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Thursday, March 15

Visiting Family Ramblings

My thoughts are a bit scattered today.  My in laws arrived last night, I think I'm ready.  They are absolutely wonderful people, they want to help us so much but I am not always good at accepting help.  Financially, we don't need help but they believe absolutely in fairness, if $40 is spent on my BIL, then damn it $40 will be spent on us.  It makes me feel petty to not want it when I understand where it is coming from.  Mr. Lina has taken 3 days off work, I will be going to work.  He has more vacation time than I do, they are his parents, and then I'm not around to feel stressed out about what they want to do to my house.  Although it is a bit like a scavenger hunt when I get home.

Perhaps point form will help make some sense of my thoughts
  • I missed reading blogs.  It was great to be focused on work on Monday and Wednesday (seriously I was on fire yesterday) and evenings were about prepping for inlaw arrival, but I missed reading what was going on with everyone.  Good things posts stay up so I can catch up eventually.
  • I have a post written on my Elan 645.  I have pictures taken of Elan 645.  Some with me wearing it which will need cropping prior to posting so I don't have my breasts on the internet.  I can't do that on my lunch hour, I'm not keen on doing it at home while I should be socializing with my in laws and I sure as hell don't want to be seen cropping pictures of me in my bra by my FIL.  So, it will wait.
  • Mr Lina made an off hand comment the other day that made my heart smile.  I have said he needs time to think about big issues like adoption, it made me realize how much processing he has done.  I have also said part of me is afraid that I misjudged this, that maybe he won't come around, but I know now I was right.  He will with time.
  • Still no word from CAS.  Double pout.  I'd be more upset if there wasn't other stuff going on like the upcoming FET.
  • I am a complete klutz.  I have managed to burn my right hand twice in the past week, and last night soup burned my arm when it came to a boil as I reached to turn the temperature down.  My aloe plant is getting some mighty short leaves.  And now I have two bruises on my left hand that are a mystery.  Mystery bruises happen because I take daily low dose ASA as a blood thinner, still, two on the same hand is not common, it's usually my knees/shins/thighs where I get a glancing blow walking into tables etc.
  • All of the flavours of Loyd mulled wine tea are fantastic.  I picked up the honey rooibos, field berry and raspberry on Tuesday - LOVE them all.  My MIL is talking about visiting Starsky's after one cup of the honey rooibos last night.
  • My MIL is Ukrainian, her grandparents moved to Manitoba from the Ukraine to farm, they thought trees indicated great soil but ended up with a lot of rocks and so-so farm land in the interlakes region. 
  • So this will be a week of borsht, beet roll ups (little bits of dough wrapped in a beet leaf then covered in cream, dill and fried onions and baked, this is served as a side vegetable, similar recipe), kielbasa (which they pronounce koo-ba-sa and I grew up saying ka-ba-sa), possibly cabbage rolls (holuptsi is how they say it, more later, similar recipe) and perogies (petaha) and meat & potato meals that please my FIL. 
  • And we have reached the end of Ukrainian language that made it through 4 generations - all about food. 
  • Oh, I forgot about Geedo and Baba (grandfather/grandmother), but because there was still a Baba alive when Mr. Lina was born, he calls his grandmother Grandma.  I suspect that my MIL will claim the name Baba when it's her turn.
  • Grandma sent us two trays of cinnamon buns (my MIL is celiac so 2 trays for 3 of us)
  • Uncle tried to send garlic sausage, my MIL vetoed that going in her luggage.
  • My first visit to MB, I had no idea how any of these things were cooked, my great grandparents are from English, Scottish and French Canadian, I didn't know what perogies were until university.  I thought the little, palm sized holuptsi were a "healthy choice", I mean, it's cabbage with rice in the middle, not the big beef filled ones my mom made.  Little did I know... Grandma saves fat from hams to line the bottom of the dish so they don't burn, there is actually bacon in her holuptsi, that's what the little flecks of meat were, pretty sure she isn't draining off much of the fat first. 
  • Grandma thinks that blueberry crepes or plum filled perogies are perfect for lunch after a cinnamon bun for breakfast.
  • She also serves mushrooms sauteed in full cream as a vegetable
  • You can see why I refer to Manitoba as "the land of a pound a day"
  • My first visit, I had to buy pants after 17 days in Manitoba.
  • Four framed pictures from Star Wars have been "returned" to my husband.  What am I going to do with a picture of Han Solo?  Chewy and the gang?  They certainly are not going in my bedroom or the guest room.  Pretty sure the artists we host don't want R2D2 and 3CPO looking down at them.
  • Although I won't be sewing, my MIL is an avid knitter and sews mostly crafty things or rag quilts.  We will be talking about our competed projects and fabric.  :D
Okay, time to get back to work so I can leave on time and get home for whatever food my MIL feels like making.

4 comments:

  1. I suggest the framed Star Wars pictures would look spectacular in the garage. Or the furnace room.

    When I lived in Saskatchewan one of the most talked about recipes was potatoes cooked in heavy cream with dill. I never tried it, I didn't need one more menu item to resist. 8-)

    Have you tried increasing your vitamin C intake, I find it helps tremendously with bruising. I am not sure it would make a difference with your ASA consumption, but it is fairly cheap.

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    1. I saw some of the strangest pictures hanging in furnace rooms when looking at houses to buy. It was abundently clear when the tweens had access to it.

      I have had those potatoes. Apparently my MIL as a tween was asked to go start the potatoes for dinner while visiting the farm. She boiled them in heavy cream where I think her aunt had the plan of boil in water, drain and finish cooking them in cream. I hear it was heavenly.

      I should try that, I've got a third bruise on my left hand now. Again, I don't know what I did to get it. I take a multi and usually I get a good boost from citrus (pink grapefruit makes me happy) but I haven't been buying as much citrus fruits the past two weeks.

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  2. My mom's sister became a born-again Ukrainian after her marriage to one, so I got a bit of a bird's-eye-view growing up. Mostly I remember being jealous of my cousins' Ukrainian Dance costumes, which were WAY cooler than the ballet costumes I got. We always ate perogies, though, as that was one of the three meals my father cooked when it was his turn on the weekends (the others being hamburgers and pancakes). Just boring store-bought perogies, though. Plum-stuffed perogies sound WONDERFUL.

    I tried like heck to get the kids to call my husband's grandmother "Kokum" (Cree for grandmother), but when Tyo was about five said grandmother declared that it was just easier if they called her Nanny, like everybody else does (including us grand-children-in-law).

    I must confess we would probably put the star-wars pictures up in our room. Or possibly the kids' rooms, if they begged. But then, I may or may not have just scored an original Star Wars (1977) bed-sheet. My judgment in such matters is suspect...

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    1. Those dance costumes are pretty aren't they? And the eggs. A cousin makes beautiful eggs, she's really talented.

      Kokum is such an awesome name. Sadly you can't force names. I was suppose to call my mom's father Grandpa, but at 18 months or whatever, I spent the 45 minute drive sitting in the back seat saying "Papa" over and over and over. It stuck.

      I should probably hang a wedding picture before I put up Star Wars. I'd be okay with them in the basement, but between the LOTR posters, book cases and figurines, there isn't much space for more wall hangings. I'm going to have to ask what he has in mind, they may be a next house thing and go into storage for a bit.

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Thanks for your comments, I love to have a two way conversation. I seem to be getting a lot of spam from anonymous users and am turning off the ability to comment that way. I really would like to hear from you so if you do want to add your two cents without an OpenId, email me at seraphinalina at gmail dot com.