thought provoking article

As a mother with young children I know exactly what the author was thinking when she wrote this article about the passing of Natasha Richardson.

that's also true

Yesterday Natsuki brought this DVD cover to me. I think she was trying to help clean up.



The Incredibles (or Mr. Incredible, as it's known in Japan) is easily our family's favorite movie. I pointed to Dash and asked...

Me: Who's this?

Natsuki: Dash.

Impressive since I didn't know she knew the names of any of the characters.

Me: Who's this? (pointing to Mr. Incredible)

Natsuki: Bob!

It took us a second to remember that Mr. Incredible's undercover name is Bob Parr. She was unexpectedly right! We are really enjoying the fact that she is talking more.

cooking inspiration needed!

It's nice to be back to blogging again. I think I missed the connection the most. It was lovely to have comments to read again!

I'm not much of a cook (mom, Hannah, stop laughing!) but I have more time now so for the last year or so I have tried to discover one new recipe each season that I can make my own. I've learned how to make a lovely Parmesean-crusted baked chicken, Shepherd's Pie and okonomiyaki to add to the list of standard meals that I make each week (yakisoba, spaghetti, burritos, curry rice etc.). My husband and the girls love each new addition and look forward to when I make each one which is awesome but lately I'm lacking inspiration. I've searched for a new recipe to try out this Winter but nothing stands out. I see a lot of slow-cooker recipes but I don't own a slow cooker so that doesn't help me!

Can you help me out? Please share your favorite wintertime recipe with me! I am in desperate need of inspiration.

Thank you.

2009

Happy New Year!

I feel like 2009 is just finally beginning even though January is almost gone. We've been either busy or sick, but mostly sick. Emi and Misaki's classes were cancelled for two days (gakyuhesai) because too many kids in their classes stayed home sick (15 out of 30 in Emi's class and 11 out of 30 in Misaki's class). Fortunately it was not the dreaded influenza. So they were home for two days which meant that Sakura and Natsuki caught the cold. Natsuki's fever spike and she had a febrile seizure. She was having a hard time breathing near the end so we called the ambulance and they took us to the hospital. I knew as soon as we boarded the ambulance and Natsuki took one look around and started screaming that she was fine but I wanted to have her checked by a doctor anyways. The doctor that we saw was very concerned that she might have influenza and not concerned enough (for me) about her seizure. Turned out that she just had a regular cold (which I knew) so he gave us some medicine (two different types of suppositories!) and sent us home. The next day Natsuki got a little dizzy sometimes and while trying to walk straight would drift off to the side or actually fall down. I finally had to make her sit down so she wouldn't hurt herself. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we are all healthy again.

But I did not intend to start blogging in 2009 by complaining. I am very excited about this year and all it holds for us. As the year progresses I will share more about our plans (if I can ever get around to starting any of them!). In the meantime I will show you the girl's Christmas pictures.

Even though it's belated, I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I look forward to reading (or hearing for the blog-less) about all the wonderful things that will happen this year.

what do you think?

We got sick again this weekend with stomach flu (Natsuki, Sakura, Emi and I). Not fun. But in spite of everything I still taught English on Tuesday even though *really* I wanted to stay home.

I'm having a bit of a dilemma about the students in my classes. In every class I have at least one student who is awesome. They remember everything, even new stuff, they improve each week and I totally love teaching them. This would be great except that the other kids in the class are totally awful. I mean really horrible at everything. There are two students (in different classes) who are confrontational.

I wish I could ask these kids to quit. I have been preparing the mothers for that possibility by having the kids take a series of tests (once every three months) so that the mothers can see that there has been no improvement (AT ALL!).

But I'm starting to wonder if maybe I teach to a certain "learning type" of child. Maybe the awesome kids are awesome because they think like me. This idea occurred to me before the summer so I have been trying some different teaching styles but I'm still not reaching these kids.

So this is my question. Should I just teach all of the kids anyways (for the money) or is it OK to ask them to quit so I can concentrate on the kids that are doing really well? Is that too snobby?

Another complication is that because of the downturn in the economy Chikara's company may be in a difficult situation six months from now. My ability to make money could be really important next year especially since we will need to pay tuition for Sakura to go to preschool.

I'm usually really good at making decisions but I'd like some advice this time.

all the songs run together

While I was gone Natsuki's English vocabulary expanded. I have been surprised everyday by how much she can say that I actually understand. I think that when she's with me I already know what she's going to do or want so she doesn't bother trying to speak for herself. I'm going to be more careful from now on.

She also is singing more songs but they are starting to run together. My favorite mish-mash is "Running Over" mixed with "I Love You, You Love Me" from Barney. Here's how it goes.

Running over, running over
My cup is full and running over
Since the Lord saved me
I'm as happy as can be...
...With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you
Won't you say you love me, too.

I'm trying to get it on video because there's actions, too! I even get a kiss at the end.

a little better every day...

I've been home for nine whole days and I still don't have my voice entirely back. Or my energy back. Or my strength back, for that matter. I do not recommend losing 6kg that quickly, although secretly (oops, I told you) I am a little thrilled. I have been unsuccessfully trying to lose a few pounds over the past months. No matter what I do the needle stays over the exact same number. OK, I haven't been trying *that* hard but I really wanted to to lose those last pounds of pregnancy weight. Also, I have never in my entire life been sick for this long. Ever. It's not fun.

... I want to clean the house but I don't have the energy. Then the house being so out of control makes me even more tired so that I don't even want to try to tidy up even a little.

... I know I need to eat but my stomach is only accepting a little at a time. Eventually thinking about having to eat or making dinner for the kids makes me tired.

... I really appreciate Chikara for taking such good care of the kids but I still need him to help out more than usual because, you guessed it, I'm tired. (He has been awesome, by the way)

So it's been going like that. I have noticed improvement and at church on Sunday a lot of the ladies gave sighs of relief when they saw me and said my color had improved over the week before. I am hoping that by the end of this week I have enough strength to start walking outside for some exercise.

Another side effect of being sick is weird dreams. Like, I saw on the news that it's supposed to get cold at the end of this week so that night I had a dream that it snowed and I got the girls all bundled up to go outside and play and then I realized that none of them had boots. They were all standing around in the entrance of the house in puffy jackets, scarves, toques and mittens but there were no boots. I was frantically opening all the closet doors looking for boots. I think it's related to the fact that I haven't been able to do as much for them as I normally do.

But I'm getting better. I am. Thanks for all of your well wishes.

thank you

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post. It was comforting to know there were people out there thinking of me and my family. I am so glad I went home for the funeral. Even up until the day I left I wasn't sure if it was the right decision but once I landed and saw my mom, I knew I had done the right thing.

There were highs and lows during the trip. Highs: I got to spend a whole day with just my mom and another day with my sister. Nana's funeral was lovely. Honestly, our extended family is so much fun to be with, even when it is for a sad occasion. Lows: I got totally sick with laryngitis and couldn't eat much. I lost 6kg. The low of this is that I missed out on eating a lot of good food. I usually gain weight when I go home. Hmm, I guess you could look at that as a high and a low.

Chikara did a great job with the kids. The house was even clean when I got home! Thank you to Abigail, Ruri, Eri and my in-laws for helping with the kids, too.

It's going to take me awhile to get better and get the house back to normal so there probably won't be any posts from me for a bit.

nana

My nana passed away last weekend. She has not been strong for the last year or so. When we were home in August she fell at her home and hit her head and although the injury wasn't that bad, from that day on she was just not the same and eventually had to move to a nursing home. I knew when I saw her before we left that it would probably be the last time but that doesn't mean her passing hasn't taken me by surprise.

So I will go home for a week to attend her funeral. My husband is letting me go by myself so maybe you could all say a prayer for him this week as he watches the girls.

I'm wondering when it will hit me that she is actually gone. I'm dreading that moment.

I have some catching up to do...

Back in September (hangs head in shame) I attended the swimming open house at Emi and Misaki's school. They are both swiming so well, actually that was one of the things that really surprised me during our summer vacation. Misaki spent more time under the water than on top of it!

All the first graders performed a song in the water. Misaki's in the middle there somewhere.

In between I went to the gym and checked out all the things that kids had made during their summer vacation. I had forgotten to take a pictures of Emi & Misaki's crafts so I was glad I had my camera with me.

Emi made this marble maze from a kit. It was a little complicated and about halfway through she had wanted to give up but she persevered and it turned out to be a really fun toy.


Misaki made this stage with paper dolls in it. We cut out clothes from leftover material I had lying around and glued them onthe paper dolls. We also glued the curtains and stage lights on, too. It was a lot of fun.


Then it was Emi's turn.




In these next pictures she was trying to pass to the next level. She had to swim 7m without stopping.




She made it to the 5m mark. She was supposed to swim all the way to the teacher. She was disappointed but I think she passed four levels this year so she was proud of that.


I'm so proud of my girlies!