Mastery in the Art of Baking

So it's Happy 1-month Anniversary to us! =] We've successfully survived (quite well, mind you!) an entire month in the country of Romania. WOOT.
So the accomplishment of the month on my behalf, is baking. (I know, I'm all about accomplishing things these days, but you've gotta set goals when living a completely new life!) And baking is a pretty grand one if you ask me. Let me share with you the wonders of Mel's Kitchen (okay so it’s not really MY kitchen, just bear with me):

Crepes. This was the last one of the batch. And the best. =]
Blackberry muffins! And I only burnt about 4 of them. Haha.
Anniversary cake. I give my good friend Betty some props on this one (it kinda came from a box.) The frosting however, is all my creation.

There have been more sweet, tasty goodies made with these crafty hands of mine, but I believe these to be the best of the bunch.

Now here is the reason baking is such an obstacle to be tackled:I don't know if you can see it. But this is our oven and the temperature reads: Big flame or little flame making it a little hard to judge what temperature the oven is when it has been lit. Also, it's a gas oven and has to be lit with a match. I can't take any credit for that part of cooking though, Karen seems to be the only one in the house who has conquered that feat.
In fact, Karen has mastered cooking in general. She makes us wonderful meals and I don't know how she does it half of the time...making "American food" with Romanian groceries is not the easiest thing to do. We've had our fair share of "interesting" flavors and unexpected textures, but all of us are willing to try new things and open to pretty much anything.

Liam is by far the most adventurous with food. That boy will put anything that even remotely looks like food in his mouth. And usually he'll chew it up and stomach it too, even when he doesn't really like it. The other night we were eating chicken off the bone, and he threw a piece of bone in his mouth, determined to eat it, and chewed for about 5 minutes. He gave up, but only when Karen reminded him that bone is not for eating.
And no matter what, he's always hungry. There isn't a day that goes by without hearing the words "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry" fall out of Liam's mouth. Karen said that last night when he was passing the dinner table on the way to his midnight bathroom break, he declared that he was "ready to eat his dinner now". It was one in the morning. =]

Liam devouring some delicious chicken. One night he took the leftovers from lemonade and decided they'd make a good snack. I tried it, but could only make it through the picture. Too sour for me!

This past week we did some more exploring. Perhaps you'll find more pictures up later this week. =]
There isn't much to update with ministries, except that both Karen and I helped with worship this Sunday in the absence of Dorothy and Roberta (the two missionaries that live down the street). Karen has also been providing stories for the kid's sunday school and helping with that. Maurice did the benediction. It's been great to be an active part of the church and I'm excited to see where our responsibilities will fall "permanently" (for the year). Continue to pray as we earnestly seek his will for us here, and thank you for your prayers thus far!
Life here seems to have become "normal" to us. We're starting to find an every day ebb and flow that works for us, but not for long! The boys start school in two weeks and hopefully we will have begun things in Beregon by then...life will be up in the air yet again and living here will be a whole new wave of discovery.

But no matter how many days go by, I still wake up every morning and smile to myself. I am living in Romania. God is so good!=]