Tuesday, Wednesday....

We have some specific educational goals in mind and will probably school to some degree throughout the "summer". An interesting tidbit is that kids here school until the end of July. They get about a month off. When in Rome....

You know you are on the right track when your little ones BEG to do school. I'm not sure why I tried to keep us all combined; this is working so well for all of us.

Tuesday is PWOC day. This summer we are doing different things on each Tuesday and I'm enjoying the switch up. This week was breakfast and prayer. Tara did an excellent job focusing us on who God is, who we are in Christ, praying individually and praying corporately. We are blessed a Children's Ministry Coordinator for MOPS and PWOC was hired in June. YES - this makes it much easier to pull off a summer program. LOL  Here's a photo of Arielle dancing with some of the PCOCs.

In addition to school, Arielle had small group on Wednesday. This group has been a true God send for her. I thank God for godly women in their 20's willing to invest into the lives of youth....pretty cool really that PWOC ministers to her leader on Tuesday and her leader ministers to younger gals the next day....legacy at it's best. This was the last meeting before they break for summer. I used the 2 hours as my allotted "PWOC hours" for the day.

I finished the day off with friends at a new-to-me Thai restaurant, Phadas. One of the summer activities of our local PWOC is a book club. This was our first night. It was great fun.  Mary had chosen, "The Heart of Memory" by Alison Strobel, Lee Strobel's duaghter. It was a thought provoking, as well as easy, read.  I found it interesting most of us had dowloaded the book to either a pc, kindle, ipad or iphone to read.  The next book is C. S. Lewis', "The Great Divorce". I'm trying to find that one as a free download without much luck. I may have to buy it. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Dreaming of Dinner

THREE of the kids had a hail (to the incoming 7th graders, Nolan is one of them!) and farewell (to the Seniors) Beginning of Summer BBQ tonight.  It was on the north side of the base - about 35 minutes from our home.....I didn't want to drive back home after we dropped them off. 


Zander and Stacia got the rare privilege of selecting a restaurant for dinner. They chose the Lake View Grill  - not really sure that's the name.  It sits on the top of a hill on base looking over Lake Ogawara.  This is a new discovery for us and frankly it isn't known for HEALTHY food.  We all ordered our food and were SHOCKED by the HUGE portions last week until Michael's Chef Salad arrived - teeny tiny. LOL 

Evidently Stacia had been "dreaming" about fried mac and cheese....

The meals come with a basket of fries each....

We have two boxes of fries and onion rings which we couldn't finish. We drove back down to main base and spend a couple of hours at the library and then retrieved the youth and headed home....settling in for the night. Tomorrow will be another long day. 


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Stacia's New Goal

This is not a self-directed goal. I've dreamed of family bike rides for YEARS. There was a bit of time when we actually pulled it off....meaning all the older ones could ride bikes and we had a bike trailer and seat for the youngest 3.....We sold our trailer when we moved, thinking Stacia would be riding a bike anytime.....

Alas, Stacia does NOT like falling, or ouches of ANY sort....she feels this bike thing is highly overrated and has been happily STILL riding the faithful old Tryke.  She's had quite a growth spurt this year....and will be 6 in August....it seems time for her to learn to ride her bike...but she has been too scared to try even with training wheels.

Last night Arielle and I went out for a ride. Stacia saw merit in being able to go out with us for "girl time".  Today, Arielle and I decided she needs to be riding her bike by her birthday in August.

She was less than convinced but gave it a try....and oh what a lot of drama we had......but she did get a bit more comfortable with the training wheels...if Arielle and I run along side.....

The moment she realized neither Arielle nor I were holding on to the bike....

Here she learns how to use the brakes...a mixed blessing, that! 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

LAUNDRY.....laundry...laundry....

Some will remember last spring/summer's laundry entries.. here for starters. We never really solved the problem of laundry flying around the neighborhood or posts and concrete blocks being blown over in the typhoon strength gusts of wind.....

When we were rationed to one load of laundry a day after the tsunami,  I pulled the posts out of storage and set it up by the garage. It didn't blow over. We slowly migrated the set up the carport.....now it's protected from the wind AND the rain....and I've been happily drying load after load. In fact, I recently doubled my capacity....a very needed splurge.

Nothing has blown over or away and we still have room for the van! It's amazing how quickly Michael finds solutions for things which perplex me for months. ::snort:: Have I said lately that it's nice to have him home this spring/summer? 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Countdowns!

Michael left today for a 3 week TDY (temporary duty). He will go to South Carolina for a seminar on Marriage counseling and such. He'll travel to FL and see an old friend and his wife, the best man at our wedding.  He'll also try to catch up with some friends from Goodfellow AFB who are now down in the area.   He'll top it off by attending our denomination's National Convention.

Meanwhile, back at home, we'll do school, continue some weekly ministry projects, welcome Bre, and I'll go to Korea for Asia Region's leadership training seminar.  It will be a busy few weeks....but we're all excited about it.....

Except.....I discovered Stacia thought a 3 week TDY would be the same as an 8 month deployment.  I calmed her emotions last night and promised her we'd make a Daddy Countdown this morning.

The time for the promised project arrived.

Me: "Stacia, should we make a chain or get out the Daddy candy jar to count down until Dad is home?"

Stacia: "I suspect we better make a chain. Everyone sneaks the candy." ::snort::

She cracked me up. In the end we decided on two chains.....a pink one to count down Bre's arrival and a multi-colored one to count down Michael's homecoming.

Note Zander's shirt in the above photo....it's one of Arielle's creations....creates a big A on it (A for Alexander).

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Chagu Chagu Umako Festival & Morioka Zoo

Kyle and Erika told us about Chagu Chagu Umako Horse Festival. This festival is in honor of the draft horses and has been practiced for 200 years. This is supposed to be a reward for the horses. They are decked out and trot from Onikoshi-Sozen-jinja Shrine in Takizawa to the Morioka Hachiman-gu Shrine in Morioka City. Michael had a men's breakfast to attend Saturday a.m. so we didn't meet the caravan to Takizawa.

We set out a couple of hours later though and had a great day. It was BEAUTIFUL weather. Not to hot and not to cold....we chased the horses around the route....always seeing wheelchairs being loaded and folks packing up....never seeing a horse. Finally - in Morioka near the train station we caught up with the horses!  They were beautiful, but we did wonder WHO thought loading a horse with so much finery and making them trot 25 miles in the hot summer was a great reward. LOL

These little guys were DARLING. One little tyke was actually ASLEEP. 

Stacia is partial to the ponies. 

The Clean Up Crew

We walked back to Family Mart and bought lunch....chicken on a stick, some wonderful soft, chewy bread and fried potatoes..... Look closely at this box....right hand side of the box...see the little toothpick? They think of EVERYTHING here.

As we ate our lunch, I told Michael about the zoo. I wasn't 100% sure we could find it as we were in a totally different part of town...but really how hard could it be? He had missed our first zoo trip as he was playing with the camels in Afghanistan. He was game if I'd go try to get some directions.

I did....Arielle prepped me...in I went to the store....asking very nicely, "Morioka dobutsu wa doko desu ka?"  I thought "Morioka Animals" was fairly close to zoo....but I didn't have much luck. They kept telling me about the horses. I had to resort to my lion and monkey imitation AGAIN.  Ah....they got it but the map I bought from them didn't go up Rt 4 far enough to pin point the zoo.....A gentleman said he would show me how to get there. Um.....I told him I was sure there would be signs....He said, "They will be in Japanese and I think you may not read Japanese well?" ::snort:: I told him there should be pictures....no he and his friends wanted to show me how to get to the zoo....well....OK! I told Michael to follow the hybrid Honda. ::snort::  Wow - is that NICE??????? They took us right to the parking lot and it is good they did as we were in a totally different area of town than I thought. LOL  

We had a blast being at the zoo with Michael.  Mostly, we loved being a family  together. We had company Friday night and that coupled with Saturday's outings set us up nicely for the three weeks that Michael will be gone.

 The Big Horn Sheep and Prairie dogs were hits....made me lonesome for Montana. The younger ones enjoyed the petting zoo. 

Any guesses as to the purpose of THIS sign? 

Choosing Joy!

©2011 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~

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

Omiyage

The word Omiyage(お土産・pronounced oh-mee-ya-gay) means souvenir or gift . It is customary to present a souvenir to friends or co-workers upon returning from a trip or the gift that one brings when one visits another's home. In casual circumstances, omiyage may be any gift at all, but in an office environment, it's normal to observe certain protocols.

Omiyage giving is an important element in Japanese culture. Akiko San brings us something each and every week. We try to have things to give back.

When she went to NYC she brought us central park green m/ms. ::grin::

Michael (and recently I) have done this when we travel. Always trying to bring back "some little something" for the family....finding the perfect souvenir becomes part of the fun of traveling.  On our recent trip to the states we constantly kept our eyes open for the "right" gift for Akiko San.

We had talked with her about the Redwoods, and they were hard for her to comprehend. Michael and the kids took photos of the Redwoods and we knew that would be part of the gift.....but what else could we get her? We thought of kites and wind socks from the OR coast....but they seemed a bit too close to Japanese and I didn't want her to think I was hinting "American kites are better".... As a side note the wind sock I bought can't take the Northern Japanese wind. ::snort::

Finally, at a little shop in Old Town Newport, I found exactly what I wanted to buy her. I liked it so much I got myself one. I thought it would be a great touch of cheer in our long Northern winters. I also joked that I didn't want to be the only person in Japan wearing one. Michael and the kids thought it was a great gift too. We bought it......then I wondered....as really Japanese don't like to stand out. I reasoned she could tell her friends, "Look what my crazy American family gave me."

I wish I'd had the video on....she laughed and really loved it. She said it's beautiful and will be perfect for hiking - it certainly should put her grandfather's heart at rest. She'll be easy to spot if she gets lost in the snow. ::snort::  It made me happy to see her response.  And now there will be TWO of us wearing these on cold and windy days. LOL 

Choosing Joy!

©2011 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~

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