No funerals, no vomit hands

We got a chance to spend the weekend together. No funerals.

Our weekend always starts the same with a drive from the city to the village. Occasionally we spot a deer or fox or wild pig on the way, but this weekend we spotted something much less rare - the overturned bike. When we spot a bike overturned on a dark and winding road, we of course stop to look for its owner. That's our do-goodery policy. This time it really looked like someone might have been hit by a car based on the position of the bike. Fortunately it turned out to be another case of falling drunk into a ditch. Based on previous experience with vomit hands, we decided not to make physical contact with that fellow. We called in backup from the nearby shop - some strong, young men who recognized our description of the poor fellow. He was dragged out of the ditch and returned home safely. It happens so often that I don't much feel like patting myself on the back anymore.

Saturday we went to a new, little juice bar called Malinea where we drank yummy fruit shakes and received a little present of fruit preserves. The kids had waffles with whipped cream - homemade whipped cream, not from the spray can.

I also made a practice cake for Lizzie's birthday party. She asked for a SpongeBob cake, and I wasn't sure if I could make something that resembled SpongeBob. This is my first attempt. Hopefully, it'll come out a little better on party day.

Here's my first attempt at rainbow gellies. Rosie's birthday has passed, but her party is next weekend. We've got one little Celiac guest, and I wanted to make something special just for her to eat. I hope she likes gellies.

The rest of the weekend I spent doing a boring translation about chemicals. I've still got 5 pages to go. It's so hard to sit at the computer when the sun is shining. I think I'll eat the last of the gellies.

A secular Easter czyli Wielkanoc bez Jezusa

a lovely grave candle for Easter

Our Easter started Friday, Good Friday that is. Good or not, Misiu was out of town on his weekly biznes trip.I absolutely had to go to one company and while I did, the girls' favorite Ciocia came to stay with them. Why is she their favorite you ask? I asked the same thing. The answer, "Because you can sit on her, Mommy". And she was being sat on when I returned.

My first lesson is pretty far away but, thank goodness, it can be reached by one bus. The bus is usually pretty crowded with school kids and people going to work, so I hoped that the bus would be less crowded considering school was out and many people took a day off for Easter. The way there was easy peasy. The way back, however, was not. I should mention that the bus passes one of the major cemeteries of the city. The cemetery itself looked beautiful. I'm not a fan of plastic flowers, but from the street the cemetery looked like a happy and cheerful place. And the market around the cemetery was rockin', selling beautiful wreaths and huge ornamental candles. As you can imagine the bus on the way back was packed, completely packed with older people.

I usually stand on the bus, so I didn't really care about there not being seats. And there weren't. Any seats. That's not good on a bus full of older people who haven't eaten (Good Friday fast). The old folks had started a kind of casting of who was worse off and most deserving of a seat. As I was 30 or even 40 years younger than most of the other passengers, I didn't participate in the casting. That didn't stop one lady from placing the blame for the lack of seats on me. I explained to her kindly that I couldn't give up my seat any more than I already had as I had not even sat down and was already standing, but that did not seem to satisfy her. It seemed that I was taking up too much space for her liking. Happy Easter!

The real follies began when passengers tried to get off the bus. When one person stood from a seat, all the other folks jockeyed for the seat without a care to the fact that they were blocking the aisle or even the door for exiting passengers. Then the pojedynek began. Nobody can fight like two old people. "Ladies, you are blocking the door! Nobody can get off!", said one old man. And the ladies to that, "You shouldn't wait to the last minute to get off the bus!" The shame. What would Jesus think?

On the way back home, I stopped at the butcher's which looked like a shop in deep PRL. Nothing. So I bought nothing. At home we spent the rest of the day making pickled eggs and czwikła and packing for the weekend. Misiu came home and we were off.

Saturday morning we finished our shopping in the village. The shops were calm and orderly and the butcher was fully stocked. What a relief. After that we took a stroll around the village. We enjoyed a nice pit stop at the local bakery where all hell was breaking loose as people scrambled to buy the last loaves of bread. I sat back enjoying my latte and keeping a watch out the window for people coming to church with their baskets. After that we came back home to cook, decorate eggs and enjoy our time together.

Mazurek made easy

Did you know that Pan Jezus użył? That's what Rosie told us one day after preschool last week. It was so sweet that I didn't have the heart to tell her that it should be ożył. Anyhow, I didn't have to. Lizzie wkroczyła do akcji. "Pan Jezus nie ożył tak naprawdę. Jest tylko bajka".

I już po tłumaczenie.

So how do you celebrate Easter without Jesus? The same as we always do. Well, not exactly the same because of the weather, but more or less the same. We treat Easter as a celebration of spring. We usually spend a lot of time outside and weather permitting we plant a few things in the garden. Well except for this year because of the snow. It snowed a foot on Easter Sunday. We cook a lot of eggs and cakes and decorate the house for spring. Sometimes we even clean the windows ;) Most importantly we spend time together.

our Easter eggs - Sesame Street and Spiderman

This Easter was the Easter of wildlife. Because of the snow animals are coming closer to homes to find something to eat. We saw a lot of birds, deer and even had a close encounter with a wild boar. We don't know who was more surprised the boar or the humans, but I think it was the humans.

something like this

The Easter bunny visited us and she (me) had to wrap up warm to hide little presents in the garden. It just started to snow as we began our hunt and snowed for the next 7 hours. We stayed inside and ate, played, watched tv and read.

Oh and I almost forgot that Rosie turned 5. She couldn't quite understand how it was possible that Lizzie was born on Easter but now her birthday is on Easter, but after she got her cake she was happy enough.

it may not look so great but it tastes delicious

Happy Birthday my baby Rosie. May all your wishes come true!

Mr and Mrs Chick wishing you a Happy Easter!

That's another holiday that just flew right by. I guess that's how it is as you get older. In two weeks it'll be Lizzie's birthday and after that Majówka. Not long after that, the school year will be wrapping up. Where does all the time go?

We were planning to throw the girls a joint birthday party in the village during the long May weekend - a birthday party complete with a horse and carriage ride around the ponds. But....it snowed on Halloween, it snowed on Christmas, it snowed on Easter....could it snow on Majówka? It did a few years back. Hmmm, we may have to change our plans.

Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!!!

My birthday

My birthday is coming up. Ok, it’s in 2 months, but at my age that is just around the corner.
The girls asked me what kind of birthday cake I’m going to have and they don’t mean the flavor. They already know what kind of cakes they want and their birthdays are in April. Lizzie wants a Disney Cars party and Rosie wants a Princess party – so basically a repeat of her last party.
What kind of cake do I want?
It was so much easier as a kid. I could easily come up with a theme that defined me and if not defined me, at least pleased me. What cake design could do all that for me as an adult? I’m stumped. I better get thinking because not only is the cake for me but I will be the one making it.
Hmmm….

Happy Birthday Lizzie!

our little Spiderman and her spidery cake

Clean windows = Rain

Or at least it does for us. I cleaned and cleaned all our windows in preparation for Easter and for Rosie’s birthday party. Yes, I have bowed down to the Polish tradition. Immediately after finishing, it began to rain and has not really stopped since. Oh well. At least the party went well.

Happy 4th Birthday Rosie.

Happy Birthday, Dear Lizzie

Lizzie is 5 years old. I can’t believe it. It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital and she’s already 5.

Her party was a big success. She invited her “ekipa” (crew) from pre-school consisting of all boys and one girl (her besty). The party was super-hero themed with Spiderman decorations and a Batman cake (that I made myself…fishing for compliments…).

I wore a Super Mom t-shirt, well, because I AM a super mom. Lizzie’s besty’s parents even wore masks and capes. What an entrance they made.

There were a lot balloons, games, play dough, mess and tears from the guests when they had to go home. I guess that’s the sign of a good party. One kid threw a badminton racket out the window. Crazy…and that was without Piccolo (“champagne” for kids which we hate). Luckily, it got stuck on the roof and we were able to get it back in. Those pre-schoolers really know how to party.

Now, if I can just make it through Easter.

Happy Birthday, Dear Rosie

April is a month of birthdays for us. Last week was Rosie’s 3rd birthday. This week is my father-in-law’s 70th and next week is Lizzie’s 5th. With a niece’s and nephew’s birthday this month, that adds up to a lot of cake ;)

Rosie’s party went off without a hitch. Well, maybe one small hitch…she didn’t understand that the presents were for her. After the guests had gone, she asked why they hadn’t taken the toys with them. Sweet.

I am proud of the cake I made. It’s a ladybug, in case you are not sure. There are 3 layers of chocolate inside. Pycha!

Lizzie’s English group at Pre-school (yes, we send her to English lessons, it’s only 20 złoty a month) also celebrated some birthdays and the kids learned to sing “Happy Birthday”. Lizzie, however, had one small problem with “Happy Birthday” and quickly informed her teacher.

She said, “Teacher, it isn’t Misiu-day. It’s Birthday.”

Do you get it? I didn’t at first.

For those of you who don’t get it…

In Polish there isn’t the “th” sound like in the word “birth”. For people who have trouble with this sound, they replace it with “f” or “t” or sometimes “s” as one of my students famous for his “sank you”. In this case, Lizzie’s teacher replaces “th” with “s” making birthday into birsday which sounds like bearsday. Bear is misiu in Polish, hence my daughter’s conclusion that the teacher was talking about Misiu-day.

If you have an April birthday, Happy Misiu-day to you!

Easter: Rosie’s Birthday and Pickled Eggs

It’s Rosie’s 2nd birthday today. I can’t believe Rosie’s the same age that Lizzie was when we brought her home from the hospital. She still seems like such a baby, and Lizzie seemed liked such a big girl back then.

What to do for a child on her birthday when she’s on a restricted diet? A gelatin “cake”! 

Happy Birthday Rosie!Both girls loved it.

After the cake, we decided to crack open our first jar of pickled eggs. This year, we managed to wait 24 hours. Last year we couldn’t stand it and tried them on the first day. They turned out  great.

For me, it wouldn’t be Easter without pickled eggs and beet and horseradish relish.

One jar down, another one to go!

Pickled Eggs RECIPE

Ingredients

beets

1 cup white wine vinegar

1 ½ cups beet water

½ cup sugar (white or brown)

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf (liść laurowy)

1 teaspoon whole allspice (ziele angielskie)

1 teaspoon cloves (goździki)

½ teaspoon ginger (imbir)

½ teaspoon whole caraway seeds (kminek)

1 garlic clove – chopped or whole

hard-boiled eggs

jar

Directions

1. Boil eggs and remove shells. Set aside.

1. Clean and boil beets. Remove beets from water to cool and cut.

1. In the beet water (1-2 cups), mix garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt and spices. Bring to a boil.

1. In a large clean jar, layer eggs and beets and fill in with spiced beet water. Close jar tightly and briefly turn upside down. Keep in refrigerator.

1. Wait at least 12 hours before serving.

We also made…

Horseradish Sauce - Sos Chrzanowy

grated horseradish

mayo

pepper

a little milk/cream

and…

Beet and Horseradish Relish-  Ćwikła

grated cooked beets

a few spoons of grated horseradish

a teaspoon of vinegar

a teaspoon of sugar

a pinch of salt

a bit of cumin

and...

Vegetable Salad - Sałatka Jarzynowa

Cook and cube potatoes, carrots and celeriac (celery root). Also cube pickles and hard boiled eggs and add peas, corn and (optional) chopped onion. Mix with mayo and season to taste (pepper, parsley, dill).

Yum!

Two Birthdays and an Easter

We’ve got 2 birthdays and Easter coming up and a kid on a no-milk, no-wheat, no-eggs elimination diet. What about the birthday cake?!?

Not only do I not know what to do about the cake, I also don’t know what to do about the gifts. It’s not like Rosie has a list of presents that she wants to receive. Anyhow, she and her sister are not lacking for toys and books. It’s just that I know Rosie’s old enough to remember this birthday. I know because Lizzie remembers her 2nd birthday party and talks about it sometimes, comparing her 2nd b-party to her 3rd b-day party -which party was better, who the guests were, which party had more balloons. I can’t gyp Rosie out of her birthday just because it falls near Easter, because she is allergic to everything, because she doesn’t need anything, and because she is probably too little to figure it out. Can I?

Lizzie on the other hand has a list of presents long enough for the 2 of them. On the top of her list is a big-kid bike. And it has to be pink. Next, she wants a dollhouse, the big wooden kind with lots of little pieces. She has also expressed interest in a bucket of dinosaurs which I think she has seen on TV recently. Her latest request is for a Robur. Yes, a Robur. If you don’t know what a Robur is, it is a bus produced in the former East Germany. If you are wondering how Lizzie knows about it, it is because someone in our neighborhood has one. Unfortunately, that someone isn’t us.

Our neighborhood’s Robur

And why does she want a Robur for her birthday? That was my exact question, too.

Here’s the Robur that Lizzie wants.

It’s the Peppa Pig Robur not the East German one ;) Quite nice, actually.

Happy (almost) Birthday to my baby girls!

Wyątkowy dzień!

Here’s a postcard recently received by my Misiu, holder of an Orsay Club Card.

Wjątkowy dzień!

Witaj Misiu,

Czas spełnić marzenia. Odkryj siebie na nowo robiąc zakupy z Twoim osobistym bonem urodzinowym

20 PLN + 200 DODATKOWYCH PUNKTÓW

i przeżyj niezapomniane chwile myśląc “Thank God I’m a woman”.

Życzymy miłych urodzinowych zakupów

Zespół KLUBU ORSAY

Dear Misiu,

It is a special day!

It is time to fulfill dreams. Discover yourself anew doing shopping with your own personal birthday bonus

20 PLN + 200 EXTRA POINTS

and experience an unforgettable moment thinking “Thank God I’m a woman”.

We wish you a pleasant birthday shopping!

The Orsay Club Team

Who knew?

Happy Birthday Misiu!

It’s my Misiu’s birthday, a big round one. Some people might be affected by that nice round number, but not my Misiu. So what, he’s 40. He’s 40 with a smoking hot wife (hee, hee) and two of the most adorable children you will ever see. Without all that, he would just be 40.

At university I had a classmate, David, who was also about 40. I was 18 at the time, so I thought he was like ancient and didn’t even think about how hard it must have been for him to start his undergrad degree at that age. I mean I had an inkling because I had sat near him during the mathematics placement test. I had just taken Advanced Calculus 2 months earlier in high school, so I sailed through the test. I could see that he was struggling, but that’s to be expected for someone entering college at such an advanced age ;)

When asked by a professor why he had decided to get his degree at that age, someone from the class chuckled, “You’ll be a 40 year-old-college graduate.” David responded, “I’ll be 40 years old anyway and better to be a 40 year-old college graduate than not.” That was a pretty good explanation, don’t you think? He went on to explain that the final decision had come on the urging of his children all of who had finished university and were out of the house. Smart kids!

Misiu, życzymy Ci sto lat

Kochamy cię bardzo!

-Twoje dziewczyny

One of those mothers

I’m turning into one of those mothers. You know the kind. The one that makes homemade soup, homemade Halloween costumes, homemade birthday cakes, homemade holiday decorations. That’s me. Who woulda thunk it?

Wrapped gift for a birthday party and the birthday girl opening it.

Salt dough decorations made at the request of Lizzie’s Pre-school teacher

The amazing things you can make with toilet paper rolls

Our door decorated with Lizzie Claus, Rosie the red-nosed Reindeer and a hand wreath

Please tell me I’m not the only one!

Sto lat, sto lat

My birthday is coming up. I had forgotten all about it because I have a lot on my plate right now. Also, for most of the year while at doctor’s visits or any other place where it is necessary to state your age, I am already 36. I count my age to the day. That means that the day before my birthday I am 35 and on my birthday I am 36. In Poland, people often count their age by the calendar year. So in Poland, I’m somehow 36 all year, subtracting the year of my birth from the calendar year. I like my method better.

I was reminded that my birthday is coming up by the two people who never forget - my parents. I think my parents alone are keeping the Hallmark card industry afloat. For every occasion, special or not, we get a card (a real card, I mean a paper one, not an electronic one) in the mail. We get birthday cards, Halloween cards, Christmas cards, Valentine’s Day cards, Easter cards, Independence Day cards and also the “just because we love you” cards. Misiu was amused by the cards that my parents started to send after we got married. The titles changed from “To our beloved daughter” to “To our beloved daughter and son-in-law”. Now that we have children, they each get their own cards too which is a cool thing for my parents to do because kids love to get their own mail.

My parents send pretty emotionally deep cards, none of the jokey, funny ones except maybe on Halloween. Actually, I should say that my father sends them because I know that he is the one who goes to the store and pores over the cards until he finds the one that is just right. One time he even sent me the same birthday card two years in a row. I won’t bore you with the whole text from this year’s b-day card, but it is a real tear-jerker. This from the man who never says “I love you” but instead “we love you”. This from the man who has never asked me how I was not even when I was pregnant or after I came home from the hospital. Sometimes, I wonder if my father actually reads the cards and if the sentiment is sincere. I mean they are deep and kind of mushy. Is that what he is really trying to tell me or did he just pick up the first pink/daughter/ birthday card he could find at the store. I would say yes, but I observed my father picking out a card for my mother once. I think he read about 20 before he decided on the one that he wanted, the sappiest, sweetest, mushiest card that Hallmark makes. It’s his way of letting us know how he feels, I guess.

I suppose that when I was little my parents hugged and kissed me and told me that they loved me. I can only suppose because I cannot remember ever having been hugged or kissed by them as a child or being told that I was loved. As a teen and a young adult, I carried a lot of resentment over that fact especially when one of my friends spent the night at my house and called her mother to say goodnight and ended the call with “I love you, too”. Whoa, other people’s parents really do tell their kids that they love them, not just the families on TV.

Even after growing up and moving to Poland, I still harbored a deep anger over the lack of “I love you’s” in our relationship. Until one day, when I decided to look at it from my parents’ point of view. Maybe they just got out of the habit of hugging and kissing me and my sister. I know from experience that to get a hug and kiss out of Lizzie I almost have to pay her for it. Then maybe later when they wanted to hug and kiss us and tell us that they loved us, they felt uncomfortable even attempting it after such a long time. Maybe they were afraid of my and my sister’s reaction, afraid that we would reject them. I mean that has to be the explanation. The only other explanation would be that they don’t love us and I know that is just not possible.

I devised a plan to get my parents to tell me that they loved me. My ingenuous plan: I would say it first. What’s the worst thing that could happen? They wouldn’t say it back? And so what? They already didn’t tell me so what difference would it make? I did it. I told them on the phone (I didn’t really have a choice about that with the different country thing and all) at the end of the conversation after the “I’ll talk to you later” and before the “good-bye”. There was a short pause as I waited to hear something from them (my parents talk to me together, at the same time on different phones in different rooms) For a second, I thought that either they hadn’t heard me or that they had dropped dead from shock. In unison, they responded. My mother with “I love you, too” and my father with “we love you”, his now standard response.

The real test came the next time I visited my parents in the US. As my sister and I headed out the door to hit the mall, I shot my parents a quick “See you later. I love you. Bye” to which they responded “Love you, too. Bye”. Ok, it could have been construed as “Love you (both), too. Bye.” but my sister didn’t see it that way and complained all the way to the mall about how my parents were the worst parents in the world because they never told her that they loved her. My suggestion to try out my method and tell them first didn’t sink in. My analysis that her new swimming pool and deck paid for by my parents qualified them as some of the best parents in the world and that it is their way of saying that they loved her also didn’t sink it. My sister is a pretty scary force to be reckoned with and I suggested that our parents might be afraid to tell her and that didn’t sink in either. So that’s where we left it. I get the sappy cards and the I love you’s and my sister gets the new cars and the swimming pools. Kind of sad, isn’t it?

PS Misiu’s parents never told him that they love him either. Misiu says that despite that fact he is sure that they love him. While there are no new cars or swimming pools given to him by his parents, there are a lot of pierogi and cheesecakes waiting for us whenever we visit . What says “I love you” more that homemade pierogi and cheesecake?

How do you tell your parents that you love them?