A Little Quilt

I wrote this yesterday, but because of internet problems couldn't post until today.

Funny, I'm trying to upload some pics of the little quilt I made last night, but our internet is acting up. Hopefully I'll be able to post this.
Lilia, our key Russian editor is pregnant and due one month form today. Her husband, Vasia, also works with us. I wanted to throw a mini baby shower for them. Baby showers aren't really something that is done here. Normally you take a gift after the baby is born--probably because of higher infant mortality rates (esp. in the past) and superstitions that eventually got built off of that (like, it's bad luck to give a gift before the baby is actually born). But since we are all Christians, we are free from that and I just wanted 5to honor this couple who are serving with us. So we had a little "party". It consisted of giving a couple of gifts and praying for Vasia and Lilia and having some cupcakes that I had made.
For the gifts I made a little quilt/baby blanket and the rest o the office got together and bought some sheets and a towel and some toys for the baby. (Since I'm the "boss" it's expected that I would do a little more, which is why I did a separate gift, besides the fact that I enjoy sewing)
I don't have access to all the materials here that you have in the West, but i went to a couple of shops and found some flannel and lined coat/blanket material that I thought I could work with. I cut it and prepared it for quilting, but I was having trouble deciding how I should quilt it. And of course, I've been sick a lot the last couple of weeks so I didn't have much energy for it either. Thankfully, I found a quilting motif that I likie dand was able to adjust to suit my needs, then last night I just made myself sit down and throw it all together! It took about four hours to pint it, do all the quilting and bind it, which I figure isn't too bad. I just did a simple meandering quilting pattern, but "hid" little pictures in it: a boat, sheep, teddy bear, bottle, duckie, etc. I think it turned out fairly well. I'm hoping to make a similar one for another friend of mine that is expecting soon.

I also made these cupcakes: Chocolate with cream cheese inside and poppy seed with lemon icing. As you can see, I tried to pipe babies on top, but they look more like pupas. :D

Another New Week!

I see last week just slipped by without my posting on here again. Basically, I was sick all last week. Frustrating to say the least. It started out with the whole pinched nerve thing and then ended up with cold just when my back was beginning to feel better. I'm still working on getting over that, but thankfully my back is doing much better, although I'll need to be careful to take care of it for a while.
Even though I was sick all last week, which was very frustrating and somewhat stressful as I lag behind in my work (which will catch up to me in about a month when the rest of the office runs out of work because of it!), I did notice that overall I am still much healthier and have a little bit more energy than in the past. I guess that means that while I still have a lot of ups and downs health wise, my lows aren't quite so low, which is encouraging.

Please do pray for me this week that I'd be able to catch up on some of my course work. My course work is what I really feel my "job" is, but in reality there is much more to it than that. I need to answer other people's questions, and supervise them and write newsletters and keep up with email and my blog and financial reports and mission reports (x2 since I am with both a Canadian mission and a US one) and office evaluations and planning for future work, etc. I have a tendency to write all those things off as not "work" which makes me feel like I am often not getting very much done when in reality it is a lot of daily stuff that can never be marked off my list. Right now I do really need to get some course work done though, so please pray that I will be able to do so.

A New Week

I'm back from the missionary women's conference that I was at with my mum and sister and some friends over the weekend. It was a nice time; refreshing to see people I hadn't seen for a while and meet some other missionaries that I didn't know lived in Rivne. It's always good to make new contacts.
On the way back we passed several car accidents, one involving a marshrutka (van-bus--used for public transport, I was riding in one from Kyiv to Rivne) and a pedestrian. Definitely a fatality there. No ambulance in site, just a body in the middle of the road and police talking to some people in a group nearby. Another wreath will go up on that road. Safety on the roads is such an issue here. Probably the pedestrian was drunk. Please continue to pray for travel mercies for us--mum as she comes back today and dad as he flies to the States today.

I pinched a nerve in my back last week. I was hoping it would go away by itself, but it didn't so I have had to go to the chiropractor every day this week. We have a good chiropractor here, but because of the situations and customs here I always feel a little vulnerable, so please pray that it heals up quickly and I can stop going.
I'm beginning to wonder if I just have loose joints. Not severely, but enough to cause all these problems. I often have pain in my hips and shoulders, fingers and toes, besides my back and neck. It is entirely possible that it could be allergy related. I started taking probiotics this summer, due to my sister-in-law, and I have to say that I am doing MUCH better! I have less pain and more energy--even when I feel sick. The energy is a huge thing for me, I see parts of my personality returning that I haven't seen for ten years. Whether that is good or bad... :P But beyond that I used to have a lot of pain in my hands particularly when the weather changed and for the past three months I haven't hardly had any. I'm hoping it continues through winter, although I did notice today that I had a little more pain again. But we'll see, it may just be because my body is out of whack because of my back.

Anyway, those are just a few prayer items and praises. Please do continue to pray as I often notice that when I ask for prayer that I do have less pain, headaches or other problems--like with my eyes hurting, last year it lasted for several weeks, this time it was only a few days. So your prayers do make a difference.