Fun Sign

Construction sign at the beach today....I'm guessing it says "Pier is being built - stay out" or something.  The Pier most certainly is NOT built at this point. 

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

Winter Beach Trip

Fridays are always late movie nights - which tend to make Saturdays late mornings for my family. I wake up naturally at 5:30 a.m. this time of year.  I enjoy the gift of silence. 


I got up and spent time with my man James (as in the epistle of James).  I hit the elliptical. That thing makes enough noise to rouse the family. 


Some of us opted to stay home - some of us went to Kaikoen/Momoishi beach....we are so very blessed to live amongst such beauty. We found quite a bit of sea glass too.  I have an idea for making a different kind of necklace and bracelet. We'll see.  I'm not the most crafty gal on the continent.

Arielle and Zander play in what used to be a channel of fresh water heading to the ocean

Its now a clam bed

Having grown up around TROPICAL oceans, it still makes me smile to go to the ocean in snow gear. 

Zander and Arielle share my joy at winter ocean viewing....

It would appear chasing seagulls is a winter activity too. 

 Mike asked me if we'd had many jelly fish this summer and I realized anew how much he missed of our year in Japan. When we arrived the beaches were COVERED with GIANT jelly fish - seriously - I saw a magazine article about "refrigerator sized jelly fish in Northern Japan" - I am NOT exaggerating. LOL This summer we only saw a few. Mike did find a nice shell...and when we got home Staica told him, "Mom does not allow shells only sea glass and floats." ::snort:: She tries to bring buckets of clam shells home each time we go to the beach. She's been feeling crummy yesterday and today.

Zander found this fascinating coming on the end of our year of studying Ocean Life. 

We're thinking cross-country skis and snow shoes on Monday. The older ones have a ski trip with the youth. 

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

Friday.....

We filled this day off for Michael with doctor's visits, BX and commissary run, an awards luncheon, games, school and play - and another duty call. This has been a busy two weeks for duty calls. 

 The kids are building a new fort. I'm going to continue to try to get good photos. Everything is white and its hard to see how nicely the fort is coming along. 

We ended the night with our traditional pizza and movies. 


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

Conquering Fear

I have had an ice related accident in every northern tier location where we have lived. Several in fact.  We arrived here and heard, "Do NOT get in an accident. If you do you will own the field, vending machine etc"....and "any accident is 50% your fault as it wouldn't have happened if you weren't in Japan." We live out in the country.....the roads are narrow (some are the width of one lane at home but are two lanes here) and twisty. There are no shoulders to speak off. There ARE little concrete "ditches" just the width of a tire along the side of many lanes. Veer into these and you are likely to blow a tire (which I've done twice come to think of it).  When we moved here I listened to my dh try valiantly to get us on base because he was worried about my winter driving..... I didn't realize this was a fear until that point. Then I realized I should be afraid....


They don't plow most the roads in Northern Japan. They don't sand the roads. We aren't allowed chains or studs either. We have no "special Japanese" tires....they simply drive slow and don't do anything about winter roads up here.  Ruts develop. I don't have 4 wd.  I managed to stay home most of last winter. This year, I committed to teaching on Monday night and Tuesday a.m. before I remembered the WINTERS. It's VERY hot and humid here in the summer - hard to remember snow during July and August. ::snort:: 


A dear friend, Anna, reminded me of the training we received at driving class upon arrival in Misawa: "We don't plow for many reasons. 1) too expensive 2) we never plowed so why start?" That was shared right around the time he shared, "Roads very narrow with deep ditches. If going to have an accident, just close eyes." And well after he said, "If train coming and bar comes down and you are trapped, just bump it with car, it will open." :-P


Monday I was TERRIFIED when I had to drive to base for a meeting. I arrived at the front gate with tears running down my face and lost it when I saw friends at the chapel.  Mike drove me in to teach on Monday night. He also brought us in on Tuesday. We spent the day in and came home at the end of the work day. This cannot keep up. 


Today was MOPS. I drove Arielle, Stacia and I in. Tanya (another friend) had told me to drive slow...so I did. Drove the speed limit 30 - 40 kph (about 20 mph) or lower all the way from Oirase to Misawa AB. Per the instructor's advice, I prepared to close my eyes if I began to slide. I prayed and we left. We got stuck trying to get out of our driveway...finally sped out and we were on our way.  


Note he is SHOVELING THE SIDEWALK and putting the snow into the street. ::snort:: 

I was heartened to see the gentlemen throwing sand under our tires at one tricky intersection. I've never seen this before and wondered if they were angels....I guess this is "sanding the road" in Misawa. 

I did not cry. I did not have any near-loss-of-conscious-adrenalin- rushes. Christie (another friend and MOPS steering member) told me a great route to come home. She also told me not to even attempt my normal route - known as "Suicide Alley" to my family - until the roads thaw. It would seem you can't see the little ditches on the side of the road as they are all covered in snow. 


I'm still going to drive very slow....but I was proud to have driven us in.....and will do so again in the upcoming week as needed.  FWIW, I think the reason so many Americans get into accidents OFF BASE is that the roads are shoveled, salted etc on base. If you live on base and drive off it would be very easy to forget about the winter roads off base. LOL  I'm always relieved to go through the gate and hit clear pavement. 


Anna made these darling little guys for her preschool moppettes. This is Stacia's last year at MOPS. 

If I hadn't conquered my fear I wouldn't have seen these OR learned that Jesus was born in Hachinohe (that's where the babies come from) in 1958! Bet you didn't know - did you? 


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

Stuffed French Toast Casserole

12 Eggs
2 C milk
1 C maple syrup
1/2-3/4 tsp cinnamon
8-10 slices bread, cubed
2 - 8 oz pkg cream cheese

Mix 12 eggs and 1 1/2 C milk. Stir in bread cubes. Pour in bottom of greased 9x13 pan. Cream cream cheese; gradually add 1/2 cup milk and 1 c syrup cinnamon. Pour over egg/bread mixture. Use knife to swirl cream cheese mixture through egg mixture. Refrigerate overnight. Bake 350* for 45 min.  Can pour syrup over top (I didn't and it was fine).

Had this at MOPS today and it was yummy. It would make a nice winter's breakfast.  I've seen it with various other spices and more or less eggs/milk etc....but I think this is a great start. 


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

Arielle's Impossible Peanut Butter Cookies

Arielle googled healthy recipes and came up with this. They are really good. Gluten free too. 

1 C Peanut Butter (your choice - chunky or smooth)

1 C Sugar (granulated or Rapadura)

1 Large Egg

Sugar (optional for rolling)

Preheat oven to 350* (I think 375 would work better for us). 

Mix until smooth.

Drop by tsp onto cookie sheet (if desired roll in sugar first)

Press in crisscross fashion

Bake 10 - 12 min  (Do not brown, do not over-bake)

I may just add some chocolate chips to these and have the perfect Chocolate Chip cookie I've been searching for. LOL 

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

Catching Up

Shew - Boys left Friday.

Saturday was a PWOC facilitator workshop. Ten of us met to continue building unity in our teaching team and to sharpen our skills as teachers.  It was a wonderful morning - I was tired when it was done. Our VP Spiritual Life has just moved and so I headed up this workshop.

Sunday we went to two services, Sunday School, lunch and saw Dawn Treader again. I slept through different parts of it and now think I've seen the whole thing. I was a bit teary eyed as I remembered we'd been doing the exact thing a week earlier with our big guys.

Monday was school,  PWOC meetings for a Sweet Night that we are planning for deployed spouses, and Bible Study Monday night.

Tuesday was PWOC all day. Arielle, Stacia and I went to Bible study. The boys stayed home and worked on school. We had lunch with a friend, as we waited for Mike to be done and give us a ride home. He never got done. I borrowed Renee's van and ran errands. Arielle got school done and went to drama and we all came home.

Today - feels like a New Year in many ways. Due to all the traveling and homecomings in Oct - Jan (and I wouldn't change any of them), the younger ones are a bit behind in school. We didn't get a good solid start this year on school. BUT that is not a huge problem. We used to always begin our school year in January and it works for our family. The older two are at least 10 weeks ahead of us.... LOL

 Zander wanted to finish his Learn N Folder for Zoology 2. The booklets were done and he finished assembling it. We've downloaded the new files for Zoology 3. 

This technique combines lapbooking and notebooking in a way that we really love. It takes into account my folding challenges. LOL 

The kids have begun this year's snow fortress. I love the tower. When our landlord plows our subdivision we'll be able to add on. 

Younger four and I went on a nature walk after lunch. We saw  hawks, pheasants and our favorite.....

I wonder if our pond will freeze solid enough for ice skating? 

 Zander and Stacia were very impressed with the icecycles. 

It's snowing again. We came home to hot chocolate. We read some more from the Landmark book titled, Wright Brothers. You KNOW reading a story about brothers 4 years apart in age, with a minister for a father, who asked questions and liked to invent things is a HUGE hit with Nolan and Zander. 

Arielle has researched and baked some gluten free peanut butter cookies....smell good....I can't quite believe they'll work with no flour...but we shall see. I really like the results of having she and Nolan studying Jeannie Fulbright's, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. They even made the menu for this week. 

I'm going to do some research on how to create MP4 files that can be shared on the Internet. Looking towards shrinking Asia Region. 

I've got a veggie soup simmering...and am about to make Gyudon...I love being able to stay home and HIBERNATE on snowy winter days! 

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