Capturing Moments

Life is moving fast. I need to snatch at some moments...capture the memories for our family journal...and I also need to go and print out more journals come to think of it. 

Smiling after her snow filled run 

I NEVER complain of trudging away on the elliptical....never! And if I should, watching Arielle come in after her morning runs puts it ALL into PERSPECTIVE! 

I was pretty proud of my Japanese homework. I had to write the romanji under the hiragana so I could READ it. Arielle is able to read it.  See the marks in the upper right? My name....I NEED TO REMEMBER THAT so I can write on waiting lists at restaurants. I've caused great consternation with my misspellings the past couple of weeks. 

The kids and I are having fun with our Advent Module in the PCOC room. We will bring this Fisher Price Nativity each week, trying to get a Christmas tree with names of Jesus on it this week too.....anyway....we had great fun watching the kids play with this. I dearly wish I could post some of the photos but I don't think the photo release covers posting on my personal blog. ::snort:: And THIS is one drawback of not scrapping and printing the blog.....so many great photos of friends aren't included.  

Note the carousel behind the stable and the dinosaur about to get Baby Jesus and the fallen people....earthquakes. Love these kids. 

"Mall Rats"

Many Christmas One and All from our home to yours! 

The kids were happy to go with me to the mall. "I" thought we were Christmas shopping but it turns out we were looking for snow suits.....and were SHOCKED to find they are over $200. We finally settled on pants (not very warm but workable) for Zander and Stacia. I'll have to try to find something warmer under $200 online. Arielle got some snow pants, as they ARE needed, but they were over $200.  OUCH. Nolan was able to get some insulated coveralls from Homac.

In the end we didn't buy this one as I wasn't sure it was quite big enough. Maybe I'll go back - it was the only one in this size and this was the biggest kids' size we could find. BUT I took the photo so you could see a bit of the charm of shopping in Japan.  Do you see the sign on the back of the wall. There are little slippers provided for you to wear in the fitting room.  And....::snort:: There I am in the mirror.

You never know what you will find that strikes your funny bone when out and about. Please understand I LOVE Japan...and I'm fully aware that my translations to Japanese leave much to be desired and also often result in laughter from native speakers...with that said...

Advice to heed?

We marveled at the Ladies Boutique titled "Boys' Room" but the following photo takes the cake.....just read it....

No comment other than....::snort:: 

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

Ending the Weekend

We ended our Thanksgiving Down Time watching Tim Hawkin's new DVD, "Push, Pull, Point, Pow."  The DVD hasn't arrived here in Japan yet...but we bought a $5 download and played it from the lap top through our "system". Note this "big screen" is only 1/2 the size of our big screen. ::snort:: 

Sunday found us back in the full swing of Chapel life....we enjoyed both the 1100 and the 1735 services this week. 

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

Proof-Positive

This apple wasn't overly sprayed with pesticides.....I am glad it's ALWAYS Michael that finds the little friends in our food. ::snort::  It's time to make another trip to the apple stand.

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

New Advent Helps

Please note the All Things Advent index below the tabs above. Eventually, I may create an Advent Page.

Here are a few of the things I've found this year. I'd love to hear what you've found. 

Advent Bible Study - from Good Morning Girls. This is free. It's meant to be done with your family, but you could do it alone. There are Scripture readings, S.O.A.P. pages, suggested family activities. It begins 26 Nov and ends 21 Dec with a Christmas Morning devo included.

Jesse Tree Advent Family Devotional - Ann Voskamp. This is the same package she offered last year. Also Free. These 25 daily readings trace prophecies pointing to the advent of Jesus, the Messiah. You will start in the Genesis and work through the Bible. There are readings, family devos (though you may want to summarize if your family is young), and a great set of colored ornaments to hang on your very own Jesse Tree.  In our family we tend to choose ONE devotional to do and then talk about these ornaments and hang them.....there were years we suffered from Advent Devotional Overload.....simplify. ::grin::  This is written to be used from 29 Nov to 25 Dec - but you can summarize passages and double up as needed if you want to follow the church's liturgical calendar with Advent beginning on 2 Dec this year.

Everyday Emmanuel - from the Buck Denver/What's in the Bible Folks. The same creator as Veggie Tales. We love the series.....this year they've produced a booklet you can purchase for $9.99. There are also combo deals where you can get this and the video below for $15.  This book has readings, activities, devotionals....but it takes a much more relaxed pace....it may take 3 days a week instead of 7.  Very doable for a busy family.

Why Do We Call it Christmas - We discovered this $9.99 DVD last year. It's 60 min long and covers lots of traditions and Scriptures about Christmas.

12 Questions of Christmas - links to these are included in Everyday Emmanuel, but you can find them on youtube.  Each quick clip has Clive and Ian (brothers from What's in the Bible series) covering one commonly asked question about Christmas. I'm downloading these to use in our PCOC programs at chapel. They would also be quick and fun to use at home for family circle time.

Family Inductive Bible Study  - FREE. We used this for years and it is great for older kids. There ARE coloring sheets for younger kids. Some years I've had the older kids do the reading assignments on their own and then the younger kids color the pages (making an Advent coloring book) while we all discuss the passages in our family circle. I find this to be a lot of work and some years it has been discouraging as we all fell behind...but it is a GREAT free study if you want to do it on your own, with a ladies study group, or in your family.

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

It's Been Far Too Long!

I offer this post as proof positive I am deliberately making much more time this year for relationships, self-care and playing. 

I did something today which I've not done in decades!  I think the last time I went shopping with girl friends (no kids and/or husbands) was with Beth Bowers and Julie Orrin before Krista was born.  At 0955 the doorbell rang and Marvie and Mandy whisked me away to go SHOPPING AT THE MALL!  Just three girl friends shopping....no kids, no errands, just fun.   Quite truthfully, through the years friends have gone shopping, done coffee, attended plays and not invited me. They've known how busy I am; they know I spend rare free moments with family...but this year...these two blessed me. First they invited me to go to Korea, spend 12 hours shopping and fly home. I was recovering from the flu and didn't pull it together.... but today....

We hit the mall! 

Marvie, Myself & Mandy

There is a story to this picture. It was so FUN to see a Christmas tree as we walked in the mall (see the doors in the background?) that we stopped and asked the gal there too please take our picture. She motioned for us to move on. Hmmm? We moved ahead and found THIS....guess most don't take their photos at the back of the tree! ::snort:: 

When we moved here I had one weight loss goal: I wanted to lose enough weight to be able to buy cute clothes in the Japanese stores. Marvie and Mandy encouraged me to try on some shirts and sweaters which were 30% off and guess what???? They fit...In fact I even bought some Japanese Medium.  Exciting. A whole new world has opened to me. I can't wait to go explore the rest of the mall. ::wink:: I did find a couple of shirts and sweaters. The irony is that both yesterday and today Michael has mentioned the shirts I was wearing were getting too big...but I've given away 8 boxes of clothes and I didn't want to give away any more...but now....I can replace them with clothes other than BX selections. LOL 

Yes - it is an escalator!

See that huge pile of sweaters? We found an amazing deal! Sweaters which usually sell for Y5498 and Y2498 were on sale for only Y1000 (about $13).  We spent quite a bit of time deciding which ones we wanted - there were so MANY to choose from and so many women to gift. Imagine our shock to discover they were not Y1000 - they were Y1000 OFF.  Ah, the joys of shopping when you can't really read the prices. ::snort:: 

I also discovered the MENS section had more colorful options than the women's section. There were mostly gray and brown shades in the women's department but the men had pink, PWOC turquoise, hunter green, red....I have my eye on a few cardigans... 

We got some Christmas shopping done. I was happy to find cute selections for all the female Gherkins and Shelby. I need to find something similar for the male Gherkins...but again they were 3x the cost of the female options. I'll keep looking. 

Why yes, it IS the same photo - but I wanted closer face photos! 

This was such a fun day! I was thankful Marvie invited me and Michael told me to go.  He put up outside Christmas decorations and played with the kids. 

Click for info 

The new Tim Hawkins DVD released today. I've got it downloaded, the kids are eating leftovers, Michael is putting the finishing touches on tomorrow's sermon and then we'll cuddle up and laugh ourselves silly with Tim.

This has been a very good season for us. I'm enjoying the fruit of hard choices made this fall in many ares of our lives.  In closing....

Many Christmas to you and yours! ::grin:: 

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

Breakfast

In the time of Facebook every moment of the day seems monumental and worthy of sharing. Do you care what I had for breakfast? Most likely not...but it made me smile. I thought about it....

Then I grabbed one of my tiny Japanese plates and had Sweet Potato Casserole...veggies are a very Japanese style breakfast...though I think the topping makes is more of an American style treat. 

Don't judge me. ::snort:: 

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