Chanterelle mushrooms

Have you ever had these Chanterelle mushrooms? They are so good! I was never able to find them out here. So every time I’d go to Lithuania and if I end up staying there in the late summer, I always used to eat them. My mom used to make them for me. I don’t even know how many times I had it this time. They are so yummy!

So the other day we went to Costco and I saw some sitting there on the shelf. I made them last night. Yum! I’ll be going back to get some more.

The preparation is very easy. And when I say it’s easy, it is easy. Wash the mushrooms well. Cut up in bite size pieces (I prefer on a smaller size). Put a lot of butter/margarine (whatever you prefer) in a skillet, throw in onions and mushrooms, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Boil some potatoes to go with it. And you’re done! Enjoy your meal. Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it….next time.

Growing up every fall we used to go pick mushrooms from the forest. We’d leave early morning while it’s still dark out. There used to be a little of a drive, depending on how far we wanted to drive. But if we went one way or the other, there was always at least a couple hour drive. We’d pack up some food, as we knew we were spending the whole day at the forest. Everybody had their own basket. Only the sizes were different. My dad, of course, used to have the biggest one. He was the best at finding mushrooms. I would walk with my dad and he would ask me if I see any, and I wouldn’t, and he would see a few right in front of us. Mushrooms would be hiding under the leaves, or in the moss. He would then cut them and put it in my little basket.

At lunch time we would eat our packed lunches on the blankest in the forest. The food would taste 100 times better than at home. I guess it’s the outside and the fresh air would do the trick. We would even sometimes take short naps after lunch. Only the kids of course. Or just lay on the grass and enjoy the freshness of the forest. More mushroom picking would follow after that.

The only part of this mushroom picking I did not like, was when we get home with tons and tons of mushrooms, we would have to clean and cut them up. It used to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I don’t miss that part at all. After mushrooms would be clean and cut up, my mom would can some of them, dry up some of them, and there would be a little left for eating that day or the next. Most of time it would be the next day, because that day we would be so tired that we wouldn’t even want to think about eating.

 Chanterelle mushrooms were not the only ones we picked. It was one of the many more different kinds we would find. (I don’t know all of their names in English) Not the poisonous kinds of course.

Dreams

It’s so weird to be having dreams that you are missing your child. In-fact, I hate it!!! Last night I woke up almost crying, because Lukas was missing in my dream. Don’t remember all the details, but that I was in Lithuania and he went outside with someone (don’t remember who, but with a family member) and I was going out in a few minutes. When I got out the person was all panicking and running all over the place and calling his name. (it’s weird how I could see the person panicking and all, but don’t know who it was) Then i started looking for him everywhere, calling his name, asking people if they have seen him. And then I woke up all scared. I of course had to go to his room just to check up on him and there he was soundly sleeping.

Agh, please, no more of those weird dreams!

Bejeweled

I LOVE that game! I’m sure most of you know that game. And if not you can check it out in Yahoo Games. I used to play it on the computer all the time before. But that was a long time ago. While I was gone on vacation, hubby got an XBox 360 and guess what game did it come with?! Yup! you guessed it! BEJEWELED 2! It came with a few arcade games on the disk and this being one of them. I played that game every free minute I had today. Husband was even nice enough to watch the kids while I played. Thank you! It was so nice just to have some time to myself and to  remember the good old days.

Now that the kids are sound asleep (including my husband) I’m off to play Bejeweled 2 some more.

Till later!

Did you know…

…that Lithuania won a 3rd place in European basketball?! Yeah!!! I was there to watch all the games and it was just so cool to see all the people get so excited. One time I got to go to a restaurant/bar to watch a game with my cousin. It was so much fun. And they of course won! It was a very close game. Russians took 1st place. I just think its cool that we are in the top 3. Lithuania it’s such a small country and to make it to the top 3, wow! A lot of the players are playing in NBA and for them to take time off and to go back and play for their country it was really nice! And I know there are some Lithuanians that are playing in NBA and they chose not to go back to Lithuania and play for European championship. I won’t mention they’re names, but they could’ve went back.

Here is one of who knows how mane clips of when they came back home as a bronze medalists. All the games were in Spain.

Fun at the beach in October

Playing at the park on Tuesday it got so hot, that we only stayed for a couple of hours and headed back home. Usually i stay for much longer than that. Kids really enjoy it. But on Tuesday it was just too hot. So on Wednesday a friend of mine, with all the four kids (two are mine and two are hers) decided to go to the beach. We left around 11:30 and it already was 90 degrees. On the way there kids had fun sitting all in one car. Once we got there it was all cloudy. But by the time we unpacked, sun was breaking thru and it turned out to be a really nice day. Kids had lots of fun. They played with sand, went in the ocean, chased each other, built sand castles, digged holes. They had fun! I was wondering how Lukas would do, since last time when we went to the beach, it was about a year ago (actually went close to the ocean, we’ve been by the beach since, just not at the beach. if that makes any sense) and Lukas was afraid to go into the water. He would not go even near it. Maybe it was all the noise from the ocean. That was the only reason I could think of that he did not go in. But he did enjoyed playing in the sand. Well yesterday, he loved it in the water. Even Ava came running after us and headed straight in. She is a brave little girl.

When we got back we jumped into the pool. That was the first time this year in the pool. When I told Lukas that we’re going to the pool, he looked at me with his big blue eyes and the look on his face like ‘oh my gosh, are we really going in there?!’ he was sooooo excited. He jumped right in and started splashing. And Ava of course followed him. Lukas stayed on the steps most of the time, so I didn’t have to worry about him too much. But little Ava wanted to go in deeper, so I was forced to hold her most of the time. Which I didn’t mind at all.

I was so tired from all the activities from yesterday that today we mostly stayed in. It was a nice relaxing day.

AARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you hear me scream?! No??

AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you hear me know? Because that’s what I feel like doing. I just want to go out and just scream and let it all out.

We had to go a few places today. With the kids of course. On the way Ava was so good. She was just sitting there, looking out the window, playing with her shoes, talking to her brother. Viktor asked when we will switch her car seat to forward facing, since she is over 1 years old and over 20lbs. I said it looks like she doesn’t mind sitting rear facing, so I’ll just leave her like it is. Plus it’s safer that way anyway. And man did I jinxed it when I said that. On the way back she yelled and screamed at the top of her lungs for about 20 minutes. Nothing helped. I opened her window, turned on the music, turned off the music, gave her snacks, gave her water, but nothing helped. Then finally she fell asleep. And she wasn’t crying because she was tired. When she is tired, she will usually wine for a minute or two and she’s out. We stop to get some dinner and of course she wakes up and the screaming begins again. We were only 5 minutes from home, but man, it seemed like we lived hours away, and the drive was 1000 times longer by the time we got home. Once at home she was fine for about 5 minutes max. And then the whining began. Good thing it was getting close to her bedtime. Changed her, gave her milk and put her down and haven’t heard a peep from her. I hope tomorrow is a better day since we do have a few errands to run.

Halloween

I’m having such a hard time coming up with Halloween costumes for my kids this year. Last year Lukas was really into Elmo, so that’s who he was. And since Ava was still little, she was a butterfly. Since she was in the stroller most of the time, it wasn’t hard picking her outfit.

And this year I have no idea. For Ava I was thinking maybe some kind of princess or something like that. But that also depends on the weather. Lukas is really into cars. He has been into cars, but know he is just crazy about them. He also LOVES LOVES LOVES the Cars movie. So I was thinking maybe dressing him up as one of the characters from Cars, but I do not like those costumes. They just seem to be blah. You just put a car on your waist and that is it. Then I was thinking about fire fighter, since he also loves those, but can’t seem to find a costume for that. Then I was thinking about a character from Backyardigans. They are cute, but also very warm. It’s also a very similar costume to Elmo from last year. Also the weather was so warm last year, that the poor kid was sweating in Elmo. I would rather get something lighter and if it turns out to be cold, I would just put a sweater or  long sleeve shirt underneath, depending on how cold it would get. Any ideas?

We’re back to normal

It looks like we are used to the new time change. Lithuania is 10hrs ahead, so when we came back it was hard to adjust. We were waking up at 5-6 in the morning and going down at 4-5pm. It was crazy! I hate being up that early. It’s still dark out and the day seems to be twice as long.

The first day we woke up at almost 6am. I tried putting the kids down for a nap at 11, and that of course did not happen. I tried every hour after that, thinking they must be tired, but they wanted nothing to do with naps. Then finally at 3 I put them down. And so they cried and whined, but they were out in a few minutes. Then we went to take a nap. I was thinking that what if we don’t wake up in an hour or few and just sleep the whole night. But then I thought nah, one of the kids will wake up. And next thing I know is Viktor waking me up and its dark outside. Yup, no one woke up. Kids were still asleep. And we were supposed to go grocery shopping that day since there was no food in the house. At 10pm, neither one of us wanted to go out. So back to bed and slept till 5am. Yes, 5 AM! And we were up for the day.

The next days I refused to nap, as that would just make it longer for me to adjust to the time. And it started getting better from there. And now a week later, it seems like everything is back to normal. Ok, so we still get up earlier then we did before we left for our vacation, but I can’t complain. Now we are up between 7-8 (although most of the time its closer to 8), where before we used to get up at 9. Only Lukas sleeps in till a little after 8. Ava seems to always wake him up with her loud babbling.

My son is potty trained…

…for the most part. He has been peeing in the potty now for a while, even before we left for our vacation, but we always had a hard time with the poop. I knew that the time would come when he would go to the bathroom instead of his diaper, and that time came!! You have no idea how happy I was. At first I used to constantly ask him if he needs to go and take him on the potty. But know he tells me when he needs to go. And he is very proud of himself when he goes. He flushes the toilet and even waves bye-bye to his…um…you know. It’s cute though. The only time we are still putting a diaper on him is at night time. And that doesn’t bother me at all. I think I’m not ready for that step yet, and neither is he. But we are getting there. Before, his diaper in the morning would be so full and heavy, and now it’s a LOT lighter. I’m just not ready to be getting up at night for once or twice or maybe even more to take him potty, as I’m already getting up a few times for various reasons. Maybe in a few months or so I’ll give a night time a try. After all, I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. One down, one to go.

I’m back

We are back from our vacation. Those 4 months went by way too fast. Once I got there, at the end of May, I thought WOW, I’m gonna be here FOUR months! Thats longer than the summer. Then days, weeks were going by so fast, that those four months were not enough. I loved being there. Being with my family and friends, watching my kids play with their cousins, their grandparents was just amazing.

I’ll have to keep this short this time as I am getting tearry eyed just thinking back and missing everyone and wanting to be back there again. We just came back last Monday, so everything is still very fresh and I’m still having a hard time talking/writing about it. This might sound silly, but that’s just me.