Feb. 8, 2009 - I know it has been a while!
I know it has been a while since I have posted here. We are doing well in the new year. The girls have started piano lessons and are loving it! We have plans coming up for Valentines day so that will be lots of fun. Jason is leaving for Hawaii next week. I told him I would go for him, but the military would notice it wasn't him. Maybe we will all go next year. Rebecca turns 12 in a couple of weeks, I really can't believe it. The time is going by so fast! She is growning up. And she is a fine young lady. I am proud of the young woman she is becoming. We are still enjoying living here in Japan. We are starting to look for a house that has four bedrooms. It will be a big task to move, but I know that we will be grateful for more space. We are looking into taking some tours as well. I want to try and go to Indonesia next year. This year we will probably only make it to Tokyo and the surrounding area! God has been so good to us, even when we haven't been what we ought to be for HIm. He is taking care of us in a full way and bringing new people into our lives all the time. It is such a blessing to be a blessing to others. I have been learning at church about being a good wife and mother. And why we should be a good wife and mother. I know the answers to those questions. But it never hurts to hear it again. I always learn something new. I would never have labeled myself as a selfish person but I am learing that I am more selfish than I thought. Even when it comes to chosing my new house, I want what works best for me instead of being grateful for what my husband in giving me. I am going to be working extra hard at putting others ahead of myself. God takes care of me, so I should be able to help others and put their needs and wants first. I will keep working on this, as I don't think I will complete the journey until I reach heaven. But I really want to be a more selfless person and love others the way God loves me. Ok, enought about all of that. I could go on all day about that.
Homeschooling is going well. I have decided on curriculum for next year and am prepared to order it early so I can get a jump on lesson plans. The kids are really enjoying science and history this year. Rebecca has improved her writing tremendously. Melissa is working on her spelling. It is her least favorite subject but she gets better and better at it every week. Michael is reading quite well now. He can find verses in his bible and is working at reading them on his own! Kevin is starting the process of learning to read. He is so ready. He tries to read all the time. We will see how far we get this year. As for me, I have made some wonderful friends, and keep busy with other moms going to new places or just hanging out for a little together time. I love to homeschool! There is no better thing in the world. I love to talk to my kids and watch them grow and learn. What an honor it is to be with them all the time and get to enjoy them so fully!
Ok, I didn't want to leave off with out some pictures so I will post some of a recent trip to the beach. It was cold but beautiful. The woods we were in were very close to the beach so we did a little hiking as well. We have some beautiful new shells to add to our growing collection and had a wonderful Sunday afternoon as a family!
I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying this new year. We love it here and are enjoying the snow, despite everyone coming down with bad colds. God bless everyone!
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Dec. 1, 2008 - Making popcorn strings!
I have never done this before, but I decided that we needed a little something for the tree. So I sat all the kids down and we started stringing popcorn while we watched Samantha. The kids had such a good time. Kevin stabbed him self a few times, bad enough to make him bleed, but he kept at it. And I think it looks beautiful on the tree! Just thought I would share our craft for the day.
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Dec. 1, 2008 - Japanese Flower Arranging
A friend of ours took Melissa to a Japanese flower arranging class. She had so much fun and impressed the teacher. The teacher is a Japanese lady and spent alot of time with Melissa. She was thrilled when Melissa tried spicy fish cookies! I am proud right to bursting that she tried them and did not insult this kind woman. It is always good to know that your children do what is right even when you are not around.
OK. Now onto the arranging. The tallest flower is called the father. The smallest flower is the mother. The second biggest flower is the friend. The tallest flower is the subject. Everything is based around that flower. The other flowers look at the tallest so they can all talk. The things around it are filler. The Japanese don't use foam like we do. They have a metal thing that goes in the bottom of the container. They stick the flowers onto the spikes and it helps them to get water. There is so much more to this but this is what Melissa learned in one class. Here is a picture of her final product!
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Nov. 19, 2008 - Let it Snow!!!!!!!!!!!
So we got up this morning to a chilly day. And as the day progressed it started to snow. It was beautiful and fluffy and we enjoyed watching it. I drew the curtains closed in the living room and started reading The Secret Garden and had finished about two chapters when my oldest, Rebecca, said wow, it is snowing alot! We all went to look and what would you know, there was snow everywhere. On the ground and on the trees. It is just beautiful, but snow in November? It seems kind of soon for this kind of snow. But now my kids are happily playing in it. Jason has told me it should snow all night. So, I guess, the snow season has started here in Japan. And they weren't joking when they said we get snow here. It is beautiful and feels like Christmas!
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Nov. 17, 2008 - A blessing to me!!!!!!!!!
I just wanted to share with everyone a blessing that has come into my life. We have moved to Japan, and in doing so met our husband's boss. He and his wife are christians and support homeschooling. They have been wonderful and very helpful. Carmen has shown alot of interest in my girls. She had our family over to her house for dinner and we all played games. We played girls only games and had a blast. Then Carmen asked if she could take Rebecca, my oldest, jogging with her. They went today and Rebecca walked/ran 3 miles. I am so proud of her. Next Carmen wants to take Melissa to a flower arranging class with her tomorrow. It is a Japanese class. What a great experience for my girls! I really appreciate the blessing in the form of Carmen. And we also met a famiy that my husband works with who are homeschooling christians. That is a rarity I can tell you! They have shown us around and included us in their family so quickly! It is so nice to be around people that care about you and help you when you really need it. We have found a wonderful church as well. I can tell you that when you walk into a mission church to the military it is a special thing. You aren't a stranger to anyone. Everyone talks to you and everyone knows everyone else. They offer to help you any way that they can. What a blessing it is to be around so much christian love in a place where they don't generally believe in Christ. I just wanted to share with all of you. Please continue to pray for our family. The prayers are working! God bless!
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Nov. 7, 2008 - The Park in Japan
We went to the park with some friends. This park was by the Shimota mall. The lake is another park that we went to. The Japanese have beautiful parks. The ducks were so polite. They walked up to us and then just sat there, waiting for food. No pushing or anything.
We are really enjoying our life here. It is different than anything I have ever done. We drive on the wrong side of the road and we can only go aroun 30-40 miles an hour. I think the fastest I have driven is 50 and that was on a toll road. The Japanese are very polite and hard working. They run to get you something or to do their jobs. Even in McDonalds, they run to get the fries or drinks. We have a man that comes to our house every Tuesday and Friday to get and drop off drycleaning. They are very dependable. Misawa is very interesting to look at. The roads don't have names so everything kind of looks the same. Especially when you can't read Japanese. Their style and ours is very different.
As for living here, people on base are very friendly too. Everyone talks to everyone else and you get together with people to do things. It is like a giant family. There are lots of family friendly activites going on. The base chapel sponsers Awanas so the kids go to that and love it!
If anyone has any questions for me, please comment about them and I will answer them in the next post. It is fasinating living here and such a great homeschool experience!
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Oct. 27, 2008 - Finally Back to blogging!
Hi everyone! I am back to blogging. It has been a while since I have been on here and lots of changes have been taking place in our lives. We got orders to Japan while Jason was deployed at the beginning of the year. So we went into overdrive trying to get everything ready for our move. I was a crazy woman of course, but we got everything done and now I am writing to you from Misawa Japan. We really like it here. It is an interesting place with lots and lots of homeschool opportunities. The kids are learning some Japanese(me too) and we are experiencing a new culture. So now I will be blogging all about our adventures here in Japan. God has blessed us lots! I will try to blog on a more regular basis and keep everyone interested in our adventures updated! Have a blessed week!
