Sunday, September 30, 2007

Cross Country


Boys Varsity start September 22, 2007, Tama Hills

Since I don't think Patrick has even 10 spare minutes to write and tell you how his season is going, I'm going to give it a shot.

From the outside (Mom) perspective, he seems to be having a good season. He is running much better than he was in August and finished in the top seven on his team last weekend. This is a good sign since they take the top seven to the finals. But he isn't getting his hopes up too much yet. My sense is that he has improved in technique, and I know his times have improved.

Cross country is really tough. Several of Patrick's teammates are injured now because the training is intense and exhausting. Patrick is struggling with shin splints. Ouch! I remember that pain vividly from high school track.

They run in whatever conditions there are: high heat and humidity, soaking wet, cold and windy. Whatever the weather, short of a typhoon, they run. He came home with soaking wet shoes and socks this weekend. Two days later, the shoes are still drying out--even after a day in direct sunlight on our driveway and a night directly under the a/c blower in the family room. They'll be dry in time for practice this afternoon, though, even if I have to put them in the dryer.


Patrick mid-race at Tama Hills 9/22/07

One note about small world experiences: Last weekend at Tama Hills (Tokyo area), John noticed a familiar face in the crowd of varsity boy runners. It was a boy whom we had known in Yakima. He and his family moved to Germany while we were still in the U.S. and now they are living in Tokyo. He was a runner in Yakima, too, so a cross country meet was a logical place to run across him, but funny that it was a cross country meet in Japan.

This coming weekend cross country has their home meet. Hooray! I am looking forward to seeing Patrick run in a race. Hopefully, we'll get more pictures, too.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Feast of the Archangels



Happy Name Day to Patrick Michael!

We miss you and hope you had a good race today. Tommy called and said to tell you he hopes your race went well, too.

See you in the (early) morning. We'll celebrate this day later in the week :-)

Love,

Mom, Dad, Katie, Joseph, and Matthew

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

What a joy to have a daughter!


Last weekend, when John and Patrick were away at another cross country meet in Tokyo, Katie and I had a wonderful, cozy Saturday evening together.



We put the little boys in bed and watched Miss Potter, which I have been looking forward to since I bought the movie while we were home this summer. Katie and I both thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and it has been such fun to talk about it in the days afterwards. While she has always been a blessing to me, I think that as Katie grows, she will be my salvation in this family of males. I hope I will be hers, as well.

It is so nice to have someone around who understands when I want to set a pretty table or wrap a gift in a special way...or watch a "g irl movie."

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Cooking lesson



Yesterday, Kazumi-san, our Japanese tutor, taught us how to make Japanese curry. This is one of our favorite dishes, and I am excited that we know how to make it now. I decided to take a picture of the box of curry because I sometimes have a hard time figuring out what's what in the grocery store.



We can't wait to teach Tommy how to make it when he comes home for Christmas. It's one of his favorites, too. It was what he chose for his last Japanese meal at the airport before he left.

Hmmm...



Matthew did something interesting yesterday. I'm not sure what it means, but I want to write it down so I remember that I observed this at this point.

Katie, Joseph, and I were working at the family room table and Matthew was working on the floor near us, as we all usually do. Matthew had taken out the foam letters and the wooden alphabet puzzle and was lining the foam letters up on the floor.

He was working quietly when he called for my attention saying, "Mommy look this one matches with the grapes one." He was holding up the foam capital G and the wooden capital G, which covers a picture of grapes on our puzzle. I was surprised that he matched those but I just said, "Yes, that one says 'g'," giving an example of the hard g sound.

In a few minutes, he brought me the foam capital E with a sideways lower case wooden m. He put them next to each other on the floor in the line of other foam letters. Then he brought me the foam capital A and the wooden capital A and asked, "What does this one say?" "a," I told him, making the short a sound.

After a few minutes, he said, "Look at my sign, Mommy." On the floor were several lines of foam letters with the three matching wooden ones that he had found next to the corresponding foam ones. "Nice sign," I told him. "It has letters on it," he explained proudly.

He even put the foam letters away.

Today he worked on the letter puzzle again, and I noticed that he was able to get more letters in their slots independently. He moved on to the number puzzle. The numbers are harder for him, because there are a lot of ones but the colors have to match. He worked on the latches for awhile, too.

Then he and Joseph went out to the porch, and Katie and I noticed Joseph instructing him on the proper way to hold a stick to make a rifle out of it. They have been playing pioneers lately when they haven't been enhancing the fairy village in the side yard.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Baseball cake

The long-anticipated baseball cake was presented after dinner and a blessing last night.



When I started to cut him a piece, Matthew said, "I am a big boy, I can eat it big this time." (meaning he thought he should have the whole cake as his piece).



In the end, he was quite happy with his "big boy piece" that was "just like 'Jophus.'"

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Wish lists

Since both grandmothers said they would appreciate gift suggestions, and I suppose there are others out there who would, too, I created wish lists for the kids today. I did this on separate blog pages because I couldn't figure out how to combine lists from different companies in any way.

We'll see if this is easy or hard to use. If you use the lists, please let me know if you have any problems. I need to see if this will really work well or not. The lists are down below in the right column. Not all the links are working, but I have to run to the airport to pick up a friend returning from the States, so I'll fix it tonight or tomorrow.

Please do not feel limited by these lists. You probably have even better ideas than I do. And also, PLEASE don't feel you have to give a gift just because I made a list. It just seemed like a good idea to have a central location for this information because there are people who ask about it.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Feast of St. Matthew the Evangelist

Happy name day to Matthew! (and his Uncle Matthew, too!)

As Mass began this morning, our pastor said, "Today is the Feast of St. Matthew, the Evangelist," and Matthew called out, "It's my name day!" Thank goodness Father is very understanding of little ones.



Matthew has been excited all day. I hope he won't be let down that his baseball cake, which he requested weeks ago and hasn't forgotten about, is going to wait until Sunday, when Daddy and Patrick are home from Tokyo. The name-day blessing will have to wait until then, too.

But tonight, we will have macaroni and cheese and grapes and steamed carrots, his favorite meal. And Katie is in the kitchen right now baking peanut butter-chocolate chip muffins. She couldn't stand to see her little brother go without a treat on his name day.

What a blessing Katie is! An added bonus is that while she baked, Joseph got to have an art lesson.


A Prayer to St. Matthew
(from the back of Matthew's holy card)

God of Mercy,
You chose a tax collector, Saint Matthew,
to share the dignity of the Apostles,
By his example and prayers,
help us to follow Christ and remain faithful in your service.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Stuck in the past??

It was a good year, though: the year Patrick was born.

You Are 27 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature . You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

September Song



In September, red dragonflies (are they maybe juveniles?) are flying about. We see them every day in our own yard, but I haven't been able to photograph one yet.

Yuuko-san (our piano teacher) likes to teach us Japaneses songs that go with the season of the year. So this month, she is teaching us to sing the Red Dragonfly Song. She said, "American songs are happy, but the songs of my country are all sad." The dragonfly lyrics are very wistful--longing for happy childhood days. Still, we enjoy them, and the window into Japanese culture.

To give us the opportunity to learn these songs, Yuuko-san, gave us the Japanese version of this song book. It has words and piano notation for the melodies of the songs, including the Red Dragonfly Song, which I am supposed to be learning. (I am working on it, really I am!)

Yoko Imoto's drawings charmed me from the beginning, and I hunted through the bookstore at the mall for more of her books. I found several I liked, but hesitated to buy. Since we can't read the Japanese, I would really only be buying them for the art. Then in looking for a picture for this entry, I found her books in English on Amazon. Hooray!! More ideas for our wish list.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Rain 2

Last spring, Joseph and Katie lost their raincoats. They left them behind at a soccer game on a day that started out rainy and ended up with gorgeous blue sky. So they have been making do with windbreakers and sweaters. Until I found some waterproof jackets on sale at Lands' End last week.



They arrived this afternoon, just in time for the second outdoor rain adventure of the day.

Matthew is wearing a hand-me-down from his Wisconsin cousins. Thank you, guys!



The best part of the all-day rain for me has been the cooler air and reduced pollen. I am grateful for relief from both humidity and itchy eyes.

Music

One of the things that John and I envisioned when we first began our home learning adventure was sharing beautiful classical music as a family. On the "Why we Homeschool" list, it's a part of "We want to infuse the good, the true, and the beautiful into every aspect of our children's education."

Everyone in our family enjoys music. Over the years, we have been working our way through How to Introduce Your Child to Classical Music in 52 Easy Lessons. But with Tommy away and Joseph and Matthew as new listeners, we decided to begin again at the beginning of the book. And we have a good plan (we hope) for enjoying a lesson a week throughout the school year.

On Sunday at dinner, we will learn about and listen to a new piece of music. Then, each night at dinner during the week, we will listen to the same piece again so it becomes familiar. We are beginning with recognizing instrument sounds, and even Matthew could shout out, "Trumpets!" in the theme of The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by last Saturday. We are also using The Story of the Orchestra to look at pictures of the instruments and read more about each instrument family.

For Joseph and Matthew,the musical instruments puzzle is out on the shelf, and we always have our rhythm and wind instruments on the music shelves.



In the music book basket along with The Story of the Orchestra are Meet the Orchestra, Arturo's Baton, Music, Beethoven Lives Upstairs, and an old one from Jonella, Shining Brass: The Story of the Trumpet and Other Brass Instruments, by Daniel B. Tetzlaff. I am also thinking of adding new picture books to our collection for Joseph and Matthew. I have hesitated because we already have the music on CD, but I love the idea of musical picture books. One nice thing about books like that is that everyone will take a peek at them, even though I supposedly order them for the "little kids." So I'm considering.

This week, we are learning more about woodwinds and listening to Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev. Katie asked if she could add the composers to her timeline. Who am I to say no? So now, she has one entry in the 20th century along with her Ancient Romans. This is exactly the idea of the timeline, which I will post more about some other time.

Our study also prompted me to add another list over to the right. You can see what we're listening to each week as we work through our study under "In the CD Player."

Rain

It has been raining steadily all day. Everyone has felt sleepy (Katie even dozed off momentarily at the piano this morning), and Matthew woke up on the wrong side of the bed, which made for a difficult school time. But things are looking up.

A blur of pink, green, and black just streaked past my window. Katie, Joseph, and Matthew are out playing in the rain. It's a windy rain, but they were determined to go out. I suggested boots and umbrellas. After a try in their crocs, they came back for boots, but refused the umbrellas. Katie said, "It's a walk in the rain, Mom. If we use an umbrella, it won't be as much fun."

I think the cobwebs will be cleared and the moods improved when they come back in.

Update: They came in soaked in every spot their jackets didn't cover, but bubbling with laughter. Matthew went pleasantly to bed for his nap. Thank you, God, for your beautiful outdoor weather.


Thursday, September 13, 2007

And he's off

Patrick is on his way to Tokyo at the moment. We sent him off with a blessing and good wishes for his first sports trip. To him, it's no big deal. But to me, so soon after Tommy's departure, it's another reminder of how quickly my children are growing.

The cross country team left on the bus around 9:45 or so tonight (Thursday). They will drive all night and arrive in the morning, have a practice run tomorrow morning, lunch and study time in the afternoon. Saturday is the first meet of the season at Tama Hills Recreation Area near Tokyo. Saturday evening, they return on the bus, hopefully arriving around midnight. This is the routine we will follow for the next six weeks or so as the cross country season continues. We are all looking forward to the weekend when the other teams come to Misawa. Then we'll get to cheer the Eagles on in person.

Patrick's times have been improving, and he is hoping to be an asset to the team on Saturday. It's his first meet, though, so he is understandably cautious about it all.

Please keep him in your prayers for a safe and successful meet and trip.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Where's Tommy?

It's an almost daily question at our house. Matthew is having a hard time figuring this out. Yesterday someone said Tommy was on the phone, and Matthew thought he said "Tommy's home." So he went running to the front door looking for him. I picked him up and told him again where Tommy is (new photos!!).

It's clear that Tommy is happy and is growing in so many ways right now. And that gives us peace about his decision. But it is still hard to answer when Matthew tells me, "I want Tommy to not 'tay at Reach. He has to 'tay here, with Patrick...and Matthew...and DaddyandMommyandKatieandJophus." Then he asks, " Will he be home soon?" And I say, "He'll be home in December." He accepts that answer. Thank goodness.

So check out the photos of happy Reach Teamers at the link above.

Post Script: At bedtime, Matthew looked up at me with his peaceful, "I'm feeling happy," smile and said, "Tommy loves me very, very much." I heartily agreed, and after a pause he added, "I love him very, very much, too."

All's well that ends well.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Art Appreciation



Yesterday afternoon, I found three children happily working with our art appreciation materials. Hooray!!

For Matthew, who can't yet be trusted with the art postcards in folders, I borrowed some pairs of tiles from our "Art Memo" game and put them in a small, square box, then found a two sectioned tray and a work mat. Voila! Art appreciation for toddlers. We looked through the tiles and I introduced the activity the other day. (I have realized that I need a third work rug now--there must be something in the pile of Turkish kilims in the storage loft.)



Yesterday, he worked independently. He put one copy of each painting on each side of the tray to make matches. In the end he had two little piles of (mostly) matched paintings. He is beginning to be obsessed with interested in order and wanted the edges of his piles to line up perfectly, but couldn't do so by himself. This led to some frustration. So I will need to think about that in choosing materials for him. The storage box was satisfying for him because the tiles fit very neatly inside, but in the tray, there was more room for tiles to slide around and become uneven. As his fine motor skills improve, this will be less of an issue, but I will need to pay attention to this with him for awhile.

He still enjoyed the activity, and he especially enjoyed working alongside his big brother and sister.

Geography


Katie and Patrick are studying Ancient Rome this year. Katie is reading Famous Men of Rome, along with Saint stories and historical fiction about Roman times. Patrick is reading many ancient Roman authors of history and literature, as well as some Church history next semester. He dove into Livy and Virgil this week.

Our country studies always include map studies, and one project that all the kids have enjoyed is making relief maps of the areas they study. Katie's is the third map of Italy, and each has been a little different. I like that she included Vatican City, not just Rome, when she labeled her cities. She also did a good job of finding Italy's neighbors. Since our atlas is from the late 1980s, she had to look online to see what countries took the place of Yugoslavia.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Poetry run amok

One of the things we enjoy during the school year is memorizing poetry. Katie and Joseph have a lot of fun with this, and their enthusiasm is infectious. They practice hard to learn new poems, and they get to recite them for Daddy when they are perfect. Then we write down the pieces they have learned in their memory books. Someday, I hope they will read back through these poems, prayers, and Bible verses with fond memories.

We usually recite on Sunday nights, but Thursday evening, Matthew got up from the dinner table and ran out to the living room and started reciting a poem that he is learning. He's a bit young for memory work, but he has to do everything Joseph does.

He then returned to the table and gave it another try. Luckily, he was up for a third recitation for the camera. He loves it, but he is very silly about it. I don't know if he will really be able to memorize the poem correctly, but it is fun to see him enjoy the attempt.



He is attempting to recite "Time to Rise," by Robert Louis Stevenson:

A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon my windowsill,
Cocked his shining eye and said,
"Ain't you shamed you sleepyhead."

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother!


Birth of the Virgin (detail), Murillo

"Regali ex progenie Maria exorta refulget: cujus precibus nos adjuvari, mente et spiritu devotissime poscimus."
(Sprung from a royal race, Mary shines forth, by whose prayers we most devoutly beg with soul and mind to be assisted.)
Antiphon for the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

We celebrated Mary's birthday today with an ice cream cake after dinner. Because of my laundry adventure (see below), I forgot to bake the usual chocolate cake with white frosting and blue sprinkles in time. So John rescued the celebration with a stop at Baskin Robbins on base. My hero!!

We chose our bedtime stories from our religious holiday book basket. They were "Anne" from Once Upon a Time Saints and "The Presentation of the Child Mary at the Temple" from Tomie dePaola's Mary, the Mother of Jesus. One of our rosary intentions tonight was thanksgiving to God for His gift of Mary to us.
(We also prayed that the Blessed Mother would continue to bless and protect Tommy and the Reach Team as they continue their training.)


All clear

We were well prepared; we cleared out the yard; all after school activities were canceled. But the storm blew past by yesterday evening. The highest winds we had were around 37 miles per hour with heavy rain. The kids were surprised at how warm the rain and wind were. They are used to thunderstorms, which usually bring cooler air. The tropical storm brought warm, humid air.

It was a hot, clear day today. John and Patrick worked in the yard, and the kids played outside most of the afternoon. What a blessing our yard is! We have to work to keep it up, but it is very nice to have it there, with the fence to keep Matthew safe, and the space to let him run out with the older kids without being too far from Mom.

Patrick also got over to base for a run with the scouts who are working on the Personal Fitness merit badge. He needs to run every day anyway for cross country and figured it would be more fun to run with other people than all alone.

I did laundry. The boys' sleeping bags desperately needed a wash. Their Philmont packs arrived safely home this week--less than six weeks since we mailed them from Illinois. So I took a field trip to the Japanese laundromat and learned all about Kanji labels on change machines, washers large enough to do 35 kg of laundry (or 3 sleeping bags and a quilt), and dryer heat and timing. The washer was pretty much like the commercial washers in the U.S. Laundry goes in the front, soap in the top, money in the slot (lots of money: 1400 yen for the largest washer and 100 yen for 6 minutes of drying time--yikes!!), press the green button, and the washer starts.

Japanese laundromat dryers inform you of the temperature of the dryer at each setting: low is 60C, medium is 70C, and high is 80C. I'm terrible at Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions, so I took a guess and picked low. 60 sounded hot enough. Since I have no idea of the actual temperatures of American dryers on low, medium, or high, my conversion-challenged-ness didn't really matter anyway.

The bags dried in 48 minutes, so whatever temperature it was, it worked.

I washed Katie's quilt with the sleeping bags, but I was able to hang it out to dry in our sunny, breezy yard. I almost never hang laundry out, especially here with all the rain we get, but it was the perfect day to give it a try. The quilt was dry by dinnertime and sunshine fresh without the Bounce sheet ;-)

We had a pretty uneventful day when you consider the fact that yesterday we had a typhoon.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

A ccidental education

We weren't planning to start school this week. It was supposed to be the preliminary week. You know, the one where we bring in all the boxes from the garage, put away last year's books, organize everyone's memory boxes, get out this year's books and put them, along with the new books and supplies that have arrived in the mail, on shelves. I was supposed to be organizing Joseph and Matthew's learning closet into a more usable Montessori environment.

Patrick and I were supposed to be listening to the welcome week CDs for Ancient Roman History and Literature. Then we found one of the CDs was mis-labeled and we have to wait for a replacement.

Then this came up.

So we pulled out our weather and water cycle books and started reading about seasons and clouds and weather patterns and why it rains, and where tropical storms come from. Katie is doing a weather prediction experiment, and Joseph is experimenting on whether the shape of a puddle affects its evaporation. And we are looking out the window at the stratus clouds, comparing the past three days' temperatures and barometric pressures and wind (there is some this morning, but no rain yet), and checking the storm track to see where the eye of the storm will go. It looks like it will be west of us. We are on the east coast at the base of the "hatchet" at the very top of Honshu.

Katie will post some photos of cleaning off their playhouse so we could bring it up on the covered and sheltered back porch. We had to secure everything that is loose. But the winds are only predicted to be 50 knots, so we don't expect major damage, just a lot of sideways rain.

So please keep Japan and the Japanese people in your prayers. And we'll get back to that preliminary stuff next week. We don't like to let school get in the way of our education. :-)

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

What to cook when you don't feel like cooking?

Yaki soba:


Ingredients: thinly sliced beef, pork, or chicken; shredded carrots (1/2 bag), thinly sliced cabbage (about 1/4 cabbage), other veggies that interest you, soba noodles and sauce (locally made is best).

Stir fry the beef, then the veggies, then the noodles and sauce. Add a cup of water to the pan as you cook the noodles and sauce.



Enjoy!


Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Yummy

When late summer gives you overripe plums, make plum sauce!



We served it over vanilla ice cream. Totemo oishii des!

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Happy Labor Day


Misawa Air Festival, 2006

It has been mostly about the Misawa Air Festival this weekend. Every year, the Japanese and U.S. forces open the base to the public for an air show and Japanese-style festival with food, music, and other booths set up along the flight line. This is usually a huge gathering, but they estimated only 10,000 yesterday because the weather was too rainy.


Atop a Humvee, 2007

We enjoyed seeing the planes, especially the Blue Impulse, the Japanese Air Force's version of the US Navy Blue Angels. It is quite something to see those planes flying in formation, even on a cloudy day. The weather was better last year, so there were more flying demonstrations then, but it was still interesting to get up close to the jets, helicopters, and huge snowplows that clear the runway.

helicopter fans, 2006

We spent most of the weekend in activities related to the air show. Friday, we baked 6 cakes for Patrick's cross country team. The high school has a cake sale booth at the air show, which is probably their largest fundraiser all year. Most teams and clubs contribute cakes and each gets a percentage of the profit based on the number of cakes donated.

Saturday, along with the usual chores and errands, Patrick and I delivered the cakes to the school cafeteria where piles of cakes were being gathered for the sale. At the time we arrived, the cross country team had about 100 cakes, with another 100 hoped for. I guess we'll find out next week how many they sold. Since attendance was down, it may not have been such a great fundraiser this year and we may have to do another one sometime.

The festival affects almost everything on base. We don't usually have a Saturday evening Mass, but because of the air show, no church services can be held in the chapel on Sunday. The main gate is closed and pedestrians overflow the sidewalks onto the streets, so driving must be kept to a minimum.

We had fun with the schedule change, though, because there was a dinner after Mass. We visited with some families we hadn't seen much during the summer. Patrick enjoyed dinner with several of the kids from his Confirmation class.


Driving dreams, 07

Sunday we went to the festival, followed by an adventurous return home trying to avoid the traffic and guessing about roads. John is looking on Google Earth this morning trying to figure out where we were. :-)

Today we will probably help a new family move some of their boxes from the Misawa Inn to their new house. And I am going to clean out and reorganize Joseph and Matthew's learning alcove. Then the new family is coming over for a cookout. It's raining again. But we are glad for another cool day. And a relatively restful one.

We hope you have a restful Labor Day, too.