Archive | January 2017

Зимнее здоровье

Мне так интересно, как Бог сотворил еду за наше здоровье.Все так дивно усторен!

В Украине– очень сезонная еда. Лето– столько фруктов, ягод, овощей! Люди ценят их за их витоминов, укрепления органов, и также их свежий вкус.

Мне труднее была придумать, что кушать зимой, именно чтобы поддержать здоровье во время сезона тяжелых болезнях? Это зима, у меня сложилось некоторые продукты, которые помогают нам со здоровьем– хочу их написать здесь, чтобы я не забыла. Я начала их использовать все время, больной, не больной. (Я тоже исклучила сахара из диета, и это огромная разница в здоровье тоже.)

Имбир с медом— я начала пить как чай. Кипела кусочки имбира на медленном огне, пью с медом.

Сырие чеснок с луком–чистила чеснок и крупно порезала маленький лук. Мы вместе их съели с хлебом, чтобы не очень горела. (Они сильно убивают микробы.) Важно, что лук не лежала открыто долго. Его надо кушать сразу, или хорошо закрыть. (Когда открыто, он ловить бактерии, которые есть в воздухе–кстати, не плохой отчиистель воздуха– резать лук по полам, положит в комнат, потом выбрасывать когда он черный.) Вот, еще информация о полезности лука.

Я думаю, что у вас тоже свои методы, как поддерживать здоровье зимой с едой— пишите внизу! Мы можем поддерживать друг друга!

a minor miracle: I made whole wheat bread!

I’ve tried making whole wheat bread before…. But I don’t remember that it ever worked.

Well, today … IT WORKED!

We ground the wheat grains through the Green Star juicer. I sifted it, and ground again the pieces too large to sift through. This was important.

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For the recipe, I used this lady’s video on youtube:

It includes a 1/2 cup of regular, white flour, which I think was also important to the success of this recipe.

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It’s so beautiful there, like a part of the decor.

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20170117_12333120170117_123312I’ve been thinking about how God made foods so perfectly for the human body–it’s so amazing to contemplate. And I’m trying to put more natural foods into my body as a way of caring for myself as I age.

God is doing a new thing

The first week of January, God kept putting this thought in my heart and in my mouth, in English and Russian. I said it to 3 or 4 different people during that week talking about things from fundraising to having more kids or not.

I’m doing a new thing.

I want to remember this. Renewal is essential to growth. And now, the work of years is coming into “a new thing” in several spheres of my life:

  • Considering putting the girls into school is a new thing.
  • Moving out of childbearing years is a new thing.
  • Fundraising to 100% is a new thing.
  • Midwifery studying coming back is a new thing.
  • Cleaning out my relationships with some people in our church here is a  new thing.

God is doing a new thing in old things.

I looked up that phrase, a new thing, and it’s from Isaiah 43:

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…..to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

Yes, that I may proclaim His praise!

And, Lord willing, I’m at an age of maturity in the Lord when I can wait patiently to see the new things come to life in God’s perfect way and time.

the New Year starts

So, I’ve had an interesting first 12 days of 2017. I want to record some things. I love having these journal-like blogs.

  1. I’ve been praying for an hour a day, and it’s …. so interesting. I combine it with fitness– walking or working out. It’s really becoming more and more transformative.
  2. I calculated that since starting to raise support a few months back, we’ve moved from 40% support level to 46%. God is doing a work in this– and it’s not so much about money as about love and sharing and opening my heart. I’ve been asking God to return to me the heart of my teenage self when it comes to passion for missions and raising ministry funds and relationships.
  3. The girls are moving into more independent homeschooling. This is good for us all. I was slowing them down.
  4. I had a crisis one day, realizing that God is brining midwifery back into my life. I had put it into a tomb. But He’s bringing it back in his way. I’m excited about this. At this point, I’m just looking to follow step-by-step what God wants. I’m interested by this because it was a clear motion from God, that this is HIS will, not just something I love. And He’s making it come in a way that it is the right priority in my life, not some all-consuming thing that it so easily can become….. I have a plan and a time line, subject to God’s intervention, of course. It will not be soon, but that’s OK. If it is to be, it will be in the right time.

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in Ukraine, New Years Equals Christmas

Vitaliy says it’s because Communists wanted to get away from religious holidays, that they made New Year’s Eve into the Christmas-type celebration. I’m going to show you a few photos of a traditional (but Christian, no alcohol, etc) group New Years-type Christmas.

I have slept through the last decade of New Years pretty much. Me and the kids. Vitaliy would go to center to be with rehab guys, I would sleep. It was actually pretty nice.

But not this year!

A year or two ago, Christian families from various villages in our house’s area started getting together for fellowship, especially around holidays. So … we planned a New Year together. Vitaliy offered to do American turkey. And we met in our Center.

Here’s what else was planned: First, the wedding decorator brought awesome decor!

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Then food food food:

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Then, one mom led a Bible question game for the kids. Then Santa, Snowflake Lady (I’m not sure how she translates into English), and a reindeer came to give out presents. But, as usual here, the kids had to say a poem or have something prepared to say to Santa before getting a gift. (The smaller kids got a pass on this.)

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Skyla, Vika, and their friend Alla did a skit for us:

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Then we sent all the kids to play downstairs, and the adults had their program. We also had a Bible question game. Sang Christmas hymns.Then we had a lottery, where we exchanged gifts and told a “wish” to the person we gave the gift to. Telling a person formally what you “wish” for them is very common on birthdays and other events like weddings or New Year.

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And some of the guys did “acrobatics” (these two clowns went through Seminary together, so … you know … )

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It was altogether an awesome evening! And I will confess that I went to bed at 11pm. Got up at 2am for the drive back to Kiev.

 

my 41st birthday memories

Just want to quickly post some birthday memories.

Vitaliy bought me a fitness bracelet– I love it 🙂

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Vitaliy and I at Ocean Plaza for my birthday20161227_141408

Skyla made me this card: 20161230_085110

Skyla and Alla (friend) blew up and taped all these balloons to the ceiling of the kitchen early that morning. And they had a pile of presents waiting!

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The church gave me this card: — one of the gals in the church, Vika, cross stitched the Bible section!

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2017, I love you already

Vitaliy often says to learn to see where God is working in your life and catch the wave. So I’ve been doing that.

And oh, how I love to dream about things. To imagine. Seeing the awesome potential of things just kills me sometimes. Like I always want to buy something old and broken down because I see what cool potential it could have if I sanded it, repaired, glued, varnished, repainted, stenciled …

But so often, I just bought the thing and never got around to fulfilling that potential 🙂 So I’ve learned to enjoy visionary self and not have to spend that money, for example. Or keep that old thingamabob that I just know I could paintsandrepurpose….

But I’ve also learned just to take ahold of the things that are truly valuable to me, and work on the potential of those certain things. Doing the actual work is hard for me. Once the dream becomes reality, and it’s not all glittery anymore and… fooh.

However … things are worth working on.

So, this year is here!

One thing I’m doing it keeping a DID journal– just in my planner– I don’t like using a planner as an appointments/to-do thing. I’ve decided to record what I DID.

This is what I wrote on Sunday: body brushing, mask, cleaned out frig [I read about a woman who goes through her frig every Jan 1, and pitches all the old stuff, and wow, did I need to do that], what I made for lunch [reverse menu planning, because menu planning for whatever reason, causes my blood pressure to rise, so hey! record after the fact, then I have a planned menu for the next week or month!], “church gave card and cake and prayed for me” [celebrated my 41st birthday!], 1 hour of prayer walking.

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From Vitaliy I am learning to love actually doing (and not just dreaming about doing) something with what I have where I am. He is the master of this. He’s a do-er. I’m the dreamer. So hey, I can learn!

Also, because of the nature of my current goals and resposibilities, I’m trying to ruthlessly shave my life down to a very few goals for the next year and a half. I realized that I have lots of time, but I don’t have matching nor endless quantities of emotional energy to do all the things I can.

So…..

Homeschooling. I don’t really look at this as a goal, but I try to create dreams and aspirations around it so that I enjoy it more. I’m also … coming to a point where I can be even a little bit honest with myself, that I don’t really enjoy most of homeschooling. I like having my kids at home. That’s about it. I don’t like being in charge of educating them. I’m 5 years into this deal, so I’m not speaking out of nowhere. And I’ve tried tons of stuff. Part of my issue is that I think I don’t make most of the work independent, which is could be by this point. Part it is one of my children who just is not going to stop suffering through school no matter what we try…. Anyway… lots of analyzation here that I won’t go in to. … We would like to put the girls in school for a year when we’re in the States if we can swing it financially. Just to try out that option, too. Homeschooling, for me, is a major energy drain, so I have to keep it front and center and keep it moving forward.

Fundraising. God has been moving here. My goal is for us to be 100% by Dec, 2017. I finally feel like I have the beliefs, support system, and a plan to make this a reality. I’m devoting a lot of my mental, time, and emotional resources to this for the next year or so. {Dear reader, we need you to pray about supporting us… }

Prayer. Every year my spiritual goals look like this 1) Bible reading 2) prayer 3) Bible memory. … The problem that has evolved is that I love Bible reading and studying, I am very experienced at it– it’s EASY for me. I’m very exercised and proficient in this discipline. So, all my time, emotions, etc, runs to that…. About 4 years ago, God starting telling me that I need to pray more. But He just cooked that idea inside me for about 4 years, and now it’s time, and He’s made a way. So I have no Bible reading plans or goals, and my goal this year is to pray for 1 hour a day. And to memorize a verse of Titus each week– to memorize the whole book. So far, I’m doing it in both Russian and English.

I have a few other smaller goals but those are the major ones.

Allelujah. Amen!

looking back at 2016

I love looking back and looking forward. Can I just be anti-popular-slogan for a moment and say that living in the present feels like the pits sometimes, if I’m honest. Even though everyone says to live in the moment. I try to do that, but some moments are better as memories — ha ha.

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So I love looking back at what great things happened in 2016– not in chronological order!

  1. We finished 4th grade video school!
  2. Vitaliy took a trip to the taiga in Russia!
  3. I hosted two breastfeeding meetings for pregnant and breastfeeding gals.
  4. We had MomHeart group meetings (gals in our church)
  5. I studied and grew in my ability to express hospitality!
  6. I read through the Bible chronologically.
  7. I went through counseling about some unhealthy church past things that I couldn’t let go of. As a result, I confessed some sins, and I generally feel safer and happier in our church (I’m not the only one changing).
  8. I started baking a lot more for church things– I was asking God how to express love to our church more in a way that involves my emotions, and baking it is! I love group baking.
  9. Introvert Anne offered “intentional friendships” to moms in our church who want that relationship– we mostly do this by writing. A few personal meetings.
  10. We started 5th grade! I’m doing tons of reading aloud, which I’ve always imagined doing!
  11. I started working out at Curves 3 days/week.
  12. I lost the remainder of the weight I want to lose, and I’m maintaining.
  13. I moved forward in our fundraising (more to come in 2017 goals)
  14. I made a lot of videos for moms in our church, sharing some things God’s taught me, encouraging them to love their children and look to God for love and wisdom.
  15. Vitaliy and I wend skiing together and had a great time (I did something he loves 🙂 )
  16. One of my goals was to support Vitaliy in all the ministry he’s doing, and I think I did a great job of that overall.
  17. We as church moms starting fasting and praying for our children once a month.
  18. I semi-discipled a girl through a Bible study book for kids.

So, thouse are some things I remember about 2016. It was a good year 🙂 Looking back, I would chose the work “self-discipline” for that year. After years of prayer, God seems to be bringing fruit in that quality of life in the Spirit. I’m looking forward to developing even more in that.