Last Sunday was Alvin's birthday and we celebrated after the worship service at the Eden House. Everyone pitched in and brought something "snacky" to enjoy; I made a 9" x 13" double layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting (straight out of America from boxes and tubs) and brought a delicious red punch, served out of my punch bowl with punch cups. I have all this "stuff" from America and don't get enough opportunities to use it, so I'm looking for "special events"! Because it was the last Sunday of the month, we all stayed to play games and fellowship with one another.
On Monday, I was able to "help" start a ladies group for Hungarian women that speak English. We will meet about once a month at the local Christian school in the afternoon while the children are still in school. A friend of mine, Karen, really started the group but I asked if I could "help" by bringing refreshments and joining in. It is an opportunity for the ladies to get to know one another, and they made Valentine's Day cards for their children as a craft. Valentine's Day is not really celebrated in Hungary, but little by little we see it creeping into their marketing ploys. Of course, the real purpose for me being there is to develop relationships with the ladies in hopes of being able to share Christ with them. Fewer than half of the 15 ladies are believers so there will opportunities to talk to them about Christ.
During the month of January, Glenn and I are having member care visits with each of the families that live here in Budapest and elsewhere in Hungary. This week when we had one of the families over for a meal, in true Hungarian culture, they brought me some Tulips in a planter. (I already have enough bottles of wine (unopened, of course) and chocolate candies (well, never likely to have too much chocolate!) so the plant was perfect! It brings me great hope that spring is right around the corner!!!
On Thursday, Glenn and I had to go to the Belarus Embassy to pick up our passports with our Belarus visa for our trip there next week. While in town, we picked up a prescription at First Med Centers (and went to the pharmacy to fill it) for one of our families that lives in Ukraine that we will see in conjunction with our trip to Belarus. And then ... we met up with one of our families to take them out for a meal while we had our member care visit with them. Busy, busy day! This is just one of the many beautiful buildings in downtown Budapest!
It is very cold this week with temperatures down in the 20's so the homeless have moved into the subway tunnels. Unfortunately, the tunnels are not very warm so it's got to be pretty miserable for them! Homelessness is a very big problem here in Hungary and it breaks my heart to see so many of them suffering through the cold winter!
We ate our member care meal in a restaurant at Corvin Mall that the couple we were visiting with suggested. The mall has a Mueller store which is German and they have a little bit of everything. Truly, a little bit of everything! I've been to one other Mueller store out by the Liszt Ference Airport (previously named Ferihegy Airport) and really liked it, so I took advantage of being at this mall and this store to do a little browsing. Guess what I found?!? Sour Sticks! (Brause-Stabchen)
This is that wonderful candy that I enjoyed as a child when I lived in Germany (that I've posted about on one or two other occasions). I can't believe they sell it here in Budapest!!!!! I've looked for it all over Europe; no joke! In every country we've visited, I've gone into grocery stores specifically to see if they had any Sour Sticks! Okay, Karin, Elizabeth and Kari, let me know how many boxes you want! I can go get more! (Glenn likes them too, so I bought him a box of the sour hearts for Valentine's Day. I'm the last of the big spenders.)
I FINALLY finished the guest room, well, that is unless Glenn comes up with any more "projects" for me to do in there. Just as I was hanging the curtains, he suggested that I make matching curtains to hang over the amber colored glass in the door to the bedroom to give our guests more privacy (and darkness during the summer months when the sun rises at 4:15 am! (If you've ever visited Budapest, you will notice that the Hungarians love their amber colored glass; it's found on balconies and in door windows everywhere!) Anyway, while I was making matching curtains (complete with the coordinating valence, as over the bedroom window), Glenn fixed the door so that it would stay closed. He did this just for Jonathan, our son-in-law. (Ok, Jonathan, you can come visit us again. We got your door fixed.)
Friday night we had another family over for their member care visit/dinner and I kept looking out the window for the snow that was supposed to arrive. All week we kept hearing reports of a blizzard that was supposed to come over the weekend so we stocked up on fruits and veggies and more "projects" materials in case we got snowed in.
Well, the snow finally started falling sometime in the wee hours of Saturday morning and it snowed until Sunday afternoon. Glenn and I have had fun working on several projects around the house, and doing some baking/cooking. Glenn made a gallon of salsa and some homemade soup and I made whole wheat bread.
The bread turned out perfectly. I would like to get where I know what the dough is supposed to feel like when it has been kneaded the appropriate amount of time, but I'm just afraid I would gain 10 pounds eating all this good bread!
While I was warm and inside the house making bread, Glenn was outside sweeping/shoveling off the walkway in front of our house. (While I'm inside "tasting" the bread, Glenn is outside exercising!)
While the bread was cooling, I remembered snow ice cream so I ran outside and got myself about a quart of fresh snow ...
... and mixed it with some vanilla, powdered sugar and milk to make about 2 cups of snow ice cream! Yum! No wonder I have trouble with my weight in the winter months! So many good comfort foods to enjoy!!
Anyway, the snow has stopped for the moment but hopefully we will get some more, as predicted, on Monday and Tuesday. Now, if it could just warm up "a little", enough that I could bare to go walking outside to enjoy the fresh whiteness everywhere!!!
Have a good week!
1 comment:
Did you use the vital gluten? Your bread looks perfect!
Even though it's cool here, it's hard for me to think of it being SO cold there right now. Brrr...
I can't believe they have sour sticks now! Do you think they read your blog and decided to import them for you? ;)
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