Natural Food Help?

After placing my first overseas co-op order and realizing how MUCH shipping is going to cost...I found a spot that charges more for their products than co-op BUT will ship any size order for a flate rate of $4.99. Yes, even to APO and FPO's. I'm not sure if they ship priority....but I'm ordering the liquid stuff from them. ::snort:: Vita Cost....check them out. Thanks for the tip, Connie. I love that I can SEE the items and their ingredient list in one spot.

The problem with giving everything your own names in a family is that NOW I can't find the things the kids loved to surprise them with a box of cereal....so anyone care to guess what the Penquin cereal would be? What about the one that looked like puff squares? And - Deja, what is that cereal that Doug and I loved? It's SWEET....more of a snack than a breakfast..... OH - and GRAHAM crackers so we can have s'mores on the beach without paying for it for a week..... I can't wait....I have sunflower seeds (unsalted and hulled), pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and teriyaki without HFCS coming.......STEVIA...I have vanilla stevia coming for my tea..and steamers....doing a snoopy dance here in Northern Japan. We are so blessed to have that APO address.....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

"That Homey Feeling" and other thoughts

I replied to comment somewhere on here yesterday that I was surprised it did NOT feel like home when I returned from Hawaii. Which caused some old 70's song about some sort of feeling...."you've lost that..." to play through my mind incessantly. ANYWAY..... I've been pondering.

It never feels like HOME to me until friends and family from OTHER places visit and SEE our home.... I think I'm going to do a virtual bloggy home tour next week and invite y'all into our new home, because it's going to be quite a bit of time before any of you take us up on the offer to visit. ::snort::

However, today, I hit on another thing that makes a house feel more like MY HOME. I had three wonderful women join me for lunch and the start of a new Bible Study in our home. I'm calling it PWOC South. ::snort:: We're doing the study the "main group" is doing, but for one reason or another the time doesn't work for all who are coming here. I don't think I've EVER hosted a Bible Study in my home....I went straight to teaching in Women's Ministries in my 20's. This was lovely. Intimate. I believe God has put a good mix together.

Erika's presence ministered to me greatly. She's a 25 yo young lady who was homeschooled K - 12. She reminds me of my daughters. She says I'm a lot like her mom. She thinks I'll really like her mom too. She's the oldest of 7 children...and the youngest in their family is 4. Our family is sort of a mirror family of hers. She and her dh work with our youth. The other women blessed me as well. Windy, how incredible to have a friend in the neighborhood who can walk over...and now we can study together too. Twyla, you are simply a jewel.... I'm looking forward to the next nine weeks with these ladies (and any others who may join us next week). In the process of opening our home to those who ARE here, it helped ease the loneliness for those who CAN'T be here. (Josiah and Jamin, never fear, I'll keep the butterfly net handy. ::snort::) For those who are aware of my mixed reviews on previous Beth Moore studies...well...I'm EXCITED for this study. I could have done without calling it the "Book of Estrogen," or quite so many "girlfriend" comments... but the stories she shared will have me laughing for days to come. Frankly, I think I'm becoming more girly and touchy feely as I age. HORRORS! ::snort::

OH - TEA!!! This is the first time that I was able to pull out all the tea things and have tea with the ladies since we moved. Dinner's in the oven...meatloaf, leftover kaiser rolls, rice, salad, carrot sticks and tortellinis. See....the week is nearly over and I cooked REAL food all week. I can do this even in Japan. ::snort::

Psst...I've also heard the Beth Moore Daniel study is really good.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Kitchen Adventures

See, the thing about living in a foreign country, where English is not the primary language spoken and written, is when you want to venture into THEIR stores you are often lost. Why do I venture to Japanese stores when the COMMISSARY is right here and I could eat the SAD (Standard American Diet)? Because we want to explore, investigate, fully LIVE in Japan....and so we keep exploring.

Arielle was feeling fine yesterday....and sick again today. I wanted to make her some of our new "Ramen" this afternoon.

This happens often lately with bills. It's a strange feeling not to understand what you are being charged for. We signed up with GI Bill Pay a GREAT service offered here. We took one "bill" in and asked them how much we owed. Turns out it was simply a notice telling us we had signed up for cell phones. ::snort::

Just as I was about to add the flavor packet, I looked closer....

Ah....X....must not be the flavor packet.

Another little tidbit...the Japanese (at least around here) have a great way of making sure that we understand when the answer is "no" or "don't enter" etc.....they cross their arms in an X fashion and sort of motion in front of you. I've found myself doing it with the kids. They seem to understand clearly what it means.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Nikuman

This is Siopao. One of my favorite foods from my youth in the Philippines.

I've dreamed of finding a source of Siopao in Japan since early February. I've looked and only saw it ONCE...at the airshow.

Today, Akikosan brought Nikuman to the house.

Beautiful, aren't they? She asked first if we were vegetarian. When I told her no she showed us two boxes of these.

She told us that they are "Japanese Fast Food" - like American hot dogs. They are considered to be a convenience food and sold at places like Lawsons and Circle K - not the restaurants where I've been looking. I was so happy. They were oishi.



Akikosan told us stories of growing up and stopping a Nikuman on the way home from school. They are only sold in the WINTER (fall/winter I'd say as they sell from Sept - April) which explains why I'd not been able to find them. In the winter they are kept by the cash registers in steamers, WARM, all day.

I don't remember a huge variety in the Philippines. Here they Curryman, pizzaman, as well as dumplings filled with veggies, chicken, seafood, beef and pork. The ones we had were darling, but my camera battery was dead.

Not to fear, most the kids loved them and we'll go buy some more soon, I'm sure. In fact, maybe next week for Ladies Lunch and Bible study at our home. LOL

Our Japanese lesson was a lot of work and fun today. We had to write our names. The kids all earned red flowers at the top of their page. I got red corrections. ::snort:: We read the hiragana (not smoothly) for all the colors. We talked. We worked on introductory phrases. Mike came in at the end of the lesson and we were glad to introduce he and Akiko.

Akiko told me, "Sorry, De'Ettasan, making miso is very hard. You should buy it in the restaurant." BUT she did show me the hiragana characters to look for. Kim, I'm going to try some cooking links and find a recipe. Do you make Miso Ramen?

I was also glad that I'd gotten a small gift for her.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Success

We now have 3 personal computers that are running through DSL/FIBER OPTICS and not dial up. The wireless is working. I'm not sure WHAT the man did, but Mike understands. That was the best $10 I've spent in a long time. ::snort::

Skype is up and running on the laptop - with volume.

I promptly decided to change the header and then realized if you don't use skills for say 7 months, you get rusty. I didn't save the code...royally messed it all up...played around and will try to get it perfect later. I want to smash it a bit and get the frame to fit nicely.....and I'll be much more careful now to be sure I remember how to do something before I start in. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tidbits

{Shhh...I didn't really blog yesterday. I pre-posted the last two photos. ::snort::}

Here are a few tidbits from yesterday.

Local PWOC. I'm serving as the interim Children's Ministry Coordinator. I love the children, am learning to work better with other's children who don't really like Inductive Studies, continue to wonder about one little one with a snot fetish, and totally LOVE the fellowship with my partner.

I took the 3 younger ones with me yesterday. I really don't NEED Arielle on the weeks that Christie can help. She and Jared are able to stay home and work. I need to take the younger ones. Twyla is running a homeschool room and I so appreciate her care and oversight for my young students. I KNOW that Zander cannot work independently for 90 minutes...and there are older kids in the room every other week...but I so appreciated Twyla's willingness to work with him...even though Zander needs to learn some social skills and not fight with her son. I'm working on it. Twyla, you're a gem! Of course, we NEVER really get done what we would at home, so I continue to feel behind and evaluate Tuesday a.m. involvement. I feel a great need to BE HOME when I'm home because I know more travel is in my future.

After PWOC the younger ones and I did our big shopping at the commissary. The ladies loved my choices of 5 lbs of rice, Miso stuff, and noodles...but when I asked them if the noodles I'd chosen and Miso were o.k. they really frowned and tried to communicate with me. It appears I need soy noodles. I'm not sure WHAT the noodles I bought were for. I was sure they'd be great in broth...they said no. I asked if you'd put veggies over the top of them....no. I asked what you do and they said you cook them and put them in bamboo. OK - I'm lost. They ran and got me "Miso kits" but these seem to be glorified Top Ramen. I plan to grab a friend to take me shopping at the Japanese supermarket and we'll find Ramen noodles....fresh would be lovely. I know I can make Miso Ramen at home. I honestly didn't want the Miso Kits....but as often happens....once they are SO helpful I don't have the heart to say, "Nevermind, I don't want it after all". This accounts for several recent home purchases. ::grin::

Mike worked late again last night. The kids and I ate dinner (YES - REAL FOOD). I worked on the Protestant News. They practiced. Then we put on Narnia and vegged.

There you have it....I called Heronet and requested tech support. He'll be here today at 11:00 a.m. He planned on coming yesterday but since I'm clueless about routers and such I thought he should wait until Mike is home (today is Veteran's Day). Since we have "plan A" this will only cost approx $10 and we should have all 3 pc's and the wireless working.....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Normalcy

Yes, life is getting back to normal.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...