Murphy's Law of Home Repair

04:14 AM Sep 05, 2012
Aomori Local Meteorological Observatory
Weather Warnings（Misawa City）

[Issued Warnings]
Heavy rain warning, Flood warning

Of course it would be raining the day after we had an air conditioner installed. ::snort:: 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Stacia's Letter to Zander

Of course, I must share the on-going writings of Stacia....because it is only fair after hearing how "gruesome" Zander can be.

Hi Zander, 

I love you so much, I just love you so much. You are very sun sometimes. I like playing super hero master game with you. 

Love Stacia

We set the letter at Zander's dinner plate tonight. Great fun! Michael just got home....I'm outta here! 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Margin

Margin - the white space around the content of a page. Hmmm.....maybe the empty spots around the content of a busy life? No, I've never read the books. The Holy Spirit has spoken loud and clear over the past months. I've worked hard to build a bit of margin into this season. I'm always busy - and that is fine. The past three years I've taken on some regional leadership responsibility with PWOC.  Last year - in an unplanned move - I found myself as a local and regional president at the same time...and this year...I spoke several times this summer on living a life of "Simplicity" ::snort::

This fall I'm deliberately building margin into my life. I desire to live my God-given 5% with INTEGRITY...and that has called for some changes.

I'm not on a local board this year.

The hardest choice was NOT to teach a Bible study for the first time in over 23 years! Can you imagine? I've had summers off and took 6 months off when Stacia was born and the girls left home; but other than that I've taught every single session for over 23 years. I love teaching. I have a passion to show women how easy it IS to study the word with a Bible and a listening heart....but I knew while we were in the states I needed to slow down.....

God continues to lead me to dig deeper into spiritual disciplines and through a path through the summer He made it real clear I needed to say no and mean it.....and now I have a wee bit of margin.

Margin to pursue God through the spiritual disciplines. Margin to teach HANDS on, fun things to the kids and not just "the 3 Rs". Margin to sit at the beach with the kids. Margin to grieve. Margin to adjust to being a smallish family of 6 rather than a family of 11. Margin to pray with a regional team weekly. Margin to go to coffee with friends. Margin to mentor one on one. Margin to seek a social life. Margin to get to know NEW neighbors. Margin to consider new ministry opportunities. Margin to enjoy the next 10 months in Japan.  Margin to diligently seek health.....body, soul and spirit. Margin to deeply learn, "Spiritual Self-Care is NOT Selfish" - even if others don't fully understand. Margin to finish the regional race strong....and to maintain a strong home school/family life.....

It's been awkward at times. There are moments when I think, "I could so DO that now that I'm not doing xyz," but I have learned I'm good at pitching ideas but I don't always have to walk each idea out nor am I responsible for each idea to be walked out...nor, quite honestly, SHOULD each idea be walked out. ::snort::

Tuesday - Today brought this home to me. I enjoyed a regional prayer meeting.  I showed up at PWOC 08:40 rather than 07:45 - after a 30 min workout and a healthy protein drink for breakfast. Since I'm not teaching I was able to help out with PCOC (children's ministry) and loved it. I know - what a shock! ::snort:: I've come a long way in 3 years.  I stayed to help clean up, ran to the commissary and then came home.

 Formerly, Tuesday's were LOST to school. I came home and had local and regional things that "had" to be done....but today...we got a full day of school in - even did some fun things.

Hung Japanese flash cards

Painted Greek amphoras...

I told them to use BLACK and RED...but you know....and Zander painted his name on his pot to be sure it didn't get mixed up with Stacia's....I told him we probably could tell whose was whose. ::snort:: 

 I've learned most regional things really CAN wait a day until they fit the allotted time scheduled for them...I got 4 gallons of my spaghetti sauce simmering....cleaned the stove before THIS photo.

I enjoyed a long conversation with a local president (regional business) while the children enjoyed some friend time after school and the sauce simmered. It all FIT.....really DOES work...put the big rocks in first....and the small ones will filter through.

One funny part of the day - While I was getting sauce going and talking....I FORGOT these men were in my house. Gave me quite a start when I opened the kitchen door and they were both there to tell me they were leaving.

We DID have to move all three computers and a few other things.  It's 8 p.m. and Michael is unreachable...must be something going on....I'm going to post Stacia's most recent letter and then go figure out where all the computers go. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

The Lost Day

OK - it wasn't REALLY lost - but it was the 4th day of a 4 day weekend and we had plans. THEN our Realtor said they would install an AC...and so we changed those plans to be home at 2:30 p.m. At 2:20 p.m. she called to say they wouldn't make it. This usually wouldn't bother me but we STAYED HOME on a DAY OFF. ::snort:: 

Via Google Image

We ran to the base for the "Labor Day Furniture Extravaganza Sale" only to discover the furniture store was not open on LABOR DAY. ::snort:: 

I went to three markets to find a watermelon - finally found one - paid DEARLY for the thing - think $20.  

This, however, is  most expensive melon I've EVER bought or will every buy! I hope. 

I said to Nolan, "Surely, that means 1 for Y586 and not Y1586 for a small melon." 

We agreed. We were wrong..... My $20.23 melon.....spectacular isn't it? We'll eat it tomorrow (Tuesday). 

Michael has been working to replace the wheels on his roller blades. Simple tasks become more complicated when shopping for parts here....and the ones he bought from the states needed to be "mickey moused" but he finished the project - and enjoyed the fruit of his labors. 

We're glad Mackenzie and her brother are back from their summer with their Dad. Here, the girls do a "3-legged Roller Skate" trick.

Maybe the AC will arrive tomorrow.

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sunday on the Sea of Japan

Sunday morning found us re-packed and heading for the Sea of Japan side of the island. A funny side note is a couple of the kids missed the fact that this was "off" time and thought we were heading for church.  This is a beautiful drive through apple orchards, rice fields, and acres of fields of produce.

The old houses with grass roofs caught our attention - we need to go back to STOP in some of the small villages and grab some photos. This was interesting - framing a new roof right over the top of the grass roof. I immediately wondered if my brother, a roofer, would think THIS a good plan. ::grin::

We got out of town without a single map or atlas. We were very thankful for our hand-held Garmin and the GPS coordinates on my ipad. We drove right to Takayama Inari Shrine. This shrine is known for having "hundreds or thousands" of Torri gates. Torri gates are usually found at the entrance to a Shinto shrine or temple. Torri gates are said to mark the transition from the profane to the sacred. In our research we found this place is usually not crowded. Several sites mentioned Japanese consider it a "creepy" site, and there are rumors of several being kidnapped by North Koreans in the area.  Please understand we are ALWAYS respectful when visiting these sites...often various verses come to life in new ways as we visit. We find it very sad to see the devotion paid to stone symbols. We use it as an opportunity for individual prayer and, if appropriate, circle up and pray for the light of Jesus to come into these places.  Visiting these sites had added a new dimension and intensity to the concept of  "prayer walk".  We were happy to have finally found this spot. 

Must find out why many of the animals were wearing bibs

The white paper are prayers, there are offerings at its feet...and it's face is covered. The One True and Living  God of the universe waits for us to meet Him in the throne room. 

We did take time for a few "family photos" and kicked ourselves for forgetting the tripod. Maybe we'll go back in the fall.  

We really wanted to KNOW how many Torri gates there are....Michael asked Zander to count them. Given what we know about Zander, we should have expected this....

Yep, each and every Torri gate was touched by this child of Light...and I find meaning there as well. He came up with 207. His older brother and sister thought 200. Knowing the symmetry of Japan - I would guess Zander got distracted a few times - 7, to be exact. 

We studied the sign and found a couple of more things we wanted to explore. A path which seemed to go down to the Sea of Japan....and a spot marked with a cross. This seemed out of place HERE and so we decided to go grab lunch and then find the cross too. 

Heading for the beach and lunch - It was BREATHTAKING! We did find less trash, but we did not find any sea glass at this location.  No matter how much we looked, we did not find glass floats on this side of the island. 

Michael found this while walking up the beach trying to find some shade.  He had no idea what this is, but he had no inclination to kick it to find out.  Probably an old float or something like that, but it so close to China and North Korea...

Dragon flies everywhere - even on Michael's hand - which you can't tell

After lunch we went to find the cross amidst the Temple site. It turns out a merchant ship went aground here in 1889 and the villagers rescued 4 men...19 died...this is a memorial to the 19 men and the bravery of the villagers.

We had planned to go find Kurokuma falls - but decided the day was too far gone. Instead, we drove up to see Jusanko Lake. We didn't find a great spot to sit and reflect - realized this is a CHOPPY lake (white caps). We found the outlet of  Jusanko/inlet of the Sea of Japan....we stopped and watched the sun set on the Sea of Japan.

The wind was really blowing from the east.  You can see the spray from the waves is being thrown back into the Sea of Japan.

Sitting at the end of the jetty  - waiting for the sun to set

Walking to the lighthouse at the end for an angle

The older 3 joined us

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...