Monday, April 28, 2008

Saint Catherine of Siena

Happy name day to Katie and Mom!



What heart will be so hard and stubborn as not to be moved at the sight of such infinite love and the great dignity we have been given--and not because God owed it to us, but by his grace? None of us could look at this and contemplate it without transcending all , all our hardness and foolishness dissolved.

When we see and know our own non-being and God's goodness to us in giving us being and every grace that is added onto being, we will receive the most perfect light and knowledge of ourselves.

Let your heart and soul be set afire in Christ gentle Jesus, with love and longing to reciprocate such love, to give him life for life. He gave his life for you: decide now to give your life for him, b lood for b lood...
-Saint Catherine of Siena (click on her name to read more about her life)
(Magnificat, Vol. 10, No. 2, "Meditation of the Day", April 29, 2008)


Update: Katie asked me to share this quote with you, too.

"I am who am; you are she who is not."
-God to St. Catherine of Siena (Magnificat, Vol. 10, No. 2, "Morning Prayer" quotation before Psalm 139, April 29, 2008)

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Mystery of Motherhood

Melanie quoted a blog with some thoughts about nursing and the Eucharist that sound a bit like my own recent musings.

I mentioned the other day that I have found myself contemplating the mystery of motherhood more during this pregnancy than any other. When I was nursing Matthew, the connection of the words "this is my body given up for you" gave me great comfort. And in this sixth full-term pregnancy, they have come back to me again and again.

When John and I first began to learn about Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body, we ran across a Mary Foundation CD of a talk by Christopher West called "Marriage and the Eucharist." In it, West links the spousal gift of the body to Christ's gift of Himself in the Eucharist.

Over time, the gift of the body for another and its relation to Christ's gift of Himself have become a part of the way I think about marital love. Through my recent musings on why pregnancy is so physically, mentally, and spiritually demanding, in addition to directing a bit of mental scolding at Eve, these ideas of self-gift have been working themselves into my thoughts about motherhood.

The connections between the Eucharist and motherhood, sacrifice and love, pain and joy, all come together in these moments of sciatica and stretch marks, exhaustion and mental vacancy, awkward waddling and getting stuck in chairs: those small and great things suffered to give life to another. This also happens as I nurse my babies: my time is not my own, my body is not my own, and my brain still seems absent. Although I love babies and I love nursing them, with each of our children I have also had times when I wondered when--or if--I would ever find my way back to myself again.

Now I am beginning to wonder if I am not more deeply myself in those moments of pain and anguish and frustration and exhaustion. Because in those moments of self-giving, I am most deeply in need of Christ and at the same time most closely connected to Him: physically connected to His sacrifice, just as when I receive Him, body, b lood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharist. In those moments, I can brush my fingertips against the fringe of his mantle. I can reach out to touch Him, and in response, He will heal me with His presence, with His word, with His peace. If I pay attention; if I enter into this mystery of motherhood, it will bring me to Christ, and it will help me to reflect Christ.

This vocation of sacrifice that God has given me is my path to heaven. It is the path of every mother. And in it, we reside with His Son. The mystery of motherhood is inextricably connected to Christ's sacrifice for us, the Mystery of the Eucharist: "This is my body, which is given for you." (Luke 22:19)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Another busy weekend



Taryn wrote recently on her blog that more reflective posts would reappear someday when their lives settle down again. She got me thinking. I haven't written a really thoughtful post since Advent. Since January, this blog would have been nothing without the photos.

In considering why, I can see that life got a lot busier after Tommy got home. It took us a few months to adjust to having him back. And I have been getting tired more easily. I have to be careful to conserve my energy for teaching and getting the house ready for the baby. That usually means that the computer time must be the first thing to go.

I have several book posts I want to write--kid books and a couple of grown-up books--and some things I wanted to share about this pregnancy, but haven't had the chance to really think through enough to post on. Particularly, the mystery of motherhood. This is something that has been running through my prayer time and reading time throughout this pregnancy. It has been in the back of my mind that I should write about it for three or four months now, and I haven't been able to stop and contemplate fully or compose anything worth sharing.

This isn't really a good thing, and it makes me wonder how we suddenly got so busy. We are usually able to keep the schedules from getting out of control. It's touch and go now that kids' soccer and men's softball have started. Tommy and John are playing on John's office softball team. Katie and Joseph are on two separate soccer teams. Patrick's soccer season has two more weekends of regular play, then the Far East week in mid-May.

Maybe after the baby is born and I have to stop running children to activities and just sit still with our new little one there will be more time for introspection. Right now, I feel like I'm barely keeping all 5 balls in the air.

St. Martha, busy woman, pray for us. St. Monica, patroness of mothers, pray for us. Our Lady of la Leche, pray for us. St. Therese, pray for us.

Happy Birthday

to my Dad!!



Thank you for all you have done to care for, educate, and support us all our lives.

May St. Joseph, head of the Holy Family, always bless and protect you.

We can't wait to see you here in Japan in a couple of months!

With all our love,
Judy, John, Tommy, Patrick, Katie, Joseph, Matthew, and Baby

Minor disaster

Here's a new one. Yesterday afternoon during our piano lesson, I went out to the kitchen to prepare the tea. Tommy happened to be outside near the front garden talking on the phone.

I had a little extra time, so I decided to wash some extra dishes that had piled up and a bunch of the kids' placemats. As I was rinsing dishes and the sink was draining, Tommy came in and said, "Mom, you need to come out here. Leave the water running."

When I got outside, there was a small fountain bubbling up in our front garden. It appears that the drainpipe from the sink has burst. So I emailed the property manager, Makiko-san. Usually she responds within 30 minutes. But I heard nothing back from her. Since I didn't think anyone should use the sink, we ate dinner on base last night. Afraid we'd forget and pour more water out into the garden, I put an "X" of masking tape over the kitchen sink before we went to bed.

Still no email from Makiko-san this morning. At 10:30 or so, I telephoned, and she said she was waiting to hear from the plumber. It's now 3:45 p.m. and she hasn't called back. So I guess we're eating out again tonight. I'm wondering why they are taking so long to investigate this. It seems like kind of a big deal, and Makiko-san is usually amazingly efficient.

And we wonder how this happened. Was it during the winter and we never noticed? Or did it happen in the earthquake (5.8 magnitude) last week?

I'd sure like to have my kitchen sink (and the dishwasher, which drains there) back soon. The kids are excited now, but eating junky dinners on base will get old pretty fast.

Time to pray for patience (of course, this sort of event is usually the answer to such a prayer--I only seem to develop patience by practicing it again and again and again) and to Sts. Zita and Martha, patronesses of domestic workers and cooks. A quick prayer to St. Vincent Ferrer, patron of plumbers, wouldn't hurt either.

Hopefully, this will be resolved before the weekend. And thank goodness we still have running water in the house. Oh, and I'm thankful that we are renters and not owners at this particular moment. I KNEW there were blessings in here somewhere ;-) Thanks Blessed Mother Teresa for prodding me to keep looking for them.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Edgren Eagles Soccer



When we retured to Misawa from our field trip on Friday, we took Patrick straight on base for soccer games. The Edgren High School Eagles, played their first home games in Friday's rain and fog: one against M.C. Perry High School (Iwakuni, Japan) at 4 p.m. and one at 8 p.m. against N.C. Kinnick High School (Yokosuka, Japan). When the game ended at around 9:30 p.m., the coach sent them home to warm up and get some sleep.



Saturday morning, they got up and did it again. Again it was foggy and rainy. They had a game against Perry at 8 a.m. in rain and another against Kinnick at 12 noon. At least the rain had stopped by then.





Patrick went in in the last seconds of the first half of Saturday's Perry game and stayed in for the second half.




Not bad for a guy who hasn't played soccer since he was 11.



It was a tough game, but the Eagles won it 3-1.


With 25 boys on the team, Patrick has had to learn to live with playing very little this year. Not a particularly pleasant lesson, but he has handled it with humility and grace. At least he gets to hang out with his friends at practices...and it give him PE credit for the season. :-)



In the end, they won 3 of the 4 games, beating Perry twice and Kinnick once.

Go Eagles!

Field Trip, part 2



Indoors at the Jomon museum, we found a number of hands-on activities that the kids enjoyed. It was a nice break from the outdoor chill and misty rain.

Jomon era pottery is characterized by the rope-imprint designs on the exterior. John, Joseph, and Matthew reconstruct a vase:





Joseph tries to make fire:



Ahhh...a better method:




Katie, Tommy, and Patrick have fun with the computerized face-painting activity:


These look a bit like Maori facial markings to me.


Two faces are better than one, apparently. ;-)

Field Trip

On Friday, we took a field trip with the Misawa Home Educators group to Aomori, the capitol city of our Aomori Prefecture (like a U.S. State). The name Aomori, meaning "blue forest", comes from the color of the pine trees in the mountains here. The city is about 90 minutes away by car.

Our first stop was at the Aomori Museum of Art.




They have a small collection of mostly modern works, with a few traditional screen paintings and wood block prints. No photographs allowed, except of Aomori-ken, a huge sculpture.



Aomori-ken



The museum had a lunch room, where we ate with the group.





After lunch, we moved on to the Jomon era museum and Sannai-Maruyama archaeological site. Back in the early 1990s, they began excavations for a large baseball stadium in Aomori. But they found the remains of a very large Jomon era settlement. Instead of building a baseball stadium, they excavated the find, reconstructed more than 20 structures, and built a museum. In November, 2000, 24.3 hectares of the space was designated a Special National Historic Site.



We visited a different Jomon site last year, but Sannai-Maruyama was a much larger settlement, partly evidenced by the large community building. Because of its size and the quality of its structures, the discovery of this settlement, which was inhabited for 1,500 years, from about 5500 BC to 4000 BC, revolutionized ideas about the lifestyle and technological skill of the Jomon people.


There are several theories about its purpose. One is that it was a communal work area. Another is that it may have been used as community housing in the winter for warmth and safety. It may also have been used for village meetings.


Their construction was very solid--post and beam.


In the community building, they found evidence of a fire circle for cooking, heat, and possibly meetings.


The thatched roofs of the later buildings were made of reeds from the seashore and nearby riverbanks. The sea is now about 4 km away.



This large pillar-supported structure's purpose is unknown, but it has become a symbol of the site. The original vertical support pillars were a meter in diameter. In the domed building behind, Patrick and Tommy saw the huge pillar holes from the original structure.


Sign explaining the various houses found on the site. From right to left are earliest to latest.



One of the earliest types of pit houses with conical roof.


Later pit houses were built similarly, but earth was placed over the top for insulation.


The latest types of pit houses had thatch of reeds over the roof and sides.


A storage house. These were very similar to the ones we saw at the Jomon site we visited last year. It struck us in New Zealand that the Maori storage houses were built very similarly. Instead of thatch, they used wood sides and roofs, but the raised structure was exactly like this.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Signs of spring


The wisteria is budding.


The crocus will open soon.


The daffodils are coming up.


Suddenly, I notice that I need to get this garden cleaned up!


The neighbors hung up their carp for Boys' Day, celebrated on May 5th.
(also note the forsythia starting to bloom)





And the surest sign of all:
barefoot children playing in the yard on the second sunny day of the week. :-)

Monday, April 14, 2008

Cold climate farming



This morning, I made it out for a walk before the rain started and took some photos of the farmers' fields along the way. I don't know if it's because I grew up in a rural area or for some other reason, but I always find farming practices interesting.



Misawa is a small city at the eastern edge of one of Japan's important agricultural regions, and a large variety of crops are grown here, from apples and cherries to carrots and daikon to rice.

The cold climate means a very short growing season. There is also the challenge of the near-constant rain that falls in June and July. As soon as the snow melted, we began to see farmers out working in the fields, turning over soil, plowing rows, and over the last week or so, planting.


Last year, this field was of carrots. I wonder what it will be this year.

To keep the warmth in, they cover the rows, either with this gauze-like fabric:



or with plastic-covered arches, like little, low greenhouses.


My guess is that they have planted daikon under the arched row covers in the rear field.

It's still too early for rice. They haven't opened the irrigation to flood the fields yet,



but the rice plants are starting to grow in greenhouses.



I hope to get photos of rice planting this year. If I do, I'll share them with you.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Joseph update



What is Joseph up to?

He finished the first reader and has moved into the second. His latest favorite books have been Charlotte's Web and James and the Giant Peach. He is also working his way through our entire science-related non-fiction collection. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when he finishes all those. He loves math and science and usually participates in both his and Katie's weekly science experiments. It's fun to listen to him as he thinks through problems or asks a question and then begins to work out the answer himself.


A recent math project: Joseph made a graph showing the number of children in families we know.

He starts soccer practice this week, and his first game is on Saturday. He played soccer last spring, too, and is looking forward to it, although not as much as the baseball season in May and June. He was tired of gymnastics--it's tough to be the only boy in the class--so the beginning of soccer season is a blessing in that regard.

He is rapidly working his way through all the left hand parts of the songs in Suzuki Book 1. He is almost finished with the 100 perfect times of French Children's Song. Even though our piano teacher here had not heard of this activity, Katie found it so valuable that we decided to do it with Joseph, too, and the teacher is very supportive of our endeavor.



We have started to play piano recitals at a local nursing home. Every month, the Catholic women's group takes small gifts and cupcakes or cake to the nursing home. At one home, the patients are bedridden, so a recital is not practical, but at the other, there is a piano in the main room where we go to visit. So Joseph, along with Katie and a few other children from the parish, has the chance for a small piano recital and to "visit the sick and imprisoned" every couple of months. The residents and nursing home staff are very supportive and appreciative of the children's playing, even when the songs are very simple. Last month, one resident teared up, she was so moved by hearing the "Ode to Joy" played by one of the children.