St. Sophia's

Here are actual pictures of St. Sophia's cathedral. I didn't take very good ones because I was so embarressed at being caught "touristing."

This picture was taken from the other side, right above the entrance.

This Road DOES Lead to Kiev...I Think...

I am so enjoying the Texas team being here. We have the three girls/ladies staying with us. The team is here for a business seminar and has also been getting acquainted with the area, so I've joined them on a few sightseeing ventures. It's perfect timing, considering I hadn't so much as visited the tomato farm in my year here, and it's only a 15 minute drive from here.

Yesterday we went to Kiev. Although the original plan was to ride in by Marshrutka, we ended up having to take the rental van with the heroic Mr. Art Bradshaw as our driver. And guess who navigated? Tanya (from here) and I did the directing, which sort of went like this...

"Well, I think you turn up here. To the left. No wait, right! It's just past that thing...next to that other thing...across the street from that blue thing...How much farther? I don't actually know. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Or maybe more. I don't really know, sorry. The speed limit? Umm, well I know you can go at least 60 Ks. Well I think 80 would be ok. You could try 100. Well this looks right. I know I've seen those kind of trees before..."

It didn't help that the roads were abnormally thick with policemen, one every 100 yards or so along some stretches of road. But in the end we made it victoriously to the Fershette parking lot, where we changed to the metro and began a new adventure.

I don't think our driver had much faith in my navigational abilities, but then, what could I say? At least we didn't end up in Kaniv. I really thought we should make a trip there, seeing as it's such a special place and all...

I had a blast on the car ride. It was delightful to be with a vanload of people and laugh at all the jokes, gleefully discovering that I could understand them. The world is funnier with it speaks your language. I guess I've grown accustomed to being in groups where everyone is laughing their heads off about something I only half understand, and I didn't realize what a treat it would be to be with these folks! On the rare occasions that I actually catch what Ukrainians are saying in Ukrainian, I get a glimpse into their humor, but the rest of the time I am...lost. And as Elizabeth Bennet says, I dearly love to laugh!

But I haven't even got to Kiev yet. Nadia and her dad met us in Kiev to give us a tour of the city. We saw St. Sophia's cathedral, which was built in the 11th century I think, and was inspired by the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople, now Istanbul. The inside is covered in detailed mosaics and ancient paintings of apostles and Jesus and royal people. I could have stared at some of them all day. I feel like it's such an unbelievable privilege to be all the way across the world seeing something so old and historic and beautiful. History seems much more appealing than it ever did in school!

We also visited a monastery called Pecherska Lavra, and were twenty minutes too late to go into the caves that lie under the extensive monastery grounds in the middle of Kiev. Monks built the caves so that they could do their monkish living-in-poverty-thing, and later the impressive buildings up top were constructed. Quite a contrast between caves and the domed and guilded monastery! I would have loved to see down there, although I'm told it's dark and narrow and there are a lot of people kissing mummied remains of deceased monks...which is really sad, because they really do that, thinking it will add fervency to their prayers.

Here are Tanya and I on a street on the monastery grounds.

And this is part of the monastery...as I was saying, they must have given up the whole poverty idea...

This is the gate of St. Sophia's.

And lastly, a "We Love Ukraine" sign...

Team Coming!

The last couple of days we have been getting ready for the team coming from Longview and Kilgore to have a "Sister Cities" seminar with business people here in Rzhishchiv. Exciting! It will be fun having six visitors. The three ladies will stay with Masha and I. It's so nice that we have a house so close by with plenty of extra room. God gave us such a good place...for free.

Yesterday I stayed home from the Crowes and scrubbed and vacuumed and did dishes and spent a lot of time packing my stuff. Even though I still have a week or so here, I wanted to pack the things I don't need so that there would be room for our guests. Plus, I will be a lot more relaxed knowing that I don't need to pack in those few days remaining after the team leaves. I can just enjoy time with my "family."

This is so weird, guys! I'm leaving and starting a new life. And it's like Masha said, "But I just got used to you!" It's both sad and exciting at the same time. I think I will just with the flow. I was listening to a sermon today on Luke, I think chapter 12, a passage that warns us to be ready when Jesus comes and not to cling to things. I'm glad that everything that really matters will be restored to us one day when Jesus comes. Until then we live as if waiting for a "heavenly city, one that is to come."

This afternoon it has been raining deliciously. I love rain, and it doesn't seem to rain in Rzhishchiv very much. There was distant thunder, but the rain was soft and gray, and between dishes and housework I snatched a moment to curl up on the Crowes' wide windowsill. I sat there, feeling the breeze in the window and just drinking in the smell of the rain and dust meeting, and hearing the gentle pattering, and watching the drops form pools and rivulets in the leaves of the grape vines beside the house. Mmm. My very soul was refreshed :)

God is such a good father, such a good friend. It's been so long since I really felt "in love" with Him, and I miss that. We have been on good terms, and I know I am growing in Him, but I miss those foolish, happy feelings of "wasting" time in His presence and liking it. But for a few brief moments, in the windowsill, my heart remembered what only my head could recall before, and I could feel Him as a blind person feels the face of an old friend and finds familar, beloved lines.

I want more of this.

Our visitors will be here any minute now, so I will go...

Blood but (thankfully) No Guts

We did it!

Bruce and Deb just got back from their trip and I'm happy to report that we at home all survived, and what's more, have full use of our faculties to tell about. I would venture to say that we are all happy, even. Who needs extreme sports? I'm into Extreme Babysitting.

Today there was more blood and gore than usual. It started when Noah came wailing into the house with blood smeared over his bare tummy and mouth and dripping from his fingers. Naturally I was a little alarmed, but instinctively felt that it wasn't as bad as it looked. All that blood came from two small cuts on his fingers where he had picked up a piece of glass outside. Definitely sad for him, but no severed arteries! I cleaned him up and gave him candy to try and quell the anguished cries. We didn't have any small bandaids, so I tried bandaging the little injured fingers with paper towels and tape. Poor little guy. It worked ok for a while, but he got upset eventually and ended up having an early nap. Which was not the end of the world.

Twice during the day I had a thorn in the flesh interrupting my housecleaning when my nose started streaming blood. Nosebleeds are very rare for me, so I felt a little freaked out laying flat on my back with toilet paper stuffed in my nose and blood draining down my throat. While making supper I stuck wadded kleenex up my nose to prevent further deluges, which was entertaining for the kids at least. "What is that thing in your nose, Cass?" I couldn't keep a straight face when they looked at me.

In the afternoon we had a casualty of war when Tucker got beaned in the nose/forehead with a grenade, er, metal spray can during a battle outside. It was a large one, and it left a nice bruise and some scratches on poor Tuck's head. I gave him a plastic baggy of ice to put on it, and I think he recovered pretty quickly, because next time I saw him he was contorting his mouth around the corner of the bag trying to slurp ice water out of the tiny hole he had made.

Those were the sum of our crises for the day. I am tired but marvelling at the energy God supplied this week. I really enjoyed the kids. We had our moments of course, but hopefully we made some memories to treasure before I leave in two weeks' time. I can't believe these little sprouts will all grow up into men and women (woman, I should say). That will be something to see.

I Want Some Too

This morning around breakfast time:

Clark: *Babbling* "I didn't make any sense."

Me: "No, you didn't."

Clark: "Well, if some people make some sense, they can give it to me."

Now we're talkin'!

The Crowes' Nest

Yesterday Bruce and Deb left for London/then Ireland and the kids and I are here for the week. "A whole week with no PARENTS!!!" Bronwyn chortled gleefully, to which I said, "Sounds like a Disney movie," and Deb replied, "Scary!"

Nothing Disney about this actually. Chores, chores, chores. Scrub the floors with toothbrushes! I want those tiles clean enough to eat from! (Not that they don't already...)

No nothing like that, either. They have just enough chores to keep them out of trouble, and just enough free time to have some fun. We will make ant farms with all the ants scurrying about the house (as Rodge said, "We already live in an ant farm.") And we'll make homeade ice cream (or try again anyway.) Tomorrow night will be pizza-movie-night.

The kids like to sleep in the basement, since there is no air con. in the house and it's much cooler there, so this morning, because it was completely dark, the five older ones didn't get up till 8:30 or so. Even Noah, who was upstairs like I was, slept till 8. Surprise! I wonder if luck will hold out for another 12 hour night...

I love these kids and I'm so glad to be with them. (Ask me about this again next Tuesday) Parties are fun, beaches are good, conferences are nice now and then, and camps and classrooms are great too, but what I love best (closely seconded by car and plane trips) is a happy home. The family unit is a most fascinating creation.

Here's what the little birdies have been up to:

Noah is still potty training, so basically he spends his waking hours in a rather messy cycle of drinking and peeing, sometimes on the toilet and sometimes not. He does a good job of alerting us when he needs to go, but unfortunately he has some tummy trouble at the moment, so there have been as many as five or six underwear changes in an hour...

The lifesaver for me is that Broderic and Bronwyn are getting paid (by their ingenius parents) for every time they take Noah potty, which cuts my job in half, and has them jumping at every chance and practically begging Noah to go.

Clark has reconciled himself to having me in the house. A few days ago he told me, in some little mood that took him, "I don't want you in this house, Cass!" He got in trouble with his dad, and since then he has been really angelic. Every few hours he reminds me of his repentance and his changed life. "I really like you in this house, Cass. I do." And more often, "I very love you, Cass, I very love you."

Tucker only has six more lessons left in "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," which I've been going through with him. He's getting so fast and so good, and he claims he wants to finish before his parents get home. I reminded him that this will take extra work, and his eyes got big and he nodded his eagerly and assured me that he still wanted to do it.

Last night Brent came in with an interesting contraption, composed of wood pieces nailed together and a stick with about ten rubber bands wrapped around it. It's an airplane, and he's trying to get it to wind up and fly over the house. Someday that kid will invent something great.

Bronny has been a right-hand helper. She keeps the other kids in line :)

Rodge and I are reading "The Giver" by Lois Lowry in the afternoons. I read it for the first time a month or so ago after finding it in the Crowes' book shelf. I loved it and I think he is enjoying it too.

I wanted to write something more "inspired," but Noah is doing interesting things in his pants about every ten minutes, so things aren't exactly flowing. I mean, for him they are, but...

Get Off the Drug

I have concluded that chic flicks should be outlawed. They are detrimental to the mental and emotional health of females, (as well as physcial, as they provoke irrational consumption of chocolate.)

A chic flick is a narcotic that gives a high for approximately 1-2 hours and then drops the user with a sickening thud into reality where real guys don't kiss girls the first time they meet them and romance take months and years, not minutes and hours, to develop. Those most susceptible to this drug are females between the tender ages of 12-24. Its effects include abundant sighing, an apathetic attitude towards life, antagonism and resentment towards well-meaning males, bouts of moaning and weeping, and a curious attraction to chocolate.

I've decided to get off this drug. I will stick to fairytales. In fairytales, damsels cheerfully clean houses for incorrigble dwarves. They wait, shut up in high towers for undetermined amounts of time. They sometimes fall into a coma for years on end. There is a lot of encouragement in that. There must, after all, be some hope for the rest of us.

Also, fairytale princes are chivalrous, and they never expect vulnerable maidens to compromise their honor. Nay, good folk, they are sworn to protect a lady's honor at all costs. Not so in Hollywood.

I will go home and find my Jane Austen and The Princess and the Pea. Not to mention the Bible, that great True tale of chivalry, justice, and undying passion from which all beautiful fiction is derived.