Old Habits Die Hard & a New Leaf

Despite our very new adventure, moving half way across the world, I find myself continuing with many of my old ways.....

Bulk Buying: I used the family of 5 as an excuse to indulge my love of Costco at home -   nostalgically photographed a cart full o Costco joy before departing.....

In Kiev, bulk buying is NOT the norm.  Packs of 5 trash bags (huh?!), individual beers and sodas at even the largest grocery stores & 10 oz bottles of lotion are pretty much the norm.  Meanwhile, I search for the bulk buys everywhere.  Programmed to procure a week's supply, I was thrilled when a local babuska had a whole kilo pack of raspberries!

Beverage mania: With the loss of fountain soda (limited places have fountain - like McDonald's - but no diet 'on draft'.  Only regular), I told myself it would be high time to reduce my silly levels of soda consumption and evolve to a more tea centric beverage plan.  Well, seems I'm adjusting to bottled Pepsi Light and have merely added tea into the mix.  Beverage count growing...

Parties: Our love of throwing parties does not need to subside here.  Plenty of friendly ex-pats to invite... (Xavier's birthday party & an Oktoberfest party planned to date).  Last night, we hosted Logan's team for a BBQ.  The language barrier & 'fear thy boss' culture made for a bit of a stiff start.  Guess the # of candies in the jar and an ice breaker helped.  But my small talk in Russian could use some work..

NEW LEAF? With all that sameness, I've been thinking I should pick up something new.  Russian language lessons are starting soon (trying to be excited about reducing my cloud of confusion - but know it's going to be serious work). 

So I attempted another new activity I thought would come more easily....started with common new hobby step 1....bought the book:

Preserving!  Why not?!  We have trees dropping lord-knows-what kind of fruit that my Driscoll's berries kids won't accept, I have time on my hands - so we'll give it a go!

First attempt was not all that successful.  In my defense, I had not yet purchased the book and leveraged a no-recipe method.  As a rookie, this is not a recommended approach.  The knife is standing on its own because the consistency is somewhere close to hardened concrete.  You've been warned - don't try this at home kids - do yourself a favor and buy the book first...

Have a sweet Sunday!