Week 19 - Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I had small group yesterday and a busy day in general so I tried this pin. If you click on the picture of the muffins it will take you to the blog where you'll see the darling muffin liners that were used. Of course I don't have the cute liners but will definitely be buying them in the future. This recipe was super easy and my boys also loved it. I will definitely be baking these again.

Week 18 - Cinnamon Crescents

This week's creation would have also been easier if I could buy Pillsbury crescent rolls here in Russia.

I made my dough the day before.

I think I used too much butter for the filling because during the

baking process these made a HUGE mess.

 Thankfully they turned out fine.......phew! Jon had to take 

these to meeting and I kinda panicked when I took them

out of the oven!

  

There were only a couple left for us to taste test and the boys loved them!

Snowmen At Night

Over a year ago I began following an art teacher's blog called "Deep Space Sparkle". I absolutely love her projects and it's been a great inspiration for me to do several projects with Josiah and Nathan throughout the school year. In the past we have also had Jojo's friends join in on the fun. Last semester though was absolutely crazy and every week I planned to do an art project something would come up or Jojo's friends would get sick. One of my New Year's resolutions was to re-start the art projects so yesterday we finally got to work on one.

Since it's Winter time and we're living in a wonderful Winter wonderland I thought we'd try out this "Snowmen at Night" project over at Deep Space Sparkle. I don't have the book though and it would have been nice to read the book and then work on the project but oh well!

As we were working on our project it was snowing.

Mod Podging some tissue on to look like buildings.

Nathan's snowman in the night.

Jojo's snowman. Jojo had the idea of painting arms and so

everyone else then added arms. Notice the snowman's left

eye has red on it...........Jojo said it was a bloody eye. At

one point Josiah was going to start painting something in 

black on the snowman's hand but I stopped him. I asked 

him what he was going to do and he said he was going to

paint a gun for the snowman to hold.  BOYS!!!!

Everyone's creation. I think they all turned out great!!!

Creation Conference

This past week Dr. Terry Mortenson from Answers in Genesis was here speaking at a conference on creation. Dr. Mortenson has a Ph.D. in geology and also a Masters of Divinity. I'm thankful that I got to attend a couple of evenings and even brought the boys with me. Obviously the material was way over theirs heads (and mine at times) but it never hurts to expose them to the great truths of creation. I'm blown away that so many believers do not hold to a literal six,24 hour day creation............Jon would say that I've been in my Grace bubble for too long.

Dr. Mortenson teaching on dinosaurs!

 

 

By this point the boys were going crazy! They sat pretty well 

during the sessions we attended.

Dr. Mortenson and the men.

Week 17 :Orange Coffee Cake

This weeks Pinterest find was a Paula Deen orange coffee cake. Of course it called for Pillsbury Biscuits which meant I had to make biscuits from scratch. I made the cake for small group and the girls liked it but I think there was something missing............the biscuits just seemed to make the cake bland but it did turn out well thankfully. For those who live in the States, this is an easy recipe to make if you buy the Pillsbury Biscuits. I wasn't crazy about it so I don't think I'll be making it again. You can go here to see the pin!

Night Time Reader

Jojo has recently been borrowing my flashlight that I got from a white elephant gift exchange 6 years ago! I love hiding around the corner and listening to him read.

Good-Byes

If there's one thing about ministry that I enjoy the least it would have to be the good-byes that are involved. Yesterday was a real difficult day for me and one that I have been dreading for a real long time. I always knew it was coming from the day my Russian friend married a Ukrainian. I did say good-bye to her over 3 1/2 years ago but by God's grace her husband wanted to come and attend the training program here. I was so relieved when they returned to Samara but I knew that yesterday was inevitable.

Several friends came to the train station to say good-bye.

Not only has Christina been one of my closest

friends but she has also taken great care of our

boys. They love her like an auntie and both boys

were so sad yesterday. Nathan even cried at the

station. Today Jojo told me he woke up missing

Christina, Zhenya, and baby Martin.

The train starting to leave.

I was a basket case all day yesterday.

My eyes hurt today from all the crying. 

I am really happy for them of course. I

am excited to see how the Lord will

use Zhenya and Christina in the Ukraine.

I also hope and trust that we will see 

each other again.