Family Time

Whewwwww! All I can say is that if I ever have kids, I hope I survive them and they survive me! Following camp, I had a great visit with my brother's family. They moved from E. Ukraine last year and are now only 3.5 hours from Odessa by bus. I was so, so thankful for that move, b/c IM had asked me to not go to anyone that I knew in the eastern part of the country, due to all of the conflict occurring there. I so enjoyed getting to see their new home and new city, and just getting to see how well everyone is doing with all of the changes that were involved in the move. Seriously, I had a fantastic time, but four kids ten and under are exhausting!! I know that some of it was simply the excitement of having Tyotya(Aunt) there, but there's just a lot of energy involved, regardless. :-) I took a lot of pictures while there, and it's so hard to pick, so I'll start with these, and then as a good aunt should do, maybe add some more later.

A good Aunt goes on lots & lots of walks and buys ice cream and kvas every time she is asked. :-D

A good Aunt explores what seems like every playground in the city.

A good Aunt lets children climb on things they shouldn't & set off little fireworks thingies that light a field on fire, and then runs around with said children stomping out the fire and trying not to panic. Whew! Crisis averted.

A good Aunt climbs on things with children & forces them to take lots of pictures

A good Aunt watches children spin out of control from tiredness and lots of sugary gelato and sits there with children's father and laughs hysterically

A good Aunt plays with children at the river and lets them jump and climb all over her, until she can no longer handle it, and exits the water. :-D

A good Aunt reads, paints, colors, and plays endless card games, realizing how limited her time is with those precious children

A good Aunt passes out and sleeps hard at the end of each day, and treasures each and every moment.

English Camp

This year I did English Camp in Poznan, Poland. Many of the IM US staff do English camps so as to serve alongside of our staff, and many return to the same location year after year because of relationships with campers, families, staff, etc. I wasn't sure which camp I was going to go to this year and had been praying about several different ones, when I found out that this location, in particular, could really use an extra person with English Camp experience. I was excited to go do this smaller camp with Amadeusz and Monika Shaded in Poznan, Poland, because Amadeusz was in the first training center class after I moved to Odessa, and I've got a great relationship with both him and his wife. Compared to the camps I've done in the past, this was a tiny camp, with only twelve campers, two short-termers, and three full-time IM staff. We all stayed in one house together on the outskirts of the city, and did almost everything in that house. At first I was a little concerned about the lack of privacy, but it turned out to just be a fantastic blessing in the way that it caused our relationships to grow with the campers.

My Advanced English class with their children's story book that they wrote

N. American breakfast prepared by me and Billi Gean- eggs and pancakes

My Advanced English Bible Study group. This group kind of fluctuated throughout the 8 days, with people coming and going, which was tough for me. At times, there were 6 of us, at other times, only 2. I was working through the gospel of John with them, which was great, but a challenge for me personally to keep continuity as people came in and out daily.

The entire little camp(minus the few that came and went)

I was so incredibly blessed by the two short-termers that were there, a mother and daughter from Canada. We roomed together, laughed together, prayed together, and I was just so very thankful for them(Sandra & Billie-Gean).

This camp felt so different to me than the larger camps that I've been accustomed to, but it really was a blessing. Being together in the one house with only 12-13 campers every day caused relationships and trust to cement much faster than at a larger camp. We had the opportunity to individually share the gospel with various students at a much faster pace than seems to be normal; they were just very open to it. I left blown away by the work I saw God doing in many of the students' hearts and minds. Quite a few made professions of faith, and others said that they understood that salvation was by faith alone and has nothing to do with works- they're just not sure if they're ready to commit to following Christ yet. I appreciated their honesty and was really excited to see their openness and hear some of the amazing questions and thoughts that they were working through. It was a long, hot week out in that house on the edge of Poznan, but a week full of blessings as I watched God working in people's lives in ways I never could have imagined.

Hello???

I feel like the long lost relative that no one has heard from in a long time. I know, I know. My blog writing skills have seriously atrophied. I've been gone from the States for three solid weeks now and zip, zero, zilch has been posted on here. I have a decent, but not really complete defense for that. ;-) Internet access has indeed been very poor for most of my trip, so I would jump online where I could, post a brief note and picture to facebook, and then jump off again. None of my internet access up until this point has been strong enough to let me upload multiple pictures without it taking FOREVER. But does that excuse me from not writing any updates at all? Not really. So, where have I been and what have I done?? Ok, here's the whole trip itinerary, which should have been posted on here before I ever left(except that I didn't really know the entire itinerary before leaving. :-D

7/23- depart CLT
7/24-7/25- rest in Warsaw, meet with former IM intern, Szymon
7/26- bus to Poznan, Poland
7/27- help get camp set up
7/28-8/3- Evangelistic English Camp for university age students
8/4- sight-seeing and debriefing time with short-termers and team
8/5- bus to Warsaw, flight to Odessa
**I got stuck in Kiev overnight, so my plans for the 6th got a little off
8/6-flight to Odessa from Kiev
8/7-8/12- go to Kherson to spend time with my brother's family
8/12- bus to Odessa
8/13- rest day
8/14-8/21- meet with Odessa staff and friends from my time living there
8/21-fly to Warsaw
8/21-8/24- meet with staff in Warsaw and Piaseczno
8/24-bus to Krakow, brief stop in Kielce to visit staff
8/24-8/26- spend time with Krakow staff
8/26- bus to Warsaw
8/27- return to States

Ok, there's the whole shebang that has happened up to now, and what will potentially keep on happening. Starting tomorrow, I'll actually begin to catch you up on what actually went on in those various places. :-) I'm alive and well, I promise! ;-)

A New Home

I just wanted to pop these three pictures on here real quick, and I'll come back later and write a little about my FL trip. After a steady downward progression with dementia, culminating in several falls within several days, the decision was made that Grandma needed around the clock care. So last week she made the transition to a nursing home that's only a few minutes away from us. Because of the dementia, she has moments of confusion about what she's doing there, but overall, the transition has been fairly smooth. Someone goes every day to spend time with her, and she's actually had quite a few extra visitors this past week. She and Pop did Sunday morning ministry at this same nursing home when I was a child, and so there are moments of confusion as her brain tells her that she's there visiting people, sharing the gospel, etc., but still, she's doing quite well. Quite often I win the prize of "Best Family Member," because her brain tells her that I came all the way from Ukraine. Of course, other times it tells her that I'm her sister, or niece, or sister-in-law, or she'll look at the pictures of the two of us and think that I am her. The brain of a dementia patient is a perplexing thing.Placing a family member in a nursing home is not an easy thing, or at least it wasn't for us. People make assumptions, and have opinions about what they think they would do, when the reality is that each situation is different for every family. Because of the circumstances in our family, after keeping her in her own home for as long as possible, it was decided that this was the option that would give her the best care. I'm thankful that we can continue to spend time with her, and cherish those moments when she still knows who I am.

A camera with a timer can be a confusing thing.

She managed a smile for this one, but when looking at it, thought that I was her. :-)

This is just a cute photo from Sunday, with one of my Varsity girls

Tri-Latta Triathlon

Today was my 2nd and bigger triathlon: 1/2 mile open water swim, 17 mile ride, 3 mile run. I had three specific goals: to complete the swim in 20 minutes(I'm slow), to run a 10 minute mile even after the swim and ride, and to have a finish time of right around 2 hrs. It's been rather rainy here the last few days, and I was rather disconcerted at all of the mud in the transition areas and on the trail run, and had no idea how that would effect my time goals.

The swim didn't feel so good to me, because I'd never done an open water swim before, where you can't see when you're swimming and people are kicking you and swimming over or super close to you. I intentionally stayed to the back of the group when they all took off, which was a bit of a mistake if you want to be competitive. I was safer there, but much slower. Happily, though my swim time was quite slow, it was 20:16, which was close enough to my goal for me. :-D Then I was out of the water, running up a muddy hill to jump on my bike for the 17 mile ride. That portion was just lovely. It was a nice course and I had a relaxed ride. I probably should've pushed a good bit more in that(but was trying to save for the run), because by the time it was over, I realized I still had plenty of energy left in my tank.I finished that section in 55 minutes, putting me at 2nd place in my category for the bike ride. Then off the bike and on to the muddy, hilly trail run. It wasn't my favorite run ever, but I kept going and finished in 30 minutes and a few seconds. And making it even better? I completed the entire thing in 1 hr. and 52 minutes, putting me in 7th place in the Novice category and meeting all three of my goals! I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than my first one, even though it was longer. I've worked really hard on pacing and endurance from the triathlon in March until now, and it was so encouraging to see that work pay off. It was also encouraging to get to the end and realize I probably could've given a bit more. All in all, an excellent day!

5:30 am- getting ready for the race

5:45am- pre-race snack

With Jesse before his group started the swim at 6:30am(he's a recent GBC highschool grad.)

My group waiting for the air horn to start our swim

Coming in from the swim.

Finishing up the ride

Beginning the run

Triathlon #2- completed!!

HBD to me

Yesterday, 6/8, was my birthday. HBD to me!! My best present was getting back from my longest steady run yet on Saturday(8 miles) and realizing that I'd gotten down to 140, my 80 pound mark. Yay!

Birthday morning run

And here's my 80 pound pic!

One of my sweet highschoolers is a little, bitty thing who weighs exactly what I've lost at this point. I loved how she was game for this picture. It's hard to believe I used to carry all that weight around every day! I said something about how hard it was to carry her(granted, I was in heels), and she commented that no one had ever said she was heavy before. My reply was, "Of course you're not, but think about carrying you around all day every day!"

My actual birthday present. I was so, so excited for the arrival of my Garmin Triathlete's Watch that can time all three events, keep records, calories, heartrate, blah, blah, blah. And then I got it. It's Huge. Tiny hands. :-D But I'm still excited!

My first Open Water triathlon's coming up this Saturday- 1/2 mile swim, 17 mile ride, 3 mile run. Can't wait!

Foooood

Two years into this change and I'm still constantly asked, "What exactly do you eat??" Honestly, people just don't pay much attention when they think you're a weirdo, so I just get to answer the question over and over. Even my family members can't keep clear on what I do and don't eat. :-) I think it's rather simple, but it's so strange to the average person to cook everything from scratch and cut processed foods, sugars, dairy, and grains from your diet. And they're right- it is a wee bit strange. There are compelling reasons for it, though, particularly if you have allergies, or are sensitive to certain foods. So I continue to really embrace this "wacky" lifestyle(which isn't wacky at all, but rather, super healthy). Yes, I do make exceptions: I've added a bit of dairy back into my diet. I've found that I can handle small amounts of hard cheeses and whole milk yoghurt, so I eat a small amount daily now. I steer clear of grains still, with the exceptions of my two weekly treats(Mexican with my family after church, and a sweet of my choice on Friday). Your palate and tastebuds change considerably when you cut out processed foods and sugars. You don't crave the sweet and salty foods anymore, or rarely, anyway. Here's a visual idea of some of the things I've enjoyed this week:

This is a very common meal for me: 3 oz. of meat(in this case a curry chicken dish with apples, dates, carrots & broccoli), and a bunch of raw veggies with 1/2 c. yoghurt/avocado dip. I probably eat some version of that meal 10 times a wk).

Sun. morning I usually make Banana Pancakes(2 eggs, 1 mashed banana, cinnamon & vanilla, cooked in coconut oil). This week I went Mulberry picking, so I loaded my Banana Pancakes with these yummy, free berries.

Pre-workout snack. This is what I eat most mornings before heading to the Y to swim and run, or before cyling. These are homemade Larabars: dried fruit and nut bars. They're very simple and give great energy: You can make all kinds of varieties, but these were made with raw almonds, dried peaches, medjool dates, and vanilla

I eat far fewer eggs now than I used to, but still love eggs for their versatility. I made this today for lunch: carrot and spinach pancakes cooked in coconut oil: 2 eggs, 3 cups spinach, one grated carrot, 2 slices roast turkey,  1/4 bellpepper, cajun seasoning, and cumin. They were fantastic, quite filling, and came in at around 350 calories.

And then I try things I find online, just for the fun of it. :-) These are carrot and coconut "truffles." They're really not truffles, or truffle like, at all. But they're very tasty, and very good for you! They're about 25 calories each, and contain raw carrots, dates, unsweetened coconut, vanilla, cinnamon, and a splash of lemon juice. Yum! Like I said, your taste buds change, and it's not just that I've forced myself to like these things- I genuinely enjoy eating everything I eat! But I've also learned which things a non-"wacko" person will really like(like the Larabars), and which ones not to waste on them. :-)

**Next up: Tapley was in town! And, I'm working on summer trip planning. Oh boy.