Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Winter Practice: Part 2, lessons learned


First of all, before I bare my soul on this whole wintry weather freak of nature we just endured, let us take a moment and remind ourselves where I am from, shall we?

Here:


Not here:




Here:



Not here:

Outside our bedroom. October 28, 2012
In Texas, in the winter, do you know what my kids wear on their feet? Crocs. With socks. That's it. They haven't owned any shoes other than Crocs for the last 5 years. (I'm not joking in the least, other than Church shoes, they only own Crocs. None of them can tie shoelaces, and I don't intend to teach them any time soon... yay homeschooling!)

Do you know why? 2 reasons. 1) they are expensive so I make them work hard, those shoes. 2) They don't need anything else. 

They don't need shoes to keep out the rain and cold in Texas because it never rains, and it's never cold. At least that's what it seems like now that we live here where there are all kinds of weather phenomenae that I forgot existed, namely rain and snow.

 I don't even know where their Crocs are at the moment. They are dead to me now.


10 Reasons why God knew we needed a practice winter (crazy storm that dumped snow on all of Europe, in October). In descending order...

#10. Birkenstocks - no matter how trendy they were in the grundgy 90's or how much I love my very own pair - are not winter shoes. Plain and simple. I strongly dislike shoe shopping, hate it in fact, with the burning passion of 500 suns. I'm gonna see how long I can go in my Converse. I mean, at least they have a back on them.
This is for my mom. I know how much she misses seeing these lovely shoes on my  feet... every. single. day.

#9. Did you know that regular clothes get wet really quickly? I did. But I forgot.  And did you know that they are really cold once they're wet? I did. But I forgot. New impermeable coats for everyone! And impermeable pants for the kids! And impermeable shoes for Martin and me!  And more sweatshirts for playing and layering, and more socks, and more, and more, and more everything! Ahhhhhh, consuming...

All of this is completely necessary to house all the clothing that is needed for a family of six  to weather the winter.  These bins have the scarves, hats, gloves, etc. The radiator to the right will have hooks above it for quick hanging and drying. Organization is... and that is what I want.


#8 Do you know how hard it is to get kids' hands into gloves?  Little hands, like the size of a small dog's, or perhaps a raccoon's, that sort of size? It's hard, really hard. It makes little beads of sweat pop out on your forehead and you start sounding like the dad in "The Christmas Story" as he attempts to fix the furnace.  I will be knitting only mittens for the foreseeable future. I strongly dislike knitting two of anything in a row. BO- ring. But they're super cute once they're done.



#7 Do you know how long a single snowman will last outside, even after all the snow around him has melted? Going on three days strong... losing one eyeball at a time... and really creeping me out.




#6 Hats. Everyone has to have a hat. Even me. I don't particularly like hats, but I do particularly like my ears, so to keep them in place I will submit to the hat. I'm making this one for myself. That's obviously not me in that photo. That woman is happy to be wearing that hat....and looking rather suggestively at our snowman...

April's Castiel Hat by Wooly Wormhead


#5 Radiators are my new best friend. I will never again knock the "radiators of death." True, we have already had our fair share of injuries due to these suckers but they can dry out anything you hang on them in less than 2 hours. Anything. It's worth a few scar stories, I'd say.

Photo courtesy of Adelina.


#4  When you drive a car on snow without snow chains, or even winter tires, your car will start to slide down the hill. 'nuff said.

#3  Unless instructed, children will eat snow off of anything. Anything. Banisters of public buildings,  piles on the roadside, car bumpers. Kids are just disgusting like that.

#2 All you need to know how to cook all winter is soup. Lots and lots of soup. So far I have mastered a couple good ones, and that is something, as we all know how terrified I am of soup.

I make this every other day.
#1 You must always have hot chocolate after a day playing in the snow. There is no other appropriate drink. (Except for maybe a Dr. Pepper.)


2 left from my birthday 6 pack. 2?! That is showing some real restraint,  people. 


P.S. I obviously need a lot more practice when it comes to sledding. Seeing as how I threw up my hands in fear as I began to plow into my first-born, rather than try to protect his small 6 year old body.

 I'm only one woman.






Sunday, October 28, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Fireside.

This weekend is supposed to be "doing-something-with-the-apples" weekend. Which means no traveling, no shopping for anything, and no lazing about. We are supposed to be outside in the near freezing temperatures, collecting bushels of apples. Unfortunately the weather...



... had other ideas. And our apple picking friends, family, cousins, and neighbors, are all huddled inside around their fires, waiting out the cold and the rain. And so are we...


  I can almost feel the heat from the computer adapter all the way across the room.



Thursday, October 18, 2012

Building a House in Poland, Step 1: Buying land

Done!

Closed and signed all the papers on Tuesday, October 16th. My 32nd birthday.

Tuesday, the only rainy and cold day all week. But we had to go and take pictures because it was finally, officially, ours!


And today, no rain, clear and sunny, and SO warm. Shorts and t-shirt weather, no joke.

It's not too clear in this picture but you can see the Tatry right in the center, spiking up. Love.


There they are!  (also, just to clarify, that is not haze. That is the moisture evaporating off the forest and creating a mist just above the tree tops. It was a warm day!)




Martin climbing to get a better view.

My first bouquet of wildflowers.

And our first wild, edible, mushrooms.


And the bells of the Church, within walking distance, tolling the Angelus... 



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Monday, October 8, 2012

A family of farmers.

First of all I must thank you all for your responses to my last post about locating Card stock. I found it. Or rather I found something that was like it but even better, as well as some notebooks I had been needing and a few other paper related products. I found them at the "paper store."

Papirus.  A place full school supplies, the fun ones like all kinds of paints and all kinds of paper, and glitter (is that really a school supply?), and glue, etc. and none of the boring stuff like protractors, which we all used twice and then turned into some sort of weapon.

I still wish they had all of these wonderful things in many different price ranges in one place. I do, because this makes things easier. I could pretend that I think it's romantic to open up all these large doors and find a quaint little shop on the other side. Maybe it would be if I didn't have four kids in tow that somehow, by the time we get out the the door, all have to go to the bathroom while being ravenously starving and in need of naps. I choose the kids over the romantic paper stores. Luckily this store is run by the nicest lady and her daughter, the owner is well over 35 and yet still quite amiable and chipper and her daughter is equally as obliging. Lovely ladies, just down the street from my favorite Starocie and next door to....

....a huge book store that sells everything you could possibly need for homeschooling! It was great. We bought the paper and  a couple other little notebooks from Papirus, hopped next door and bought Hejjo his "Klasa 1" complete set and headed home. These stores are all set quite conveniently in Plac Centralny/Reagan Square in the heart of Nowa Huta, which is also a plus because I love that area. All birds, one stone.

In short: found what I needed, discovered some new shops and toured a little of Nowa Huta. A good time was had.

Now, on to the farming part of this post.

This past Sunday we decided to visit Martin's family. The farming side. Well, they're not all farmers. But they come from a farming background. A couple of his uncles are still farming, one of them is indeed a full fledged farmer who subsistence farms, as well as sells his goods, and at the same time serves as Mayor of his little village. This man works from dawn until dark and then some, 7 days a week (Less work is surely done on Sunday, but cows gotta be milked, ya know). I, of course, as mentioned several times already, have a dream of having a small farm. This dream will no be realized any time in the near or distant foreseeable future, I know that now. Not because of me, but because of life, and the way life turns out. Not bad, just different. You know, life is like that, one day you just wake up and find... snore... Snore...SNORE...

skip to the end...

...and so I says to him, I says to this farming uncle and his brother, "I would like to raise some chickens, for eggs." Martin said this, I sat and eagerly nodded and quietly mumbled "kury" lubie" "jajka" "tak" "prosze pomoc" and smiled real big, like this...





And wouldn't you know it? They were impressed and excited that we wanted to raise some chickens. They were full of suggestions and advice. They suggested starting with 12 so we would have some eggs in the winter enough to make a meal or two. On uncle is going to buy the chickens already at a young age, raise them through the first winter, while we build a coop in our backyard, and, as he says, "you'll have more eggs than you know what to do with by the end of February."

So, ladies and gentleman, as Martin so happily and a bit patronizingly put it, "all your (Olivia) dreams are coming true!"  In the process of these discussions both the uncles were adamant that we should also raise rabbits, for meat, at the same time along with at least one rooster, for more, future, egg laying chickens. We declined. One animal at time, friends, one animal (or 12) at a time.

What I don't have is photo evidence of any of these discussions or conclusions taking place. What I do have is our young brood's first attempt at feeding grains to birds. Already in training...



small motor skills, caring for nature, home economics (what with the sewing ) 

I promise we don't force them to do these fun, artsy projects, regardless of their facial expressions.


"Function over form"

Monday, October 1, 2012

Do they even have that in Poland? #10

Card stock. Where the heck can I find it? And today, not next week from an internet store, but today  And not at an "art store" because they only sell single sheets, and they are rude there. Yes, every art store. The people are rude. So, for the love of all things made out of wood, especially paper, can someone please tell me where I can buy a freakin' package of "card stock" paper.

Thank you. That is all.

List of places I've searched...

1. Carrefour
2. Tesco
3. Real
4. Fancy art store
5. Internet

Places yet to look...

6. Em'pik
7. "Paper store"


A logical place to look would be a paper store but I don't know where one is around here, and silly me, I thought one of the other thousand's of places that sell paper of some sort would have a thicker paper than a sketch pad. Martin will be googling it today (what is the word we are looking for? brand name? anything to mean "card stock" thickness of paper) but I'm gonna be honest, as I'v said numerous times to Martin, and now to you all, this running around and trying to locate things that really should all be in one place (IMHO) is really starting to get on my nerves. Please, Hobby Lobby, open a store in Krakow. You will never regret it.  And is this what everyone meant when they kept telling me that it was "harder" to live in Poland, because so far this has been one of the hardest parts? Not being able to get stuff...and not because it doesn't exist, because God forbid I ever ask that question, but because you have to know where to go to get it.

On a similar note, can someone tell me where I can go to have things printed out in large quantities with color and on high quality paper. Is there a way to do this online, like uploading documents and then going and picking them up? And not at Carrefour.

And where do you go to print out pictures, again, is there a place to do this online or do you just go to the print shop and give them the flash drive?

Trying to make some projects, people.

 Findin' it hard to finish them...

I appreciate all your help with these types of things. I really do.

And now, on a completely different note, but also involving trees...here are some pictures from a little hike we took this weekend near Ojcow. I could not get a good picture in that forest, lack of light and a dying camera battery made it difficult but you can imagine a beautiful forest and easy path that led to the ruins of a small but important medieval hillside Fort. The trees are starting to change. Very beautiful. And warm, so warm. Only under the trees was it cool but otherwise a warm end to September.