mother in law Chris. You are a better Mother in law than I could have ever imagined! You are strong and you are beautiful inside and out! You raised Curtis to be a wonderful, cuddly, strong man and you came all the way to Central Asia to visit us and you have blessed us in so many ways. We both love you so much and could not have asked for a better Mommy!

Happy Mother’s Day to you all and many more. A special shout out to Lindsey, Kelli, Bethie and Danielle who will be celebrating their first Mother’s Day this year! 

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I realize that I am a little bit late on saying this, but Happy Cinco De Mayo my friends! I hope that you enjoyed this holiday. I assume that many of you went out for Mexican food at your favorite little hole-in-the-wall, but surprisingly enough, we do not have that luxury here in Central Asia.

But please do not feel sorry for us by any means. I am actually happy about this, at least most of the time  Because for this very reason last year on Cinco De Mayo I made Homemade Salsa or Pico De Gallo for the first time in my life and I fell in love with it!

So, last night salsa was definitely on the menu! I also made some homemade chips from Lavash (the turkish version of tortillas), but I baked them with only a little bit of oil and salt, then topped them off with some cheese, green onions and green peppers.

To go with these nachos and salsa I made some beans and chopped up some lettuce and came out with a pretty healthy Taco Salad for our Cinco De Mayo Celebration.

Hope you enjoyed your Cinco De Mayo Feast as much as Curtis enjoyed this one!

Easter

The cake pictured above is a traditional Russian Easter Cake which most of the Orthodox families make for Easter and give to friends.

We really had a great Easter this year, complete with easter egg hunts, colored eggs and great food. Plus, the Easter Menu was quite a success!

The first of the Easter festivities was my Easter Lesson where my students hunted for easter eggs in the Library to find facts about easter in the eggs and in some of them candy 

After the hunt we went into the classroom to color easter eggs which they also enjoyed.

The Russian families who celebrate Easter usually color eggs, but a large percentage of the people here do not celebrate Easter, so this was the first time coloring Easter eggs for many of them.

On Saturday all of the expats in the city had a big gathering to celebrate Easter. During which we had an easter egg hunt for the kids and some of the adults too 

A lot of great food

And we made coffee for the expats.

Sunday was the big day! I prepared for the Easter Feast by making my table look beautiful with these babies:

Then the cooking began. First I made these wonderful rolls. I did not have wheat flour, so I just used all regular instead, they weren’t as healthy, but still delicious! My finished product doesn’t look quite like the one on the recipe. But here it is:

Next I was surprised at how delicious these potatoes were. I didn’t add baby artichokes because you can’t get them here, but it was still a great dish. Let me know how it tastes with the baby artichokes if you decide to try it 

The next dish was my own creation. Carrots! I added this one after I created my original menu because I decided that I needed one more thing. What is better than carrots on Easter? The recipe is simple:

1. Peel, Cut and Boil about 5 Carrots.
2. Drain water when carrots become tender
3. Add 1 tbs butter, 1 tbs brown sugar, 3 cloves of garlic and salt & pepper to taste.

The lamb was a serious hit, probably because people here love meat! They did not have a leg of lamb here. The best meat that Curtis found was lamb chops. So I seasoned them according to the recipe and cooked them for about an hour and a half.

I also made a salad which is something I make with almost every meal here. We found out this winter that the lettuce is pretty much always in season. So we buy it a lot and make salads to stay healthy. My favorite salad dressing is this simple mix that I learned a long time ago from my sister in law (but modified a bit):

1. 1 tbs Olive Oil
2. 1 tbs lemon juice
3. 1 tbs parmesan cheese
4. 3 cloves of garlic ( I told you, I love Garlic!)
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Lastly was the dessert which is usually my favorite part of the meal. I did not really like this particular dessert though. The directions were difficult to follow and the end result was not worth it. Although it might not have been exactly what it was supposed to be, it just did not taste very good. Luckily I made some chocolate chip cookies also, just in case the dessert wasn’t good and much to my dismay, it wasn’t. Glad the cookies were there to save the day 

Despite all of the modifications and complications. I think everyone enjoyed the meal 

After the meal we had the last Easter egg hunt. Complete with M&M’s brought all the way from America by Grandma 

The last thing we did was color easter eggs. It seems kind of backwards, but my friend had never done it and we had one last packet of colors. So we boiled five eggs, got all the colors ready…

And came out with some pretty good looking easter eggs 

Happy Easter Everyone! Hope you enjoyed yours just as much as we enjoyed ours! 

Easter Menu

We have decided to have some of our local friends over for Easter this year, so I will be cooking my first full Holiday Dinner! This Christmas I prepared the turkey and a pecan pie for the feast we had at a friend’s house, but preparing my own meal for such a large group with new recipes will be a challenge. But it is a challenge that I think I am ready for!

I went to the Cooking Light website to find some ideas and this is what I have decided to include in my very first Easter Menu:

1. Roast Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary
2. Roasted Fingerling Potatoes 
3. No-Knead Overnight Parmesan and Thyme Rolls
4. Dark Chocolate Orange Cake

Most of our friends are mslm and do not eat pork, so I have decided to go with lamb. To add some green to the table I will also prepare a simple salad. I will not be able to include baby artichokes with the potatoes, along with a few other adjustments for some of the other recipes since I can’t get everything here, but overall I should be able to make a nice dinner if I do it right. Stay tuned for the results… 

Surprise!

This year, more than any other year, was the birthday of surprises. Not because of one big surprise, but because of many small ones from the people around me whom I love and am blessed to have in my life. My students, my friends, my family and my co-workers all blew me away with their love and surprises this year!

In the morning I went to my friend Sarah’s home where she had prepared a wonderful pancake breakfast for me. What a great way to start my birthday, with great company, cooking and conversation.

When I got to the school I was greeted by two of my close friends with gifts and also with a cake from our cleaning lady. So we decided to sit in the teachers room and enjoy tea and cake.

After that I went to my classroom to grade some papers and one of the girls from the office came in followed by another person and then another and then another. Within moments my classroom was filled with practically everyone who works at the center who brought me gifts and sang Happy Birthday to me. This was very special because I knew that they all stopped their work just to come and wish me a happy birthday. I am blessed to work with such loving, kind and caring people.

But that was just the beginning of the surprises. Each class surprised me with something different. The first class surprised me with the biggest bouquet of roses that I have ever received and I giant birthday card.

The second class surprised me with a beautiful bracelet. The third class surprised me with more roses and a beautiful Kazakh Tea set.

Also one of my best friends came and surprised me with flowers and a beautiful photo album.

The last class took us to shashleek the night after my birthday. I got so many little gifts and things as well from students and co-workers, here is a picture of our coffee table filled with many of the gifts and flowers that I received.

After class we went to a cafe for dinner and then we went home where I had a package from my mom and dad waiting for me! I got so many great things that we cannot get here.

I felt truly blessed by all the gifts, love and wishes that I was given for my birthday, even from back home. I am still waiting for a couple more packages which is exciting too. The day I turned 28 was a day when I could catch a glimpse of how many people G*d has put in my life who love me and with this I am blessed.