The Sayings of Natalie The Wise

Just now at lunch, Natalie declares that something just 'came' to her.  Then she proceeds to recite words of wisdom as though memorized from the Bible (verse references and all).  This is what I was blessed by hearing:

Proverbs 20:11 - "Whatever your mom or dad gives you to eat, you should eat it all."

Proverbs 20:9 - "Whatever your sister does to you, you should still love her."

Proverbs 29:11 - "Whenever your mom and dad say that they want alone time, you should do your own fun thing." (My personal favorite).

Now, let's look up the actual verse reference and see if they are close to what she 'recited.'

Proverbs 20:11 - "Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right."

Proverbs 20:9  - "Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?"

Proverbs 29:11 - "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control."

Hmmm... All of these are really good too! However, one more verse comes to mind, Revelation 22:18 - "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book." Do Natalie's words of wisdom count as "adding" to God's words? :)

I love my girl and her sweet heart that is eager to praise God.  Can't wait to see what He will do in her life! 

My Grandma

My beautiful grandmother, Elena Antipova (neé Korneeva)

June 27, 1925-April 11, 2012

Our tulips on a table cloth that my grandma embroidered. She was one stylish lady and created much beautiful handiwork, including her own top-of-the-line clothes.

My grandparents in 1950s. Aren't they a great looking couple?

Four generations! My grandmother holding my sister, my great-grandmother holding me, and my mom. (March 1979)

A few years later! (1985)

Another four generations, now celebrating the birth of my sister's son, Daniel, in 2001.

My mom and grandma in July 2007. My grandma missed my mom's arrival by only 6 days, dying on April 11th, 2012.

This is when I last saw her in 2007. I am sad that Emily will not meet her this September, and that grandma never held any of my children. She was a hard-working woman, doing everything with excellence. My mouth still waters just thinking about her pies and pelmeni. I am grateful for having known her and that I still have a reminder of her in my home every day - her intricate labor of love.

Praying for my mom who is now staying with my grieving grandfather until September. May God use her to soften his heart and to find rest and consolation in Him.

101 Days!

On Friday, March 16, we hit 101 days of school! Normally elementary schools celebrate 100 days, but our 100th day happened on a day of co-op when we are gone all day. The next morning the girls left for FL for a week. So, that Friday was the best day to ease them back into our school routine by having a Dalmatian party. I got the idea from a lady at church who is known for her crazy energy (and tie-dye shirts). I was all excited to go to a party store to get lots of Dalmatian supplies (I honestly had no idea what I would find!), but my wise husband requested that I not spend anything on this event. Hmmm... the night before the Spirit of Thriftyness aided me and at 11pm (after a super-busy day, complete with Small Group), I dug through my big mending bag that hasn't been touched in months. Some stuff has been there for years and, having grown up in the USSR, I could not bring myself to throw anything away because of one (or a few) holes. Anyways, Dmitri's two old white socks (even with holes!) turned into two perfect headbands complete with floppy ears. And, I didn't even have to do anything with his two old work t-shirts (yes, with holes and yellow armpits), they were neatly folded on the table, covered with a sign, "Put 101 Spots on the Shirt!"

Here is the picture outline of our party.

Counting 101 cheerios. The girls were shocked that 101 of them barely cover the bottom of the bowl. They were very concerned that I would not let them eat any more than that!

However, I could not let my puppies starve! So, they added another couple hundred cheerios into their bowls.

Making Dalmatian ears. Natalie wanted to paint them, but I insisted on Sharpies!

Making Dalmatian shirts.

Emily decided to make collars.

Julie enjoyed observing all the party activities. She would NOT keep the ears on long enough for me to snap a picture. Bad puppy.

Exercise break! While "Who Let the Dogs Out" was blaring in the kitchen, the girls had 101 seconds for jumping jacks and a bit later, sit ups.

Making Puppy Chow. I happened to have a bag of Easter M&Ms from one or two years ago. I knew dark chocolate was still fine! The girls counted 51 M&Ms (I could NOT let them eat 101!), 51 raisins, and 101 popcorn kernels. Like with the cheerios, they were shocked to see how few 101 popcorn kernels were! I popped them, and then of course I popped a bunch more!

Playful puppies.

They realized that not only do puppies NOT use their paws for eating, but they do not eat at the table. So, down they went.

Time for some worksheets! I found a few just by searching "101 Dalmatians Worksheets" online.

The weather was perfect, so I took my puppies out for a walk.

I cooked an elaborate lunch of Dalmatian Rice. Um.. it was just rice and black beans! (I did saute some onions for flavor). The girls, um, puppies, gobbled it up!

And, of course, the party would not be complete without the reading of "101 Dalmatians!" Also, I kept playing the music score from the movie all morning. I was surprised at how intense most of the music was. I couldn't remember that many scary parts in the movie!

Our party was a howling success! On to finish off our school year, hopefully by the end of June. Oh, and did I mention that we celebrated ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DAYS? And that I am still here, haven't run away, or beaten my children? I, the one who loved working full-time and never imagined (or wanted) to stay home full-time, and especially to home-school? God indeed is amazing and I feel incredibly blessed to shepherd the gifts that He has entrusted me with.

This morning I was nearly moved to tears when Emily prayed before breakfast, thanking God for "our mommy who is doing a good job teaching us." I guess I have finally tasted a little sweet nugget of Proverbs 31:28, "Her children arise and call her blessed." That gives me more than enough peace and joy to get through the rest of today, even if they are bad puppies!

Summing up 2011

These last few days I have spent a lot of time thinking about this past year and how different my life was from before. On December 31, 2010, I drove home after my last day at the church office, crying, and feeling lost in the world. Dmitri was flying and the girls were up north with their grandparents. A big chapter in my life ended – my life as I had known it being a full-time working mom. For weeks before January 1st, I was making one list after another, planning out the days and weeks of my new career. My to-do lists got longer and longer but I was convinced that I would finally accomplish all (or most) of the things that I had been yearning to do for years and never had the time. A year later, I looked back and realized that close to none of those things actually got done! What? I was SOOO busy, every day! I can’t believe that 365 days went by and I NEVER sat down to scrapbook Natalie’s or Julie’s albums, I NEVER sat down to pore over design tutorials online or finally learned Photoshop – that I had been eager to have for years. As I started to feel a bit depressed, Dmitri gently reminded me that I actually accomplished a lot last year. For one thing, when I was making all those lists, I never considered (or even imagined) that I would end up home schooling a first- and a third-grader, while nursing a baby every few hours. WOW! That changed my time-management in a huge way…

Now, I do know a few super-moms who are home schooling, blogging, cooking incredible meals, scrap booking, reading amazing books… And I too want to do so much, but in 2011 I spent quite a bit of time getting to know my kids, teaching them about forgiveness again and again, getting to know myself (and not liking it often), and getting to know this new career of a stay-at-home, home schooling mom, AND a wife of a pilot with his crazy schedule.

It is January 3 and my sweet baby turned 11 months… What an amazing time this has been. We have made so many memories as a family, and I have tasted God’s mercy and grace like never before. I am praying for 2012 to be filled with love and gratitude – first in my heart; and may my children see it and learn it from me. I can sum up 2011 with this – I lived that year knowing that there was NOTHING that I would ever regret, even if everything didn’t get checked off of my to-do list. Nothing is more valuable than time with my girls and my husband and I feel that time was spent well last year.

The perfect morning

I just want to do a quick post to mainly serve one purpose - to remind myself on some future gray and frazzled day how incredibly blessed I am. Today was the perfect morning and I could've not imagined it any better.

Dmitri and I slept in until 9am - thanks to Julie, who didn't make her presence known until about 10! (Well, I did feed her around 6:30am). While I was in the shower, he ran to the store and then started cooking breakfast with Emily and Natalie. After the shower, I peacefully nursed Julie while reading the Bible (on my phone - it's the easiest way!), while the delicious aroma wafted into the bedroom. Julie and I came down to behold a feast of scrambled eggs (by Emily), apple pancakes (by Natalie) and sausage patties (by Dmitri, but I will not elaborate on the condition of the sausage... The Lord would have been pleased with that offering). After we all ate, I enjoyed watching Dmitri, Emily and Natalie tickle fighting on the floor. It looked too good to resist, so I joined them. Dmitri then said that something was missing... and brought in Julie to join our fun. After good 20 minutes of squealing, snorting, sweating and laughing, I sat at the piano and we all sang Dmitri's favorite song from our childhood Russian movie.

After this spontaneous music number, I went to do the dishes and a while later I breathed a sigh of satisfaction seeing the kitchen sparkle, including the stove and the sink. By this point the baby was ready for her nap. So, this brings us to now, 12:45pm. The first load of laundry is going, the baby is sleeping, the girls are making bead jewelry, and I'm just about to bring out the school books. Ok, the afternoon may not go perfectly... But I am extremely thankful for God's grace and the blessing of my family. May this always be on the forefront of my mind, no matter how the kids behave or how messy the house is. Dmitri wisely says that it's signs of life. I want to treasure these signs for as long as possible...

Two weeks and Three weeks later

Julie's arm is healing beautifully!

This is what it looked like two weeks after the accident.

This is three weeks after the accident.

And here she is by my mom's first quilt! Mom made it herself without any fancy gadgets and made up the pattern herself.

One Week Later

So, here we are, a week later. A week ago at this time we were at Children's Hospital, and Julie, after being so rudely introduced to the intense pain that this world can cause, was finally calming down, aided by some baby drugs. Less than a week ago, I awkwardly fumbled with the gauze, bandages, adaptec, tape, bacitracin, bowls of soapy and clean water... Now I do it alone in less than 5 minutes, stat, even with her trying to wave her hands or trying to interfere.

My girls have been amazed at how God designed our bodies to heal. On Monday the docs at Shriner's gave us an excellent report, but I had a hard time believing that in 5-10 days she would have new pink skin. It just looked so gnarly, it bled and the dressing always stuck to the wounds, despite ample amounts of ointment. But, just look at it tonight! It looks beautiful and pink, so healthy. The edges of the wounds are dark - it's the remainder of the burnt skin, but it's becoming easier and easier to peel those away. The dressing didn't stick last night for the first time! Julie has been a trooper through it all, she has hardly cried as she endured all the dressing changes several times a day - and even when her arm was scrubbed at Shriner's on Monday! We are going back for a check up this coming Monday.

This evening we went to nearby Kinman Farms, and what a perfect time it was! Natalie was such a little cowgirl, loving the pony ride!

The girls picked out their little pumpkins - there were hundreds of them!

Emily looks so big on that pony... She is growing up so fast. She was taking wonderful care of Julie most of the evening, carrying her around with her, including on the hayride. At one point, Emily ran up to me as I sat by the fire, munching on my s'more. I asked her why she wasn't playing, and she said that all of a sudden she got a feeling that she needed to be by me, because she doesn't do it often. So, we snuggled together, and I told her that many years from now, she would be tucking her kids into bed at this hour, and hopefully she would remember this evening, as we sat by the fire together, quietly singing Russian camp fire songs. I felt incredibly blessed to have this sweet time with her, especially after a rocky morning together.

Here we are with Sarah and her son Josh - time has flown too fast... We first met when Josh was just a couple of months old and I was pregnant with Natalie. Sarah is one of the most generous people I know and she has blessed us with so many fun trips and events throughout these 6 years. Josh is like a brother to Emily and Natalie. And, tonight he was so attentive to Julie. I look forward to Julie getting to know Josh and her "aunt."

This evening, as it was dark and the air smelled of fire and fresh leaves and dirt, I basked in the sweetness and peacefulness of the moment. Fire was crackling, the stars were twinkling, country music was playing... I was walking back from an unlit spot where I had nursed Julie (who kept getting distracted by the bright moon), I simply stopped, closed my eyes and slow danced with her for a bit. I'm incredibly blessed and thankful for a peaceful end to our day, especially reflecting on the events of a week ago...