How to host a lavish party.....

This week, we hosted a party for our neighbors. We moved into our house in late May, and since we moved close to where we lived before, we know some of our new neighbors. Others, we wanted to meet and so we invited them, too.

In order to throw the party, there was lots of planning and things to do in advance......

• Decide how many people to invite and then go around house to house to invite everyone the day before the event
• Find someone to make osh- the national dish that is always served to guests
• Work with a friend to make sure she could come and make the other dishes, which are for the women guests: salads, soup, meat pastries, etc.
• Do LOTS of shopping to gather all the necessary foods and other things necessary to throw a party.
• Borrow LOTS of dishes from your neighbors so that you have plenty for the big day
• Clean your house! We have a smaller guest room where we can normally host people and welcome visitors, but for this big day we need the biggest room in the house, which is the kid's room. So, we emptied it of the kids' stuff and set it up with a  big tablecloth surrounded by mats for our guests to sit on.

We had a great party. Here's some pics from the big day!

The men came at 7:00 am to eat! We were up late the night before getting ready and the osh cooker arrived at 4:00am to get started.  We were pleased that around 25 men came

 The osh was cooked outside in a huge pot over a fire. Here is the cook with a few of our guests eating their osh outside. Osh is made with lots of oil, onions, meat, carrots, and rice. It is yummy (though rather oily!).

 Here I am while the men eat getting more goodies on plates for the women. The women require much more food and stay longer than the men. We added homemade juice, a huge cake, lots of homemade goodies, 2 kinds of salad,  and cauliflower coated in egg and fried to the tablecloth before the women arrived.

 Here is the tablecloth before the arrival. We're ready!

 And thankfully, lots of lovely ladies came! They arrive at around 9:30 am. They each brought something, homemade bread or cake or some other treat, or money. Some of the ladies brought potatoes or cucumbers fresh from their gardens.

I enjoyed myself. My friend Rachel and I had a weekly English club with some of these ladies kids this month and we had the kids come in and say their English greetings and some proverbs that they had learned.  I was happy to see faces that I recognized and ladies that I was meeting for the first time.

While they ate, we put bread, treats, and a small gifts into the bags the ladies had brought.  We also had bags ready to prepare  for the ladies that brought money. All of this is part of Central Asian hospitality!! We served the ladies a bowl of soup, then osh, and then we cut up the huge cake and served that as well. 

This picture is of my helpers! I sure am glad they were there to help. After the guests left, the clean up began.

Now our fridge is full of leftovers and our heart are full of thankfulness everything went smoothly and our neighbors came.

Apricots, apricots, apricots!

 In the back of our house, there is a little orchard with about 15 (ish) trees. Apple, apricot, peach, pear, cherry, fig, plum, green plums (not sure what they are called..) and maybe more that we will discover later. There are 4 apricot trees. One gave it's fruit a couple of weeks ago but now 3 are chock full. We have apricots galore!!

 We have had apricot cobbler and pie. Yesterday, with the girls help, I canned 12 liters of jam! Tomorrow, I have a lady coming to help and we will make and can apricot juice. Today, apricot chutney is on the menu and since we are borrowing a blender to make the juice.... maybe apricot milkshakes or smoothies?

 Some of the jam we made yesterday. If you have any other ideas (and if I managed to fix the comment section so that you can actually leave them!) let me know!!

On an unrelated not, can you see the bruises on Will's face? The poor boy had a small tumble down stairs. We hope his last!

Qurutoba Salad

We learned to make a new salad this summer! Anna loves it and told her Grammy Gloria all about it. We decided to show Grammy just what to do.....

 Here's what you need to make the salad: 1 lb tomatoes, 1 lb cucumbers, 3 onions, fatir non (bread, we substituted a nice thick fresh bread once...) dill, green onions, cilatntro, salt, qattiq. Qattiq is a sour milk product. I think you could subsitute yogurt or even a light cream.

Our friends here use these beautiful wooden bowls for this delicious salad. It is wide and shallow.
Lovely produce, isn't it!!

 

First, you have to chop everything up.

 The onions need to be sliced and carmelized in oil.

 Slice the cucumbers and tomatoes very small.

 Katie opted to help keep Will occupied. He is crawling and into everything!!

 You heat up the bread so that it is nice and hot and tear it into pieces into your bowl.

 Everything is ready to be added! On top of the bread, spread the carmelized onions. Then, put half of the tomatoes, cucumbers, and greens. We added boiling water and salt to taste to the qattiq (the milky stuff) to make it thin, like the consistency of a yogurt drink. Over the veggies, put half the qattiq (or whatever you substitute!) Then layer again, but put the greens (dill, green onions, and cilantro, parsley is also an option) on top. We customized for our family. Katie and Michael don't like the greens so we left a section without them. Dad doesn't like qattiq so we left that off his section....

 

Ready to eat! Our local friends eat out of a shared bowl with their hands. 

Come visit us and we will make it for you!!

Settling in.....

We are in our own home, and I am sitting at our desk, looking at the beautiful view of  rolling hills out of our window. There are snow capped mountains in other directions.... After a lot of looking, we found a very nice, brand new house in the middle of the neighborhood we were searching in. The kids are happy that we are close to our last home, and all of their friends there.

Here's some pics of our view:

This has been a challenging transition for me. It is hard to keep moving and starting over and I have struggled to simply surrender that to the Lord and trust Him and His purposes in having us here. I still haven't found the rhythm of communion with my Savior that I desire. Partially because what I want may not happen until I see him face to face. But, I know more is possible here to.

 And here is my youngest precious. I am so thankful for my kids and this littlest one has been such a delight to all of us. And I have to say that there is nothing like being the most important person in your baby's eyes. I can't believe he is almost 9 months! He is going to be toddling around this new house soon.

Milestones

We have been busy! Our sweet Anna turned 10 in January just before our BIG MOVE! She enjoyed celebrating with family and Grammy Glo fixed all her special requests. Uncle Jason made these balloon hats and such to celebrate. It is hard to believe how fast our girl is growing up. We love you Anna. You are so full of life and interest in everything. We love watching you grow up and pray you will love the Lord with all your heart, mind and strength!
Our Katie also lost her first tooth a few days before the BIG MOVE. She has actually lost a second tooth since. We learned that it is the custom here to throw a lost tooth onto the roof!

We have been very stretched during this BIG MOVE and it has been a bumpy road. Sickness, less than ideal circumstances, the challenge of adjusting for both older kids and a baby have been combined with laughter, answers to prayer, and lots of thankfulness for help from brothers and sisters both here and in the States. I have been so thankful that no matter what or where, the Lord is with us and I am surrounded by my precious family. What is there to complain about?!?

We are enjoying a few days in a neighboring country in order to get our visas in order. Back at home, internet is weaker and I haven't even been able to get on our blog much less post anything. So, though I want to keep posting, will just have to see what we are able to do!

A Big Day!

Katie went to the audiologist with her Daddy, Papa, and brother Michael. It was a big day... Katie was getting her hearing aid! She was born with a birth defect which compromises her hearing in her right ear. The hearing aid she needs is called bone conductive, it enables the sound wave to go through the bone to her inner ear, bypassing her ear canal. She is very happy to have it and we are thankful that a gov. agency provided it for free.

Dedicated to God

Here's our little precious at 3 months old, though in less than 2 weeks, he will already reach the 4 month mark! For Christmas this year, my family traveled to see us which meant all of the extended family was together. We decided it was the perfect opportunity to dedicate Will to God. Here are some pictures of that sweet and meaningful time together.