Tuesday.....

Five kids and I  left the house at 7:45 a.m. (after a LATE night on Monday with PYOC and PWOC). LOL

Jared and Michael went to the airport to say goodbye to one of our graduates who is entering Navy Boot camp. Hard day for our dear friends. Brian is their first to leave home...a whole new season of family life. Please pray for the M family as they adjust to a new normal. Some of you KNOW how hard it is to have your first child move out - imagine "college" was a continent away.

My Bible study class brought breakfast for the rest of PWOC this a.m. Christina provided a great devo. My care group ROCKS.

Arielle and Nolan were in charge of the homeschool room today. Zander and Stacia were warned if they presented trouble they'd sit in Mom's class with the grown up ladies.

Jared and Michael helped me load PWOC library books onto shelves.

Arielle went to two babysitting jobs.

Nolan, Jared, Stacia Michael and I went to to the terminal to visit and say goodbye to Kyle and Erika....yes of the fish and Tokyo adventures and so much more. It's an emotionally hard day for us when there are two precious goodbyes in one day. ::sigh:: But they Go with God. I'm wearing my "Yokota been there done that" sweatshirt....a bit of gallows humor for the three of us on that trip. I find it odd to be the only one still here who was on that trip.

We were met at home with a bunch of kids waiting to play with the kids. I'm the mean block mom - someone has to be. I told all they would be out when we were done with couch school. They got table school done at PWOC.  We read a bit of Genesis, read Pink and Yellow (or Yellow and Pink?), read some history and then cut out all these booklets ready to work on tomorrow. We aren't sure if we'll make a lapbook or notebooking pages with them.....

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

Shipwreck Saturday

Saturday is usually a bit of a bust around here. We sleep in - but most often Michael needs to go to the office to prepare for Sunday. Try as he does, with manning as it is, there just aren't enough hours most week to get done before Saturday.

THIS Saturday was different. Ch. S was completing a series.  It was nice to have us all together. We took Jared to his SAT test. When we picked him up we had several boxes of tissues, a cooler of food and ourselves....and we headed to Shipwreck beach.

In Michael's walk last time, he'd discovered a new access to the beach......off we went to explore.

Road was fairly typical for our adventures

We could drive right into Mutsu Bay 

Nolan found a float....but it was broken....shoot. 

We aren't sure WHY they spent so much time building up this area....but when it began to pour....

We were glad they had. LOL 

We love this area....and it always reminds me of such good friends who told me I had to keep trying until I found it....took me three tries to find it. LOL 


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

Making VA seem closer!

Sunday's off to a great start.....Susane caught me on Skype....and the world seems smaller again. LOL 

Friendships can take effort....but wow are they one of God's best gifts for the heart of a woman. Love you, Susane.  BTW, I love the color of your wall is that your dining room, office, living room? 


 Now to get ready for chapel. ::snort:: 


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

TGIF!!!!

Friday! Woot! Pizza and a movie. I think we'll watch Prince of Egypt tonight. It seems a fitting conclusion to week 3 of TOG Ancient World.  I'm sad that I've been sick and we've not gotten our lapbook or pharaoh masks done....but I'm a bit surprised with me feeling so lousy all week   - only schooling 2 days  - that the younger ones got a full week of school in. This makes me think  when all else is stripped out of our schedules homeschooling is a piece of cake. I will think about much more AFTER November. ::snort::  Maybe I'll have enough time after the "regional gig" (as some are prone to call it) is up to start an enrichment co-op for the kids.....something that I wish we had here. 


Today we all worked on our Japanese or "Akiko San" homework. We were to open this darling bag of panda snacks....

....and write down every emotion we see on the Panda's faces....guess what words we'll be working on next week???? ::grin:: We found 8 - Akiko San said we'd find 9. The poor thing was in love, scared, happy, sad, surprised....you get the idea. 

They tasted good too - if you're local - go buy yourself a bag in the name of education. LOL

My flu seems to be gone except the ache...and a bit of dizziness. The Cold has moved from my head/ears/throat to my chest....and I am not appreciative.... I AM taking lots of rest time....and I'm trusting I'll get into full conference swing next week.  Things really are moving along fine...I don't need to kill myself....I need to rest so I can go 100% next week. . . or so my family keeps telling me.

I'm taking advantage of being DOWN to read (click covers for links).

I'm reading this.... before I put it in the PWOC library....

and this....book 3 in the PWOC Book club selection series

And this... anyone local reading this and want to meet to discuss it? 

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

Operating at 40%

I got up did a full day of school, tried to do a bit of work on Conference, had a quick regional Skype, got dinner in the crock pot, let the kids loose in the hood and collapsed on the couch. I got up in time to set the table, cut some watermelon (a treat for us over here) and serve dinner. 


Akiko San came tonight. She spoke of goodbyes and that made me sad. 


Other thoughts or insights from the day:

• Emergen C and Airborne are now my drinks of choice
• Does anyone else have a child  who picks up a book and starts working anywhere...this causes confusion when mom is suffering with flu induced mania
• Stacia asked to "work out". I shortly heard - huffing, gasping and singing at the top of her lungs "God is GREAT, he Is AWESOME." I guess that's not TOO terrible of an impression for a middle aged mom to leave with her youngest. ::snort:: 
• I'm really tired. Going to bed and hoping to feel 50 or 60% tomorrow. 

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

I don't DO SICK

I've been sick since Monday....but I made it to the main appointments each day and spent the rest of the day in bed. 


Picked Mike up on Monday.


Ten international tickets were purchased  - and $9,000.00 worth of yen purchased (involving many stops).  


PWOC Bible Study was led. 


Volunteer Dinner attended and spoke at (not sure what I SAID as I couldn't read my notes because I was dizzy).


Orthodontist and clinic appointments kept.  And I SLEPT... a lot....today I'm up - but I'm going to spend the afternoon down, I think. 


Today, with nothing on the schedule but school and Japanese tonight....I am able to get up and not throw up.... We've been up, done school, taken care of a bit of business...meatballs are in the crock pot and I plan to nap until dinner time.....


Operaring at about 40% today.

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

We're Rich

Stacia loves to help me!  Today she excitedly showed me boxes and boxes in the dining room.


"We think these are PWOC STUFF!" 

How right she was....she loved opening the boxes....

It was fun to watch her excitement both for the books and for the opportunity to be involved in serving. 

We have started a PWOC library here in Misawa. We of the board knew it sounded like a good idea...we were thinking of the great material we'd like to get to women, but the difficulty in scheduling all the studies AND locating the material up here. Our thought was to stock some books on key topics so if some want that in a session when we AREN'T offering say a study on marriage we can direct them to some good resources. 

BUT we've discovered something more...ladies are EXCITED to have a spot to share their Christian books when they are done with them. Our base library doesn't stock many Christian books. The nearest Christian book store is thousands of miles away. This has been a great way for women to read a book and share with others....and a great way to fill the need as we were blessed with funding to buy brand new books in a variety of genres. 

We've already started the library but having this influx of books will be GREAT.  We have books on marriage, Christian living, parenting, single parenting, step families, church history, study helps, apologetics, fiction, suspense, biographies (for KIDS and moms), a few books for kids......exciting. 

As Stacia excitedly exclaimed as she unpacked box after box, " Books....PWOC BOOKS.... we're RICH WITH BOOKS!"  If you're local check out the selection under the windows in the conference room. There are instructions to borrow a book right there under the window ledge. 


If you happen to live in the states and have current Christian books you are done with, I'm willing to read your book and give it a new home. 


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