Name That Fruit

Wow! Back to School 2013 has been crazy! The girls have not wasted a moment in making friends and beginning their own active social lives. We have been so busy and loved every minute of it!

Remember back to an earlier post about the amazing garden homes I find enchanting(If not, here is a lovely reminder!). Well, there is another aspect to these very cool little plots – they are also small business ventures. All of the produce couples are growing in their little plots on the weekends, they sell in little roadside stands during the week.

I have been buying my produce at these little stands since we arrived in Warsaw and just put the two together.

Which brings me to my point for sharing today…

When one buys produce from a roadside stand in a foreign country from a person that speaks a different language, sometimes it is a lot like playing guess that fruit. Of course, most fruits and veggies are very familiar and easy to figure out; but occasionally I run into something like this:

I didn’t know what it was. Its shape resembled a pear. Its coloring was like a Gala apple. It seemed too firm to be a pear but not quite as firm as an apple. I had no clue what to expect, but I just had to try it.

So we bought them and I put them in the fridge to keep them from over-ripening (everything is sold ready to eat and fruit can spoil in even a few days). It took us a few days to get around to eating them. They softened quickly and their texture became much less like an apple and much more like a pear.

When we finally tasted them – PEARS!!!!

Very yummy pears!

We have played the ‘guess that fruit or veggie' game and lost (funky, smelly bean episode). We will keep playing though. You never know when you will discover something amazing!

Separation Anxiety

Tomorrow is the big day! My sweet babies are packing their lunches, filling their backpacks, and heading off to the first day of school.

They are so excited and their new school is so amazing. We feel so blessed for the girls to have the opportunity to attend a school that offers so much.

But…

This will be the first time in four years that I will be sending them off to school without me. I have either been at their school teaching or been the teacher (our wild 1 year homeschool adventure). While both girls are so excited and so ready to head off in the morning, I am feeling very emotional about the whole things.

I have to walk my most precious treasures to their classrooms and then….leave. Like actually walk out the front door and go home.

I have never been a clingy parent so all this anxiousness about ‘Back to School’ is very unfamiliar and uncomfortable. I have been praying with them and for them. I have spoken blessing upon blessing over their sweet little heads, but when the moment of truth arrives, I might have to join all the Kindergarten moms wearing sunglasses to hide the misty eyes. And I will be really glad when the nanny brings them home.

I know this is such a good thing for my girls and that they are going to learn and grow in ways I can’t begin to imagine. I am glad they are going back to school. I will enjoy the quiet time. But tomorrow, I will miss them. And I will probably have a good cry.

Then I will blow my nose, freshen my makeup and meet new friends for coffee; knowing that my Heavenly Father will not be leaving them to navigate a new school and make new friends on their own. He has a plan for them that is beyond my greatest hopes and wishes. I know He loves them more than I do and that I can trust Him go before them and be with them.

Despite my sniffles, Cheers to a great 8^th and 4^th grade year! It is going to be great!

Blue-Berry

This weekend we joined LOTS of other embassy families and headed out to pick blueberries. This is such a special opportunity and we didn’t dare miss it.

Several years ago, the US Embassy helped an American doctor to start an American blueberry farm here in Poland. Polish blueberries are very small and tasty, however American blueberries, fresh off the tree, are AMAZING and have become very popular in Poland. As a special thank you to the Embassy for its assistance, we are the only group given the privilege of heading out to the farm to pick blueberries.

Who says no to that?!?

So we packed our bottled water, bug spray, and baskets and headed south out of Warsaw. It is much like heading south in the US. Building get sparser and the patches of trees become denser. We even had to drive in the other lane, more than once, to pass tractors driving 10 MPH down the road. As we got closer, the landscape opened up to farmland. We saw several old Polish men out working their land, which is probably what they have done every Saturday since they were boys.

When we finally arrived, there were rows and rows of blueberry bushes FULL of berries.

After several hours picking we had picked 2.9 kilos (6.4 pounds) and they charged us 35 sloty ($11.02). AMAZING

Now we are freezing them on a baking sheet to keep them from mushing when they defrost and putting them in snack-size bags so the girls can grab blueberry snack bags all year long.

I think this is going to be a great Polish tradition for us!

And the winner is....

The girls have been so excited with our little giveaway. Every day they have asked

about who has entered and speculated about who might win. Giving is fun! Since they have been so excited about the giveaway, I had to let them be a part of selecting the winner.

Carlie wrote out all the entries. (Then I double checked them all!)

And Alaynah drew the winner. (So be mad at her if you didn’t win!)

After tons of entries, which I am so excited about, the winner is…..

Hilary Bleadow

I am so excited to get to send Hilary this beautiful mug. It is in my favorite pattern, at least that I have seen so far!

I can imagine her starting one of her long days of teaching her precious brood with it filled to the brim with a great breakfast blend coffee or ending the day with some much needed quiet time and a nice cup of hot tea. I hope you feel as special as you are every time you use it!

It will be in the mail this week! Please remember that it is does have a long journey to get to you, it should arrive in about 3 weeks.

All Polish Pottery is microwave, dishwasher, and oven safe. If you are interested in seeing more of this awesome pottery go to www.anko-pottery.com.pl

This is the shop I went to and the owner is such a wonderful woman. 

GIVEAWAY - Polish Pottery

When we began researching Poland, we read a lot about how popular and sought after Polish pottery is. We have already been asked countless times is we have picked out a pattern or gotten our first few pieces. I have even seen it at a few new friends’ houses and can’t wait to begin our collection.

I did a little research and found out that geologist have found proof of Boleslawiec pottery being made in Poland during the Middle Ages. The region that is known for manufacturing this pottery, Boleslawiec, is rich in natural clay deposits which causes the handmade and hand painted pottery to be durable and functional. Not to mention it is beautiful!

In November the embassy sponsors a trip to Boleslawiec for us to visit the manufacturing companies to Christmas shop! But in the meantime, we have been told by many people that there is a great shop in Warsaw called Anko, I think, that has a great variety and wonderful pieces.

My mission this week is to find this shop and begin my Polish pottery collection. And just for fun, I thought I would buy an extra piece to share!

That is where you come in. A blogger buddy of mine just did her first giveaway and I have been inspired!

So I am going to buy a piece of traditional polish pottery and sending to a friend in the states (unless the winner is from Poland, then I’ll hand deliver)!

> So if you comment on this blog I will put your name in the drawing once.

>If you share this blog on you Facebook page, I’ll put your name in the drawing twice.

>If you become a follower of my blog, I will put your name in the drawing once.

I’m pretty sure that my mom and a few friends read this so your chances should be great! I will draw on Saturday morning.

I hope you are as excited as I am!!!!!!!

Let's Do Church

So many friends asked about where we might go to church while we were overseas. I know their curiosity was innocent but many times I felt a twinge of the belief that “real church” only existed in America. Or at least church in the way we have grown up understanding it. I appreciated the sweet concern but somehow felt like it would work out. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I wasn’t worried either. I knew that God would not take us to a foreign land and leave us here by ourselves and if He did, He would provide enough grace to sustain us.

Jason and I were, however, interested in finding a church to call home while we are in Poland. The embassy provided a short list of services held in English and I checked out the only one that had a website. The church’s beliefs mirrored ours, so we decided to try it out our second Sunday in Warsaw. It wasn’t at all what we are used to and every week we decide we like that more and more.

Today the pastor asked everyone to share where they were from and use their native greeting during the ‘shake your neighbors hand” portion of the service. Believers from Nigeria, Korea, India, Poland, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Texas greeted me in less than five minutes. The pastor had just read verses from Revelation about all the nations declaring that Jesus is Lord. Wow

After the greeting time, the pastor asked if anyone had something they wanted the church to pray about. After a few people asked for prayers for healing of loved ones and shared praises about what God has been doing in their lives, a precious young Korean woman timidly shared that her father had passed away two weeks ago and that the church, in Korea, he had started and devoted his entire life to was now without a pastor. I, with my firm rule against crying in public, couldn’t stop my eyes from overflowing. I don’t know her but I know that she is living in a foreign country like I am and that she loves Jesus and that makes us family. I hurt for her and am committed to praying for her. Then a woman volunteered to pray for her. In prayer, the woman recited God’s promises to meet our needs and to abide with those who abided in Him in a very thick accent. Wow.

This was followed by the praise team leading us in Revelation Song. While I know I was supposed to be giving my full attention to worshipping Christ, but I couldn’t help but take in everything around me. The beautiful Nigerian woman named Blessing beside me was on her knees – hands lifted in praise. The warm, welcoming British family sharing seats with my girls, because my girls adore their daughters, stood in reserved reverence. It struck me what an opportunity this is for my family and me. We get to experience Christ as He is worshipped in all different ways by His people across the world in one room. WOW!

It was very fitting that the pastor began a series on not trying to put God in a box because of how much of Him we will miss out on.

I never want the wonder of getting a small glimpse of the nations coming together to worship to be lost on me. I know it will be easy to get involved and get caught up in the week to week routine of ‘doing church’. I am excited to have a church family here, but I pray the routine never clouds my ability to be amazed that God is just as real and alive in Poland as He is in Poland as He is in Georgia or anywhere else.

Canoeing Is Not For Wimps

Warning: This post has way too many pictures. I just couldn’t narrow it down. Sorry!

So today we had a real adventure that was WAY out of my comfort zone! As in my arms were very uncomfortable! We went on a guided canoe trip sponsored by the embassy. One of our goals, as a family, is to find things that are more active to do together. So when this opportunity presented itself and Jason was so excited, I decide to go for it.

We arrived to catch our Mercedes bus (apparently that is how we roll these days!) and drove 40 miles north of Warsaw. We were set to canoe down one of the tributaries of the Wista River.

Jason was the only one of us that had ever been in a canoe before so he took Carlie and Alaynah rode with me.

I arrogantly thought, “How hard can this be? Paddle left, paddle right, repeat!” Yeah, that lasted for about 5 strokes and we realized that there must be a trick to steering and that know one told it to us. The first half of the trip was tough. Alaynah and I zig-zagged down the first half of the river and my arms were worn out.

During our break, Alaynah and I made it our mission to hitch rides with other canoers. We realized that we were great paddlers and needed some steerers!!!

After our little change-up things went fabulously. We kept up and enjoyed the second half of the ride so much.

The ride offered wonderful views of beaches filled with Polish families, beautiful nature, and even a few other interesting creatures cooling off in the river.

After our journey down river, we stopped in Modlin, a town north of Warsaw. We took a guided walking tour around its fortress that has been used since the early 1800’s.

After all of our hard work we stopped for a lovely Polish meal and then headed home. We were hot and sticky but had had a fabulous day! The bus ride back was very quiet because I think most of us, myself included, slept the whole way!

All in all it was a wonderful day. My babies are sun-kissed and my hubby is happy and snoring in the recliner beside me. Here’s hoping I can lift my aims in the morning!