February 3, 2013

What a difference a day makes, or for that matter, an hour, a minute, a second, a month or a year...

I love the song Seasons of Love that starts out:

"Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes,

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Moments so dear.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?"

We have been in Ukraine for ten months now and those ten months are filled with so many wonderful memories.

Anyway……back to what a difference a day makes. Monday it snowed another six inches and we thought for sure that we were into another two months of winter. But then it started warming up and today it was raining. I don't know where all this snow is going to go when it melts but I am glad that we live at the top of an ‘ascent’. There are seven 'ascents' in Kyiv and I think we are at the top of the highest one. So, I have to say that we are now seeing our first signs of spring.

Snowing

 

Snow again

Signs of spring

Tulips

Boots starting to disappear

Tuesday I went with a friend of mine to the Museum for the Great Famine (Holodomore) in Ukraine 1932-33.  I know I may have mentioned this before in a blog but there is so little known about it in the world that I think it is worth repeating. The great man-made famine of 1932-33 was well planned in advance. It has been kept a big secret and it makes me sad to think of what was going on and no one in the US knew or did anything to stop it or to help the people. The famine was used as a political weapon to eliminate Ukrainian opposition to collectivization and to destroy those striving for independence. Ten million people or 1/4 of the country's population were murdered by starvation. None of this was even made public until 1991. In fact, it wasn't declared genocide until 2006. It was the brain child of Stalin and was never acknowledged during Soviet times. Stalin had a plan to collectivize farms in a very brutal way. The authorities set impossibly high harvest quotas and took all of the farmers' crops and livestock. Farmers were left to die in their own homes. Those who resisted were deported or murdered and more than a million of the wealthier farmers and their families were sent to camps in Siberia. There were about 25,000 people a day that died. I can't even imagine. It is no wonder the people here value their independence of only 21 years so very much. How do you measure a year?

Famine Museum

Famine Museum

Famine Museum

The temple is closed for cleaning this week so Wednesday I went out to help with the cleaning. Honestly, I think angels come in at night and clean as I couldn’t find even a speck of dust to clean. It was amazing. We did what we were asked anyway, and learned a few things about cleaning. I have always wondered whether you vacuum or dust first and now I know. Everything in the temple is done in the proper order. And in case you didn’t know…….you vacuum last.

The paradise apple trees were getting pruned as I left and the snow was being edged. Fun pictures.

Edging the snow at the temple-church

Pruning the paradise apple trees at the Temple

Friday on the way to the Symphony we saw a grandma and her adorable granddaughter making snow castles down at Independence Square. Just had to get a picture of this one. I also got a close up of one of the incredible baby buggies that everyone here has. Honestly, the buggies here are the BMW of all baby buggies. Of course they have to be as they are used night and day, every season of the year. This particular one had a 3 week old baby inside.

  

Making snow castles

With Grandma

Typical baby buggy

Sunday we had a “Break the Fast” after church to welcome all the new International Language Program girls. It is always a fun event. This is an amazing program for young people from all over the US to come to foreign countries and learn about another culture.

Break the fast

When we got to church on Sunday the Christmas Tree was still in the foyer. Two Ukrainians (including the counselor in the Stake Presidency) told me that the wife always asks the husband, "When are you going to take the tree down?" So therefore, it is still usually up in May. That being the case, before church started, we cut out some hearts and made it into a Valentine Tree. Next month it will be a Shamrock Tree and then it will be an Easter Egg Tree in April. This is really going to be fun!

Our Valentine Tree

Our good friends and cousins, Marcia and Jay are going to be going to a Ukrainian Branch for the rest of their mission. We have been in the primary together for nine months and it is going to be so sad to have them attend another ward but I am sure that their leadership skills are really needed and I know they will do a fantastic job. At our Sunday party we were able to get a picture of us with all of the primary children in our branch.

Old Primary Presidency

Our Primary

This week the temple is once again closed and we have been invited to go on a little trip to Sevastopol and Yalta with three temple missionary couples, the Stuarts, the Callisters, and the Balls. Sevastopol is one of two cities with special status in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean Peninsula. It has a population of 342,451. Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa. Yalta is a resort city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea. The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to be founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. We have a great tour guide that has planned a full schedule for us and even though this isn’t the most exciting time to go to this area we will learn a lot of history and I think it is going to be a lot of fun. You’ll get to hear all about it next week in the blog. Gary wasn’t quite so busy at work when we originally planned the trip but thanks to technology he will be able to keep in touch and keep up with his projects while we are vacationing.

To end on a time note, I found this little comparison about Time for the quote of the week.

 

To realize the value of one year

Ask a student who has failed his final exam.

To realize the value of one month

Ask the parent of a premature baby

To realize the value of one week

Ask the editor of a weekly newspaper

To realize the value of one hour

Ask lovers who are waiting to meet

To realize the value of one minute,

Ask a person who has just missed the train, the bus, or the plane.

To realized the value of one second

Ask a person who has survived an accident

To realize the value of one millisecond,

Ask the person who has won the silver medal at the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.  And remember that time waits for no one. 

Families are Forever