Baba: The Pictoral Tour

What is Baba you may ask? Well the word means "old woman", but to the Hagala family it is an annual Easter tradition. It began in Slovakia, and is made every year on the day before Easter. Basically we mix eggs, bread, ham, and bacon, then bake it in loaves. Come, take a peek into the tradition....

The breaking of the bread:

Done a few days ahead of time to dry it out so that it will soak up all the eggs.

The breaking of the eggs (6 dozen to be exact):

Usually done by the youngest members of the family. Watch out for shells!

Meanwhile, the ham and bacon are sliced:

Once the eggs are cracked they are blended in the traditional blender, used 'only for baba'.

It always produces a hot dusty smell. (Of course one year it produced smoke...)

Then the "gishing" begins:

Traditional 'Baba only' gishing pans. Six hands is about the limit.

 Sustenance. Yes, I believe he shoved that whole piece of banana in Elijah's mouth.

The rolling of the dough (to line the pans):

OK- so here is the dough story- this is the part of the Baba process seemingly done by the eldest family member. (I really don't know why it is so special, we just line the pans with it then cut it off the Baba.) After much begging my dad let me do the dough this year. He claims he didn't do the dough until his dad was in a nursing home. He hung over my shoulder and made comments enough to make me feel like I didn't know what I was doing- despite the fact that I make doughs and breads and such on a regular basis.

Note the rolling pin.(yep- 'baba only' , how did you know?) But it is possibly Grandma Rosie's. This year I questioned- "Who in the world is Grandma Rosie?? 'Never heard of her!' " Well come to find out, she was one of my dad's mom's step-moms. "One of?" I asked. Yeah, her dad had been married like seven times- his wives all kept dying! Weird!

Hannah buttering the pans for the dough that doesn't get eaten. (Chris eats it though.) Go Hannah!

 The whole group:

Next step is putting the Baba into the dough lined pans:

Then foil tents so the Baba doesn't burn on top...and into the oven!

 Left over dough- doesn't John look like he could be 17? He needs a haircut.

Voila! Baba!

Now eat and enjoy! It seems for most though, you either like it...

 

...or you don't. 

I think it is an acquired taste.

A Few Additions

Addition #1:

The City replacing the gas lines  

+ 

10 yards of sand dumped in front of our house every morning (7:30am!)

= 

a new sand box!

(yes I asked first)

Addition #2:

First I'm am just going to say yes. Yes. Yes yes yes- we are crazy.

It is not that I feel at all bored, 

Its not that I have too much time on my hands,

 Its not that I don't already have several people desiring my attention at almost every single moment of the day...
But God gave us a puppy.

Pepper. 

She is a great puppy, very sweet, good with the kids, but AAAHHHH at the same time.

She is very smart too, learns quick (she rang the "go outside" bell on the door today!).

We got her last Sunday...she is a German/Australian shepherd - lab mix.

Like all puppies do she is teething.

Of course so is our kitten.

And my son.

Bring on the drool!

****

On another note I wanted to share some pictures that Abigail drew yesterday 

of and for her Auntie Hannah and for Uncle John.

Her love and ability for drawing always amazes me!

"

"Auntie Hannah is feeding the nice dinosaur because Uncle John is scared. The little dinosaur is a mean one. He doesn't have hair because he is so mean. The striped one has teeth like us."

What a wild adventure.

I hope we get no more new additions for a while. 

Unless it's a maid.

Feeling Green

Today we honor St. Patrick aka Maewyn Succat. Maewyn was born in England, kidnapped by Irish marauders when he was 16 and then sold as a slave in Ireland, land of the Druids. He worked as a farm hand, learned the language, and grew very close to God- praying 100 times a day! (I don't know how they know this fact- but hey- what else did he have to do?) After 6 years he decided to escape and went on to study in the ministry, becoming a priest.  His heart yearned to go back to the Irish people to share the gospel. Before he went back the pope renamed him Patrick. While in Ireland the people there struggled with the concept of the trinity, so Patrick used the clover as a metaphor - three persons in one. After he died he was renamed Saint Patrick. Pretty cool- I never knew any of this until Veggie Tales enlightened me last year. (You can watch the 9 min. flannel graph story too!) 
Usually on St. Patrick's day I make the customary Corned Beef and Cabbage. (Why is it customary? I have no idea.) Well, I made it a day early this year so I needed another special dinner. Abigail has been wanting pizza for a while now. (Also notice her skirt-she decided today that she loves it.)

Pizza or Play dough?

It was a little strange eating green crust...good flavor though...it would have tasted better with cheese (on my piece)...and Elijah was controlling the amount of food coloring...

Like Sand Through The Hourglass...

...So are the moments of my life!
Well, here I am finally. The past many weeks have flown by, full of fun adventures, many attitudes and not enough sleep.
So much has seemed to happen...I'll try not to overwhelm you, but I have to share the exciting tidbits! The weather has been so beautiful (no snow sadly...) so we've been trying to get outside. In January we took a walk across the Narrows Bridge.


Elijah rode his tricycle the whole way. Abigail rode her bike for part of it. After some attitude battles her bike took a break at a look out bench while she walked across the bridge.

Chris explaining how a bridge works.

As a sad note, we finally decided to have O'Malley put down. He was almost 14, blind, could barely breath, sneezing huge snot globs all over the house, and had lost most of his zip for life. It was a really hard decision. He was our first baby, we got him from my cousin 3 months after we got married. He was the best cat in the whole world. He would tolerate pretty much anything. After he was gone we realized how much than just a cat he was, he was a friend.

Abigail still misses him quiet a bit.

Not that we could ever replace O'Malley, but....we finally got a pug nosed pup... (Thank you to a special Auntie and Uncle!)

Milo and Otis: Best friends united at last!

Also very eggciting- Goldie- our 3rd chicken started laying green eggs in mid-February!

Abigail was quite disappointed that they looked the same inside.

Samuel is 4 months old tomorrow (3-11). That is a milestone age in our family. It marks the minimum age requirement for.... THE JOHNNY JUMP UP! Chris can never wait that long-
he always puts them in a few weeks early!

Abigail showing him how to jump. He looks a bit overwhelmed.

Samuel has also rolled over a couple times. Wow is he ever growing fast. I am trying enjoy and cherish his littleness as much as possible. (Not that he is very little- somewhere over 15lbs. That is how much Abigail weighed at a year!)

Abigail and Elijah are amazing helpers with Samuel. They do really great with him.

He is already trying to be like his big brother!

We have also rediscovered the dress up box. That has been a lot of fun. There is once again orange and purple feather shrapnel in EVERY room of the house.
I had a pretty misereable cold a couple weeks ago and on the worse day Abigail wanted to make me feel pretty. So she brushed by hair, decked me out with accessories, and even made me wear her lipstick and lipgloss. It was wonderful. What a sweet girl.

Makeshift bouquet: a funnel stuffed with a lei.

Abigail dresses up as a princess (quite often now a days) and askes, "Elijah, am I so pretty? Elijah, am I so pretty?" She usually has to repeat it a few times before he finally answers "yes" to which she fully content and proud. Through our church home group, the women have been studying the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. We've been studying the core desires that God has put into the heart of every woman, one of which is the desire to have a beauty to unveil. It is really sweet to see the pure and innocent desire to beautiful- which is how God made each of us- in a little girl.

He is beautiful, too.


Superhero Abigail!
She loves looking tall.

Abigail dressed him up.
He was having fun...Really!

Ride 'em cowboys!

Well, I have been trying to be more intentional and scheduled with our home school time. So of course I had some painting scheduled for last week and Abigail wouldn't let me forget. But what do you do when you're grumpy and the house is a mess?
Take it outside!! Yeah it was pretty cold and windy...but sunny! The paint plates only flew away a few times...

Abigail made an apple tree and then used a cut apple to make apple prints on her tree.


Elijah had fun letting the paint drip and seeing where the wind would make it land.
Samuel had fun getting hungry right as they started painting....yeah that was fun. And cold.

What is painting with out digressing to using your hands and feet?

Well, there it is. I hope you enjoyed my jam-packed random update. I'll really try to blog more often. Bonus Picture:

Tigger-head!

Look Who's Five! Part(y) 2:

So excited to be five!!!!

Well, today was Abigail's second birthday party. We did two, a kids party and a family/grandparents party. Our house just isn't big enough for all of them at once. It was a bit quieter today (I don't know why they didn't want to run up and slide down the stairs?!) Abigail and Elijah both enjoyed having more cake and guests.


Abigail wore her new dress and tiara and felt, as always, like a princess.


I asked all of Abigail's Grandparents, Great Grandparents, and Aunties and Uncles to write some notes about what makes her special and what they love about her. Here are a few things that make our wonderful Abigail special:

A really good big sister to her brothers

Smart

Very thoughtful

A sense of style all her own

A prayer warrior

Thankful and special heart

Impressive

Kind

Bright personality

Passionate

Happy 5 years Abigail! We love you so much!!

After the party Samuel decided to finally wake up and try his hand at laughing. Daddy can always make them laugh. Notice how he puts his hands up when he laughs!