Becoming a teenager

Thirteen years ago she was already here. Actually she was alive  nine months before that, but I could finally see her, hear her and smell the baby smell. She was 19 inches long and weight 8 pounds even. She came out quietly and she was absolutely gorgeous!





I remember trying to imagine her before she was born and yet I could not. But after she was born I felt like I always knew that face. It was so precious to me.

 

At nine months, as cute as a button!

 

 

Being three and a half in Disneyland with Pooh.

 

 

 

Pumpkin picking.

 

 

First day of school.

 

With one year old Zuzia.

 

Six year old, taking a break from a skiing lesson.

 

 

Jumping into double digits; eleven years old, at the beach.

 

 

 Twelve year old. Much better skier than six year old:)

 

  

At the meet in NY, last summer.

 

 

 After hiking Mt. Major, last Fall.

 

 

 Sleepy, while eating breakfast on her thirteen birthday!

 



And for the past thirteen years she is a part of our family. She has grown, started school, became sister, competed in swimming, running. She plays violin, enjoys reading and writing, and programming in "Scratch".

She enjoys learning, and the ambitious program "Pegasus" for middle schoolers.
The worst part for her, is getting up in the morning:)

She could not wait to turn thirteen; she calmed down a little after I told her that turning thirteen means more chores at home!

She has yet to learn a lot, she has yet to mature more and she has yet to become more responsible.
I hope that it will become such person sooner, or later:)

But mostly I hope that she grows stronger in faith and love for God, Church and others.

If she treats herself and others with respect and dignity, and keeps her eyes on Heaven, she will turn all right by me!

Happy Birthday Kiki, enjoy your teenage years!

Kinga:)

 P.S. Apologies for the bad quality of the scanned pictures. I had no control over them:(

Few in one...

I could not decide where to link today. I think I had the same problem sometime ago. I solved it by linking to as many as I could or think that I should:) I am going to do the same today...

Cari's theme for today is Fences.
Good thing that it was snowing a little today, and I took pictures of falling snow. I wanted them for {phfr} at Like Mother, Like Daughter, as I " Captured the context of contentment in my every day life "!
 It caught few backyard fences, quite coincidently .
The snow today came as a surprise, and it looked pretty. It covered the dirt that was already accumulating on the old icy snow. I was hoping for more though, there is not enough to stretch my recent XC skiing luck!

 {pretty}

 

 

{happy}

 

 

Kubus was enjoying the rug city with tape roads, split peas construction area, train trucks and few buildings. The tape is still stuck to the rug. I will peel it off before Kateri's birthday party.

 

{funny}

 

 

Last Sunday when Andrzej and Kateri went skiing, I organized a little experimenting time. The favorite one was pouring colored vinegar over baking soda. They enjoyed so much that I had to

repeat that activity almost every day this week :)

 

{real}

 

 

Today is Fat Thursday in Poland. Last year I have made the yummy, greasy food myself. I even included a little bit of history. This year I settled for store bought donuts.

Since I don't eat gluten, maybe it is a good thing. I don't feel so tempted. On the other hand my kids enjoy them REAL-y a lot!  They don't eat those on Sunday after church, like most of Americans :)

 

 

I, on the other hand , am trying to bake with gluten free flour. I went paleo two years ago, but with my family not cooperating it was difficult to stick to it; gluten free is easier. Sometimes they don't know what they are eating. Last Saturday I made gluten free muffins for breakfast. They were the yummiest muffins I made so far.

 

Here is my own, converted from not gluten free to gluten free, recipe:

 

1 plus 1/2 cups of gluten free flour

1 cup of almond meal

2 Tbl of coconut flour

3/4 cup of coconut sugar

2 tsp of baking soda

1 stick of melted butter

3 large eggs

1 cup of grapefruit or orange juice

1 cup of dried cranberries

 

 Stir together dry ingredients. Set aside.

 

Stir together wet ingredients. Pour them into dry and mix until just combine. Drop in the cranberries.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin tins. You can sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the top. I don't do it. There is enough sugar inside those muffins. Bake at 350' for 20-25 minutes Enjoy! They are REAL-y good:)

 

The recipe is linked to The Nourishing Gourmet.

 

 

Kinga:)

 





Yarn Along

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along.

I have finally, finally finished my vest!
It is embarrassing to admit that it took me 4 months to knit it.
I know, that a couple of weeks ago I have promised to finished it in a week, but due to Olympics, supply of good books to read and other things, it took me longer. Excuses, excuses, excuses!

 

Zuzia tried it on first. When I saw that the length was good for her size I was afraid that I might never wear it myself! Yet it works well with jeans, and all together I like the finished product.

Now Zuzia  requested one for herself, in turquoise :)

 

 

As for reading I dove into "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. Very, very good book about recent times in Afghanistan and lives of women living there.

 

My spiritual reading revolves around Scott Hahn. This time it is "Reasons to Believe".

With Lent beginning in exactly a week, I will be reading more of those.

 

 





I know that "trucking" does not belong in knitting or reading, unless it is a sweater with truck design( which is on my list to knit ), or truck theme books, (which we are reading every day anyway ), but my little man insisted on having a picture with most of his big trucks. Of course I couldn't say no:)

 



 

Kinga:)



{pretty, happy, funny, real} on Sunday

 

The last day of Winter vacation, officially; and yes it is Sunday.

I can't say that it was memorable one, since Zuzia and Kubus got sick. I have finally taken them to see a doctor, on Sunday. I could not listen to their cough anymore...

Zuzia has a viral infection, but Kubus  has pneumonia!

I feel guilty about yesterday. Instead of taking him to the doctor, I decided to enjoy XC skiing in Pulaski park again. If he had seen the doctor yesterday , Kubus would be in better shape today...

But Andrzej and Kiki enjoyed themselves in NH skiing. They should have nice memories...

Not the whole vacation seemed to be lost however. Since we had a lot of chance to be home, we watched the Winter Olympics coverage.

On Friday we have  decided to have few competitions of  our own.

The homemade Olympics are the subject of my {phfr} edition, hosted by Like Mother, Like Daughter.

{ pretty, happy, funny }

 



 

 

 

The first discipline was luge down the stairs in the playroom.

 

 

The second one: cross country skiing around the house.

 

 

  ( I have just realized that this movie repeats itself, sorry )*

 

 

The third: figure skating in the living room. The choice of music was their own:)

 

Zuzia insisted on more disciplines, and I was planning to do ski jump today. Unfortunately we had to make another jump; to the doctor office:

 {real}

 

 

My sweet, sad boy today. I pray he gets better really soon. No energy in this little body of his:(





 

Kinga. 

 

* Edited



Theme Thursday, Pennywise Platter and few other things :)

It is Winter vacation week and to nobody's surprise  somebody had to get to be sick. This time it is Zuzia. Her cough sounds very croupy, even though she is past that age. I guess the visit to the doctor is inevitable...
Kubus is not much better. So much for plans; the outside sledding, skiing in NH, programs in the library or even the workout for me in YMCA...

Today Andrzej took just Kiki for a ski daytrip and I stayed at home with two coughing kids.

I had wished that we could go outside, but all together it was not bad after all. Nobody got the cabin fever yet:) Between the Winter Olympics, books, kindle games, putting train tracks together and recording silly songs and noises, nobody was bored!

I have decided to finish my vest so I could finally show it to the world next Wednesday on "Yarn Along", and to update my blog a little and link up:

Cari came up with the idea of dishes for Theme Thursday.
Well, I can't say that I have in possession nice set of porcelain, but I still have few plates that Andrzej and I brought with us to States those 18 and a half years ago. I think we have them since our wedding 20 years ago!!!
Nothing fabulous, but they seem to be unbreakable!

I am definitely looking forward getting nice sets, but maybe when the kids get older.

I decided to place on them gluten free dumplings. My kids love them, and I like them too. Very Polish, really, and I wanted to make them healthier and suitable for me.
I have experimented today. Since my hubby was away and my kids are picky anyway, I thought I will give a try.
I am sharing the recipe on The Nourishing Gourmet.

I had mix together 1 cup of mashed potatoes, that I had as a leftover from yesterday, a 3/4 cup of ricotta cheese, 2 eggs that were blended with a cup of fresh spinach. Then I added 2 tablespoons of coconut flour, 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds, about 1 cup of gluten free flour ( from Trader Joe ) and about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of potato flour. I rolled the dough, and cut it into pieces. Then I put them in the boiling water. I cooked dumplings for about 7 minutes. I was afraid that they might fall apart at this point, but they did not!!!
Then I melted butter in the frying pan and added the dumplings.

It was simple, but quite nutritious dinner. Zuzia and Kubus did not complain, except for the color. I think next time I will skip the spinach and use sweet potatoes. That should be even better!

 

 

 

And I must say that the color of the dumplings went very well with the color of the walls in my dining room!

 

Kinga:)

The trails...

 

 

 

 

The winter; that snow! Well, I can say I am not sick of it yet. Nope, not even after twice shoveling big driveway. I regard it as a great workout!

Another reason though, that makes me very happy, is taking the skis out and go XC !
That's what the winter was made for, to enjoy great outdoors, while having fun. I came to that realization six years ago after trying the skis for the first time in my life. It took me so long:)

Yesterday I have convinced Kateri that it will be a good idea to join me to Pulaski park. The only place in RI with groomed trails. The only, but very spectacular.
Kateri has agreed with hesitation, only to regret few minutes later. It is really hard to get a teenager out of her cave. But I really insisted. We needed that time, just the two of us.

At the end it turned out great. The weather was awesome, the snow perfect, and the scenery breathtaking. Kateri was glad to join me on the trails, especially after she had an opportunity to became a "celebrity" on the local news!


RI State Parks: Explore the outdoors

Kinga:)

Snow, snow everywhere!

 

 

  



Honestly, I think yesterday was the best snow day this season! It did not matter to me that I had to shovel the snow  twice, for at least an hour ( how about including that in the workout on dailymile !),; it did not matter that I had to drive in the snow and on the slippery roads. It was really perfect outside. Perfect for the first snowman, the fort building,  for catching snow on the tongues, for digging, for making snowangels and just plainly for rolling in this soft, white beauty!
And I am hoping for more of those days, maybe because I want to go XC skiing and maybe because I just want to enjoy the winter to the fullest!

Kinga:)