I'm diligently trying to work exercise in to my morning routine. I enjoy leisurely time in the word, but for my health, I really do need to make exercise a priority. This is the week to start again. Jan and Feb were good. March was too full of travel. April....well ever noticed  how easy it is to break a good habit and how hard it is to begin again?

5:30 - put a load in the washer - 30 min on the bike
6:05 - hung clothes outside
6:20 - 7:45 walked with Zander
8:00 breakfast
8:30 - 11:30 couch school
11:30 - 1:00 piano lessons and table school
1:00 - 4:00 - speaking research, some PWOC stuff, housework, laundry folding, hanging more (3 loads today in the wind), walk to ponies, played a bit of games with the kids....
4:45 - head to base
5:00 errands for Jared
5:30 - drop Jared and Arielle off; pick up dinner for younger 3
5:45 - 7:00 Weasel's Den - fun visit with Susane, local PWOC President
7:00 - 8:00 on to the library
8:00 - 8:20 wait for Jared and Arielle
8:30 - dropped mower off at Rick and Renee's

It all fit. A great day. Our walk was gorgeous. It was a clear day and felt very warm to us. We enjoyed the views of the mountains.

This lady was happy to greet us and exchange niceties about the weather. IN JAPANESE...I'm learning, I'm learning.

I'd been wanting to grab some shots of this barn, but we're always driving past....took many shots

Our house from down the road....doesn't the laundry look cozy?

 

We tried all morning to take a photo of a "bird other than a crow," we captured this one in our own yard.

We keep a box in the entry way  and we all throw things in to send to Dad. When the box is full, we mail it. This is working well for us.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Zanderism

Zander continues to be excited about his new readers. He's doing great with them. He has to read each book with only 2 mistakes before he can move on to the next one.  We started at the beginning and continue to play phonics games...building new sounds - while building confidence.

Today,  he was looking for the right spot in his MATH book and commented, "I do remember I'm over here in the New Testament part of the book." ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

I do NOT find this amusing!

Neither do I find SNAKES in my bed amusing. Certain gentlemen are now warned. I will retaliate.

Choosing Joy!

©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

My mountain view - Michael

If you look between the blu-ish bldg and the green roof-top landing, you can see faintly in the background some of the snowy mountains that ring this entire area. It is hard to get a clear picture of them because of the constant haze here, but they are there and they are big. This is the beginnings of the Himalayas.

Blessings
Michael



Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

The Neighborhood is getting Crowded - Michael

When I first arrived, there was quite a bit of room next to and behind my billeting building. This is soon to take a turn for the more crowded look. In the top pic, you can see the Coffee House portion of the Chapel. The building to the right is my billeting building. In the foreground you can see the new foundation they are putting in for more housing. They will be Conex-style billeting - containerized, modular kind of things that just fit together. Kind of handy. Presto, instant neighborhood.

In the second pic, the camera is panning to the right. The bottom room on the corner is mine. For the third pic you can see the gap between my building and other conex-style buildings out my window. This whole area is soon to be filled with Conex-style billeting. It is all for a good cause. Folks just need to move to a safer locale. Out my bedroom window is that safer place, actually. :)





Soon to be filled with Conexes - 2 high.

Choosing Joy!

©2010 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~

Living all of life before the face of God...

Golden Toffee Blondies

Arielle and I made these today from Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Cookbook. These were a big hit. I even heard someone say, "I think these are better than brownies."

From the cookbook....

1 C butter (2 sticks)
1 3/4 C light brown sugar (Rapadura)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C all purpose flour (Prairie Gold)
1/2 tsp salt (sea salt)
1 12 oz package of semisweet chocolate chips (could 1/2)
1 C toffee bits (such as Heath)

Preheat oven to 350*. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil, pressing foil so that it fits snugly into corners of the pan and overhanging edges serve as handles. Lightly butter foil.

Melt butter. Beat with sugar 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined and light in color. Add flour and salt and beat until combined. Fold in chocolate chips and toffee bits

Pour batter into pan. Bake 25 minutes. Blondies will be golden brown on the edges yet still soft in the middle. Do not over bake.Transfer to a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, use foil edges to lift blondies out of pan and cut into squares.  (We couldn't wait).

Tip: The key to moist blondies is making sure you don't over bake them. The top of the bars should be shiny, yet the middle of the bars will still feel soft to the touch.

Ours didn't have toffee, and we used Rapadura instead of brown sugar, and fresh ground whole wheat instead of refined all purpose flour....I can't imagine how rich these would be if I'd had toffee. I will cut the chocolate by 1/2 next time....or make them plain. Very good.

More recipes here. 
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Yabusame ~ Uma Samurai

Erika told us that Towada would be having Yabusame today and tomorrow. I visited the website, I watched the You Tube clip at the site, we wanted to go. We couldn't find clear cut directions to Chuo Park. Google failed me, there are about 6,000 Chuo Cohens in Japan. ::snort::  I finally hit on calling Melissa for directions. SHE KNEW HOW TO GET THERE - Thanks, Melissa. They were perfect, right down to running the red light on the bridge over the river. When I pulled up they were honking at a lady parked on the bridge. ::snort::

We felt a bit ripped off. This is SUPPOSED to be Cherry Blossom time. All the festivals are going on - but there are no Cherry Blossoms. In the You Tube you see the archers riding between rows of Cherry Trees.....and the park would be gorgeous if all the trees were blooming.  The good news is that it's only 26 min from our door to this park.We'll go back as soon as we see blossoms in town. LOL

Yabusame is the name we were given. I can't tell you what it means, as it isn't in our Japanese/English Dictionary. Google tells me how to pronounce it but not what it means. Strike 2 for google today. ::snort::

This was the first time I took the kids and ventured to a new spot in Japan. I discovered that outside of Misawa folks really are more interested in Americans. ::snort:: I also discovered that they are VERY friendly to a mom alone with children.

We were BLESSED by a gentleman who took a liking to our family. He chatted up a storm. We found out that writing English is very hard. That George Bush  was an honest man. That Katakana is very hard to learn to write (yes, we knew that) and that these were "Uma Samarai." THAT I can translate - horse knight. The twist to this event is that all the competitors are female. There was an instructor who was male.

They ride FAST down the lane and pull arrows, shoot, ride a few more yards and do that three times in one run. When the umbrellas go UP it means they hit the target. Who knew Samurais wore Levis?

Here are a couple of many of the video clips we took.

This was a fun spot to walk around and observe.

One Mom and Grandmom were excited when they saw Stacia and I walking....they called me over to say they had bagels...but it didn't sound quite like bagels. They proudly showed me and I said, BAGELS - oishi.....so they took me to a little boy who was walking around the grounds selling bagels. He made our day and we made his. LOL Speaking of food....Stacia was the hit of the "food court". I had to buy SIXTEEN yakitori and we also had bagels, potatoes and drinks......all for about $20. Festival food is cheaper than eating in town.

This is the way to picnic...tatami mats and low tables...we only had to remove our shoes.

Jared was a trooper. He came with us. When he was ready to come home we did. This was fun to see on the way home.

What can this mean?

We dropped Jared at the house and the rest of us went to the beach.  I'd been a bit melancholy seeing something new in Japan without Michael. This is OUR beach, so it seemed a good way to regain equilibrium.....and searching for sea glass always calms me.  The trench is back again, Mike.

When we walked up, Stacia said, "It's not snowing!" ::snort::

Back at home we rode bikes, played 4 sqaure and basketball. Zander was surprised that I could make baskets.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...