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A Mother's Eyes

I never thought I would stoop to such things. When visiting other homes as a teenager, I disdained the clutter of child’s paintings on the refrigerator. I scoffed at the messiness of obvious child’s experiments in jars in the corner, in egg cartons on the windowsill, on newspaper spread on the table.

I vowed my house would be neat, immaculate, and free of childish clutter. I would have an “art gallery” in some out-of-the-way place. Caterpillars would stay outside where they belonged. Clay projects could dry in the garage. My refrigerator would not become a bulletin board.

But guess what I discovered? I couldn’t destroy the “beautiful” drawing that my son labored over for hours. How could I throw away the ugly plastic cup with one forlorn flower drooping lifelessly over the side? I remembered my daughter’s gleeful smile when she proudly held out a dandelion clutched in her grimy hand. I never thought I would have a garden growing on my windowsill from the seeds that my son carefully collected. It would be cruel to dismantle my son’s terrain alive with caterpillars, twigs, and grass.

Oh, how different things look from a mother’s eyes! How different things feel from a mother’s heart! If my house looks like an art gallery, it’s because I fondly recalled the little hands that painted each picture. If I have to clean around art projects, I smile at my children’s creativity. I have discovered that an immaculate house is not real beauty. Real beauty is expressed by shining eyes, heartwarming smiles, and wrap-around hugs from happy children.

Many Blessings

Life has precious moments of blessings. I would like to share three with you. (1)Last weekend our church enjoyed a weekend retreat at a a Christian retreat center. Our theme was prayer and I felt God nudging me to spend more time with Him. Thanks, Lavern and Lolita, for planning such a great weekend!

(2) Corleen led a "children's choir" on Sunday morning. It was awesome, Cor!! And the message powerful! Thanks, children!!!

The children singing "Love is a Flag"

(3) Robin's sister, Caia spent some time here and she blessed me in so many little ways. Thanks, Caia! You were a blessing! She sewed Allison and Hadassah, and Annaliese all look-alikes!!! What a thoughtful gift. Our girlies were happy to wear them at the weekend retreat. It was especially appreciated since I don't seem to find much time to sew recently! (or is that ever?)

The three girls wearing their dresses with Caia!!!

More Substitutes

Today I'm making monster cookies. And I'm realizing how many American ingredients it takes--peanut butter (ok, we CAN buy it here, but it is expensive and not very good), brown sugar, corn syrup, and chocolate chips. That's a long list of things I can't get here. So, I try not to make these kinds of cookies too often. More substitutes (this time some dressings I like that I can't buy here):

Ranch Dressing

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. onion salt, garlic salt, celery salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
Mix together and use on your favorite salads!

French Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. water
1/4 cup oil
Mix and serve!

Italian Dressing

2/3 cup cold water
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp.pepper, allspice, paprika
1 tsp. celery salt, garlic powder
1/4 tsp. oregano
2 soda crackers

Combine in blender. Blend until smooth.

Croutons

Butter both sides of bread. Sprinkle with seasoning salt. Bake on 250 degrees for one hour or until dry and crisp. Stir occasionally. We love these homeade ones.

"Quick and Easy" or "Difficult and Time-consuming"?

Trying to follow an American recipe in Poland can be a catastrophe. Especially, those recipes that say "Quick and Easy." About 99% of the time, I must first of all make my substitutes for the time-saving bought ingredients that aren't available over here. After all my dishes are dirty preparing all the ingredients, I can then assemble the recipe. Unfortunately, for me, these recipes become quite complicated. Georgene posted about being faithful in little things. I thought I would post some of the substitutes I've learned to use. Maybe some of you can save some money by preparing your own substitutes.

Bisquick Substitute
8 cups flour
4 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
8 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups shortening
Mix until finely crumbled. Store in air-tight container or in the freezer.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Substitute
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup warm water
Blend in blender until smooth. Chill.

Cream Soup Mix
2 cups instant dry milk powder
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken boullion
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Combine. For one can of cream soup (10 3/4 oz) blend 1/3 cup mix and 1 1/4 cup water.
I have many more, but maybe this is enough for today. I will post more later.

Eleven-hour boat trip

...and we found out that is a long ride!!! Friday we took the children on a school field trip. We left at 4 a.m. from home to catch our boat at 8 in the town of Elblag and spent all day riding a boat in the lake region of Poland through canals, over lakes, down rivers, over land (!!!), through locks, and finally docked in the town of Ostroda at 9 pm (a little later than we planned)!!! We saw some awesome scenery, consumed two back-packs full of food, identified birds, talked to other people on the boat, and just relaxed in the sunshine and enjoyed being together as a family.

A boat we met coming up the canal from the same company that we were riding with.


Yes, the canal just suddenly ended. There were five slopes like this on our trip and a little cart carried the boat and us up a total of three hundred feet during a 6 mile distance. Amazing! And interesting.

The little cart like the one we rode up the slope on!

The whole crew ready for adventure

The Captain and First Mate (that's me!)

That's the bird-watcher, Austin. If you're interested in the details, they saw many birds, but only identified these--mallard, mute swan, coot, black-headed sea gulls, gray heron, cormorant, marsh harrier, goldeneye, pochard, great crested grebe, crane, and a cuckoo.

Derek, are you tired of the boat trip already? It was fun for the children to buy food and drinks from the snack bar below deck, but it was hard on the pocket book, so we kept it to a minimum. Allison constantly wanted to buy me tea or coffee or asked if she couldn't buy some candy. The lady was patient with her many trips to the snack bar and eventually struck up a conversation with her.

Our Great Venture

We feel so blessed that God has given us a property of our dreams. There are many questions ahead that could discourage us:

• Will we as foreigners actually get permisssion by the end of the year to own this piece of land? (as stated in the preliminary contract we signed this week)
• Will we be able to find all the building materials to build a wooden house instead of the normal block here?
• Will we find enough volunteers from America to come and spend some time here building our house? If you are interested in maybe a short VS opputunity or would like more details, email us at jolasmucker@terramail.pl .
• Will we get permission to cut down trees where we want to build our house if it is zoned as forest land?
• How will we be able to give the time we need to this project with our already busy schedules?
• Will the money stretch to accomodate all expenses with the extremely weak dollar?

Yes, there are no answers right now for these questions. But we choose to trust God. He has led us so far, giving us peace about this purchase, helping us find an honest inspector who will deal with all the building hassles for us, giving us a small cabin on the property for the VS boys to live in, helping us to agree on a house plan. You can view it here. Of course, I can't tell you about all the modifications. You will just have to imagine.

We worked all day Saturday. We cleared away dead branches and twenty-years' worth of leaves on the ground. Rewarding, but very slow work. There are windows to replace in the vandalized cabin, fence to build to keep the vandals out, insulation to be put in the cabin to make it winterproof, the bathroom redone to include a shower of sorts. We ended the day with a kielbasa roast with the whole team to celebrate!

There are some things I love about the place:

• The children were playing and I couldn't even here them from the spot I was working on the two acres.
• The pond and the TREES that are big enough for climbing and a swing.
• The place to build the house has lots of trees between it and the road.
• It is back a small lane, but yet in the village. (I love my privacy)
• The whole team was grilling kielbasa and instead of filling up my whole back yard like here, we only were a speck on the property.

Yes, it is a venture of great faith, but as you can tell we are excited. Here are a few pictures for you:

The pond at the back of the property

The Cabin

Two little munchkins picking up sticks and playing on our property.

Conrad hard at work in the doorway of the cabin

Dad and Alli lighting a fire in the fireplace inside the cabin

Les hanging insulation upstairs in the cabin

Our grill of celebration

Look at the sizzling kielbasa!!!

Quote of the Day:

Dad (after he finishes reading the Bible story): Allison, what kind of skin did Jacob cover his arms with?

Allison: Children's skin.

Dad: What?!?

Allison: Dad, you said kid's skin!