Saturday, August 30, 2008

Prayer request

Joseph, Matthew, and Meghan are sick. And, of course, John is away. He's with Tommy at orientation and then on his way to a quick visit at home.

Joseph has a serious cold, but is getting better, although he is still very worn out from fighting it. He has taken an afternoon nap every day this week.

Matthew has pneumonia. He started with Joseph's cold and it only got worse so that by Thursday afternoon he had a fever of 101: lower than Joseph's 103, but enough to convince me to take him home and put him in bed. He slept through dinner and when I went to check on him as I was going to bed, he was having a hard time breathing. He asked for dinner then, so I fed him, we brushed teeth, and I put him back in bed. His breathing was rapid and shallow, so I kept an eye on him After he fell asleep, his breathing didn't slow down at all. When I checked on him before I went to bed, he was taking 60 breaths a minute. Way too many. So I woke him up, told him we were going to see the doctor and drove with him and Meghan to the hospital.

We spent Thursday night and all day Friday in the hospital on base with him. They released him to home care with amoxicillan, steriods, and albuterol Friday night. I spent the night on the floor next to his bed so I could give him albuterol immediately if he should need it at a time not on the every 6 hours schedule. Thankfully, he didn't need it any extra times and we both slept a lot better than we had in the hospital.

Saturday, he was much, much better, playing normally, singing as he does about everything, and cheerfully eating his yogurt and bananas. Because of course, the amoxicillan gave him diarhhea. The doctor saw him for a follow-up on Saturday evening after we went to Mass (we had to go to base anyway for the doctor's appointment, so we hid in the back of the auditorium and slipped out right away when Mass was over). I needed that Communion so much!

The doctor said Matthew is doing very well, but still has the wheeze in his right lung and congestion in the left. So we need a follow-up with the pediatrician early next week. Matthew has been amazing through all of it. I'll have to write more about the hospital experience later because he was such a trooper.

Meghan now has a congested cold and is draining and sneezing but not coughing much. She was with me at the follow-up so the doctor took a listen to her lungs and told me it sounds like she has the same cold as Matthew, but it isn't pneumonia, just a cold. So I put a pillow under the head of her mattress, and as I type, I'm listening to her breathe. I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep much tonight either.

Praise God, Matthew and Joseph are both sleeping peacefully and breathing regularly at the moment.

But if you have time for a few prayers, we could sure use them.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Play time

Meghan has only been interested in looking at her toys until the last few days. Today, John and I came home from running a couple of errands and found her on the floor doing this:





Patrick and Katie said she had been happily playing there for at least 10 minutes. Good toy, Grandmom & Papapa. And cute outfit, Grandma. Thanks everyone!!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Great Egrets

We've been seeing these large, white birds in the rice fields quite often lately, and today, Katie, Joseph, and Matthew saw them fly over the house, low enough to see colors. Since we don't have a Japanese bird book, we did a little internet research after their sighting.

We think they are Great Egrets (Ardea alba), called Chu-dai Sagi in Japanese. Here's why:

--neck tucked under during flight
--all white plumage
--black legs
--yellow beak

But we aren't completely sure because one that I saw in flight yesterday looked like it had darker patches under the wings, or at the ends of the wings. So that was odd. The others we have seen are all white. Maybe what I saw yesterday was a different bird. Or a juvenile? I'm not sure when nesting would happen here, since it's a short summer, but I would think they must be fledged by now.

We always seem to see them when we're driving, so it is difficult to observe closely. I keep hoping to see some while I'm out on a walk, but so far it hasn't happened.


Joseph noticed these in a rice field along the road we regularly take to base, and we struck out onto the field road to try for a closer photo of them. While the van was hidden behind some tall grass, they didn't seem to mind our presence.



Unfortunately, when I pulled forward a little to try to get a closer photo, it spooked them, and off they flew.


We are hoping for another chance to take a close-up photo. They are magnificent birds.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Missing Tommy

It isn't supposed to be so hard to let your children go, is it?

We are all missing Tommy so much this week. Last week, it was easier somehow. Maybe it felt like he was just away on a short trip and would be back soon. I don't know. But the last couple of days the reality has hit all of us.

His place at the table will be empty until Christmas break.

You would think we would be used to this, since Tommy already spent part of last year back in the States. Maybe it's harder because we can't all go with him to get him settled and see him in his dorm room and look around the campus with him. Thankfully, John will get to go, and he promises to bring back pictures. A hopeful and comforting promise, for which I am grateful.

Tonight Matthew prayed, "God bless Daddy and Mommy and Patrick and Tommy far away and bring him to heaven and home safely to see me because I miss him so much."

And Mommy's voice breaks during the Angel of God. "Please watch over him, take care of him, keep him close to you," I pray in my head before I kiss and cuddle little ones goodnight. Not so very long ago, he was the little golden-haired boy in this top bunk. Not so long ago, he was studying at our school table. Not so long ago, he was the high schooler who was excited about taking a class at school.

Always, I know they are all God's children lent to us for a short while to love and nurture, to teach and discipline, to prepare them to live for God in the world. Today, this short while just seems too short.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Aviation and Science Museum


There's a special exhibit this month on dinosaurs at the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum. Forgetting that it was a Japanese holiday weekend (Obon), we took advantage of the nice weather Sunday afternoon to visit. the museum was more crowded than I have ever seen it, but we still were able to enjoy all the exhibits without too much waiting.

Outside are at least a dozen aircraft to explore.



The kids even got to climb into the pilot and navigator seats of one. (sorry for the poor quality of the photos--I forgot the camera and had to use my phone)



Inside, there are some great interactive exhibits on the physics of flight, but it was too dark for photos. Also, we had fun with the T-Rex dinosaur movie (which Joseph now wishes to own) and exhibit of fossil reproductions and an autotronic T-Rex, which Matthew looked over from afar and then reassured me, "It's okay, Mommy, it's fake."

They also have this fanciful wood flying machine that reminds me of some of the intricate clocks we saw on buildings in Germany.

A fun and educational afternoon.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Happy Birthday...


to my mom!!

Thank you for all your love and support and advice and recipes and especially for all the listening you do during long-distance phone conversations. I love you.

May God grant you many years,

With much love from all of us.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Happy Birthday...


to John's mom.

We wish you a wonderful day. May God grant you many years.

With much love from all of us--and real photos on the way to you in the mail ;-)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Feast of the Assumption



Today is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven.

We celebrated with an afternoon tea party with the other Catholic home schooling family in town and dinner out with our family. At tea we ate fresh peaches and homemade shortbread with our Constant Comment tea. I like that one for Marian feasts because of the Bible verse about Mary as the "sweet spice of heaven."

But we couldn't go to Mass. There wasn't a Mass anywhere in Misawa. Our pastor is away on official travel (TDY). And for some reason, this isn't a holy day of obligation in Japan, so there wasn't a Mass at the local parish either. We have a dispensation from our archbishop because of the extenuating circumstances, but it really doesn't feel right not to celebrate this day at Mass.

Thankfully, we will have Sunday celebrations even though our pastor is away. The pastor of the local parish will come and say Saturday night Masses for us for the next several weeks. We are very blessed that he is able to do this. He is elderly and is already covering two parishes--one in Misawa and one in Towada--because the pastor of the Towada parish passed away and their bishop (Diocese of Sendai) doesn't have anyone to send.

You can be sure we are offering our rosary tonight for an increase in vocations to the priesthood in both Japan and the United States. Will you please join us in that prayer?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Summer feast


Japanese dry curry and watermelon. Spicy and sweet!

And ice cream cones for dessert--we're celebrating the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, founder of the Militia Immaculata , missionary in Nagasaki, Japan, in the early 1930s, and martyr at Auschwitz. Not to mention one of the patrons of our homeschool. :-)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Resting in the Lord

Family rosary was in the little boys' room tonight. Matthew and Joseph were on their way to bed when we remembered that we hadn't prayed our rosary yet, even though we really wanted to since today is the 13th--the day we remember Fatima each month. He made it to about the 4th decade: the Assumption of Mary into heaven. Then the peace of the prayer overtook him.

We pray for all of Matthew's intentions: "for the Purgatory and the souls, for Tommy because I really miss him so much, so he will travel safely, for all the Catholics so they will go to heaven."

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Sunday sweet


After Mass, we often stop at the Japanese grocery store, Universe, to pick up donuts or croissants for brunch. Today, I found this. Cute and yummy!

Saturday

Boy Scouts motorboating:



on Lake Ogawara



Waiting for the boat to come in

Grade schoolers play-ing:


Little Stinkers ;-)


Nobility and Royal Guards

The cast

Skunk #7

Guard #1


Merry players

Name day dinner:


Boy, Katie, your burger sure looks good!


Tuckered out!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

What I found...

...when I came downstairs this morning:



Patrick's friend Rye stayed over last night. Apparently, it takes a lot of sugar to keep awake until sunrise. That and the extended version of Lord of the Rings on DVD.




Ahhh.....teenagers :-)

Friday, August 8, 2008

Heard from

Tommy.

He arrived safely in Yakima and is having a pleasant visit with Mark and his family. He'll get a chance to visit Mary, Jesse & Rachel and family, and other Yakima friends during the week.

Friday, he went to his eye doctor appointment and ordered new contacts. When he gets his watch battery replaced, he'll have done all the errands I assigned him, and he can just enjoy being in the USA.

Happy Name Day


To Joseph Dominic. May St. Dominic pray for you and God bless you always.

The name day dinner will take place Saturday night--dinner out at the bowling alley between performances of Robin Hood. The dessert is frozen lemon cream from Betty Crocker's Cookbook. If it's yummy, we may repeat it at our Assumption Day tea. ;-)

Monday, August 4, 2008

2 months

Meghan's two-month check-up was yesterday afternoon. She weighs 12 lbs, 13 ozs (93rd percentile) and is 24 3/8 inches long (98th percentile). Her head measurement, 15 3/4 inches, remains solidly in the 75th percentile. Dr. H said she looked great and especially admired her baby-style yukata.



Hot and humid August days require light, breathable clothing and hats here, and the Japanese have the cutest answers to the problem.

The only sad thing about the check-up was that Meghan had to have her first immunizations. Sigh...holding down a baby to receive shots is my least favorite mommy job. Afterwards, she nursed and dozed off, but then seemed to wake and had a very strange reaction--she seemed asleep with her eyes open , for lack of a better way to describe it. She did not respond readily when I tried to get her attention. Thankfully I was still at the hospital when it happened, but even so, it was scary. After about 30 seconds (or maybe less, passage of time was not clear to me), she woke up and focused her eyes on me and on other things around us and seemed subdued, but more normal.

After about ten more minutes she fell asleep in the normal way, but when she woke up, she was not her usual cheerful self. But then, who would be when you had just been stuck with two needles and fed the yucky rotavirus oral vaccine? By the bedtime feeding, she was back to her normal self, fussy when wet and hungry, happy and smiling afterwards, chatting with her pandas.

I've been administering infant Tylenol for her sore leg and hoping she won't have a fever today, since we have to take Katie to play rehearsal and afterwards some friends are coming for a visit.

I'm also thinking of delaying any more vaccines because of her strange reaction. I need to talk with Dr. H about that, but it really spooked me. Am I crazy for thinking of doing that? Has anyone else experienced this? I'm on baby number six and I haven't seen it before, but usually they fall asleep and don't awaken for awhile after vaccines, so maybe I just never noticed it?

In any case, she's sleeping peacefully next to me at the moment. Figures this would happen when John isn't home. Things always seem worse when he's away.

Update: It's Thursday and she has been totally fine and normal every day. Smiling and cooing as usual. Hooray!

What we're up to this week

John, Tommy, and Patrick are climbing Mt. Fuji with the scout troop at this very moment. They climb overnight and hopefully reach the summit near sunrise. John called from the 7th station mostly to see if his phone worked. I was grateful to hear from him. They are climbing well so far--keeping the group together.

This morning, Katie and Joseph tried out for the Missoula Children's Theater production of Robin Hood. They both made the play. Hooray! They prepare and perform the play in 6 days. The kids audition on Monday, practice daily all week to learn lines, songs, and dances and perform twice on Saturday.

Matthew, Meghan, and I get to take them to rehearsals and watch the play on Saturday. I think we will have to make several playground visits this week to compensate Matthew for his lack of Joseph's companionship. It will be nice to play with just the two littlest ones for a few days. Hopefully, I will be able to get some good photos of Saturday's performance.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

He's ready to go


Yesterday, Tommy shipped his luggage to the airport via Kuro Neko (Black Cat), a package delivery service. They have a desk at Narita (Tokyo's international airport) where he will pick up the bags when he arrives there on Wednesday.



I hoped it wouldn't be so hard to let him go this time, and in some ways it isn't. He is so excited about starting college that the enthusiasm is contagious. And UD does a great job of getting kids enthused. He has received a letter from his orientation group leader and a new student newsletter. He has chosen his classes for the fall, found his roommate on Facebook, and opened a Facebook page himself, since most of UD seems to be there. The t-shirt from Constantin College arrived Thursday--just in time. It is nice to see him so happy to start school.

The orientation activities, Groundhog Days, last almost a week. He will not only have the chance to meet other students, move into his dorm room, and finalize his registration, but also to attend a play (it appears to be The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged), a comedy show, a scavenger hunt, and daily Mass, see a minor league baseball game, and participate in a book and movie discussion group on the subject of whether virtue can be taught. That one got him upstairs looking for Plato on the bookshelf so he could pre-read Protagoras.


Whenever we say we'll miss him or mention how many days are left until he leaves, he says "Yeah," in a sad voice, but the look on his face, well, he looks like he does in the photo above. It's hard not to be happy for him when he is so happy.

And yet, I found myself in tears after Communion this morning. Something about the bittersweet moment when I looked down the row at all eight of us there together and knew that next Sunday, he won't be.

Friday, August 1, 2008

The simple life

Thursday, I had a busy day. It was Tommy's last dinner at home, which we call the last supper. He chose Chicken Marbella for dinner and baklava for dessert. So after I nursed Meghan in the early morning, I got up, put a load of laundry in the washer, emptied the dishwasher, and started cooking. The chicken went into the marinade by 5:30 a.m. The baklava syrup was made and I had a chance to shower before Meghan's next feeding. There were a multitude of other things on my list: another load of laundry, kids at work, baklava to bake, kids to sports, a couple of emails to attend to, school book orders to finalize, a van to wash and gas up before trading with friends who needed a bigger one for a few days, and all the little things that don't ever go on the list but make my mommy days ones of joy.

When I got home from taking Katie to "mother's help" where she helps care for a friend's toddler and infant while the friend has a couple of hours to get things done around the house, I put the rice in the steamer and pre-heated the oven. I called John to be sure he could still handle the transfer of Katie from mother's help to baseball practice. He could. Meghan needed to eat, so I sat down to nurse. I was feeling very efficient. Everything on the list had been done--better yet, no one was late for anything today. Hooray!

30 minutes later, I realized that I didn't smell the dinner cooking. Aaaaakkkkk! I pre-heated the oven but never put the chicken in! Quickly, I put Meghan down and got the food into the oven. "Crisis averted," I thought, "dinner will be 30 minutes later, but I'll just have the kids
put their pjs on early and we'll still get them to bed at a reasonable hour."

7:30 p.m. Everyone is home for dinner. The table is set, drinks poured, food ready. I place the chicken on the table. Tommy asks, "It's a different color than usual. Did you change something?" Aaaaaakkkkkk! I forgot to add the brown sugar and wine to the marinade when I put the chicken in to bake! Okay, regroup. Someone took the baby. I added sugar and wine, raised the oven temp to 400, and set the timer for 15 minutes. On to night prayer, usually after dinner and before bed. Schedule rearranged again. The timer went off just as we began our petitions after prayer.

We finally did eat dinner, but the younger kids didn't get to bed until 9:30. Thank goodness it's summer and we can do that once in awhile. Meghan, who had slept beautifully all day, which helped me get through all my plans, decided that evening would be a good social time and stayed up until 12. When she finally slept, I crashed, too. Oblivious until she woke me at 5:30 a.m. to feed her.

And so began my Friday....

I tell you this not for sympathy, but because in the midst of the dinner crisis on Thursday, I felt very inadequate and especially crazy for trying to do what we do in this family. My husband and children all reassured me that it was not a big deal, and we did all get to eat dinner and sleep eventually. :-) But I felt a longing for a simpler life.

Elizabeth Foss has a lovely post on this topic today. She reminded me of the proper perspective. Give it a read.

Tummy time again


Katie captured this photo this morning. Meghan does not enjoy tummy time, but she is lifting her head a little higher now.