Sat. Evening Post, 5/7/11

Weather of the Week: much cooler, highs between 55 and 60F

Book in My Hands: "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire," by Jim Cymbala. Highly recommended read on the power of prayer. Read it!

Music in my Ears: Josh Groban, "Illuminations"; Mumford & Sons, "Sigh No More"

The Sunday after Easter, everyone takes flowers, grave ornamentation and baskets of food to the cemetery to eat together and remember their loved ones. The buses that day were CRAZY! They even shut some roads and rerouted lots of the buses to the big cemeteries.

Encouragement of the Week: visiting with my friend, Valya(from Camp Gloria in Russia)

So the encouraging thing about this visit was that the last time we got together, I spoke in a mixture of English and Russian. This time I was able to speak the entire time(over two hrs) entirely in Russian! Yes, I've still got all kinds of grammar issues, but I'm getting more and more comfortable with carrying on lengthy conversations. So encouraging!


One of the two little paintings of Odessa that I bought this week. This church is in the center of town.

These are my Easter Egg Tulips. The colors were so vivid and beautiful and remind me of Easter Eggs.

Fun Find of the Week:

French Bakery! It's not as fantastic as Nova's, but I was still pretty happy and enjoyed the Basilik Bread that I bought.

Cooking Adventure of the Week: Toffee Nut Brownies

Look at the center brownie. Can you see that dark layer of toffee?? These were not supposed to contain toffee at all, but instead, have a layer of caramel in the center. But when I melted and used the caramels that I bought here, it melted so completely that it turned into toffee when it was baked! They're still really tasty, just different than I thought they would be. Another adventure in cooking in a foreign country. =-)