Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Life...

Two days have gone by - time to blog.

Monday Jared  went in with Michael and spent the day watching children of those who have chosen to "voluntarily depart".   The rest of us did a bit of school and then took advantage of the gorgeous day to play outside. Several neighbors came out to swap quake stories (as they hadn't seen me since I made it home) and for the children to play. I believe we may be one of the only families in our two street neighborhood not leaving.

This morning I said goodbye to neighbors who were leaving and headed for base with the girls. Soccer up here has been cancelled at least for the month of March - sad for the kids; seniors especially. Gas rations, no soccer, working out at home....but today I had PWOC and Arielle had drama. That's two events to justify the trip in. I invited a few friends to join me at an onsen and stopped by the commissary - four errands. Yes, we all drove over in one car. Gas well used.

PWOC was a blessing of normalcy today. We don't usually have a corporate prayer and worship time before  studies, but Tara and Susane organized that today. It was just what we needed. Our numbers were low, about 1/3 of us are here...not sure if that's because others are busy getting ready to leave, or conserving gas (I didn't make our Monday night study due to the gas thing)...but it was SWEET to be with everyone again, to hug, laugh, pray, worship, cry......and then dig into His word.

This little one asked me yesterday if she could PLEASE take a bath. It seems she's not been allowed a BATH since the quake on March 11th. She loves her baths but 5 min showers use less energy and water. I promised her I would take her to an onsen.....so off we went today.


The onsens up here are heated by natural hot springs. The water stays a constant temperature.....and we were using someone else's energy - for which we paid....what a luxury to take a long, hot shower, soak in hot tubs for an hour....visit with friends....the hot tubs are an incredible STRESS RELIEVER and we agreed it was a needed thing to have taken the time to do. I was glad we got to do this today.  I may add it to our Tuesdays until we can get back to longer showers and BATHS at home.

We had several quakes during dinner...6.3, 6.4, 6.6 and 5's.....I have some wind chimes INSIDE which we use as a quake indicator. ::snort::

Mike, Jared and I signed up to go help clean up Hachinohe tomorrow. Arielle got a really strange look on her face when she realized she'd be home alone all day with the kids. She may not be ready for that quite yet. She's doing WELL...but I can tell she was really spooked by her quake experience.

Can't get FB to load this evening....and my cell phone is out....guess things aren't totally back to normal.

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