Autumn bounty

The fruit drawer is always enticing in the fall.


Time for a fruit salad. :-)

A fine new bonnet

I found this pale pink bonnet in the baby department at Jussco, a Japanese department store, a couple of months ago and have been waiting for Meghan to grow into it.

It fits now.

Sweet!

Morning

Facing east this morning...

5:32 a.m.

5:33 a.m.

5:34 a.m.

5:35 a.m.

5:37 a.m.

5:39 a.m.

5:45 a.m.

5:53 a.m.

O God,
your light dispels the darkness of ignorance of your word,
morning, noon and night:
Increase in our hearts the faith that you have given us:
may no trials extinguish the fire lit by your grace.
-from Morning Prayer, Sept. 26, 2008

Prayers, please

I knew it was coming up, but I missed the first day. Prayer and fasting for life began on September 24th.

Appropriate, as these are the autumn Ember Days (September 24, 26 and 27), traditionally days of fasting in preparation for a feast--in this case, Michaelmas, the Feast of the Archangels on Sept. 29th--and also to mark the change of the seasons. An enlightening article is quoted on Fr. Z's blog.

Is there a location near you? If not, you can get it started...or if you can't do that, you can still pray...and fast. I can't believe it but I'm giving up chocolate. Argh...that 40 days covers Hallowe'en!!

Please consider doing something during this time to give voice to the vulnerable and voiceless.

Here's today's prayer.

More beach photos

Misawa Veedol Beach is about 3 miles from our house.

In the shelter for a picnic

The sun is a little bright for our beach baby :-)

Digging away

Hey, it looks like they're having fun over there.

Matthew joins in the fun.

Splash!!

Things I learned...

...in second grade this past week:

1. A runcible spoon is a three-pronged fork, like a pickle fork, curved like a spoon. It is sharp on one side, like a knife. (poetry)

2. In our extended family, there are 10 October birthdays. (math)
If you have an October birthday, comment below or send us an email with the date. We wonder if there are more than 10 for Joseph's family birthday graph.

3. Joseph misses Tommy. (journal) He does, however, know that Heaven is even better than having Tommy home. (religion)

Cross country update

So I guess they don't run in typhoons. But not for lack of trying. Despite the fact that a Class 1 typhoon was over Tokyo this morning, Patrick's race was not canceled. The base where the team was staying was, however, locked down. The team was confined to the hotel, and the transportation office would not release buses to take them to the race.

So Patrick got a free weekend in Tokyo with his friends, but he didn't get a chance to beat last year's time in a 5K, which is what this weekend's race was. He was really looking forward to the chance to do that.

They're on the way home now. They were able to leave Tokyo by 11:00 this morning, so we hope to see them here before midnight. I don't know if any other teams actually ran the race, but personally, I think the race-sponsoring coach who didn't cancel in a hurricane is crazy!

Fun Friday

Sunshine. Breezes. A rainy week ahead. School work all done.

Must be time for a field trip to the beach! :-)

Context clues

Last week, Katie and Joseph both had language arts lessons that included using context clues to try to determine the meaning of new words. Yesterday morning, I had my own real-life lesson.

Matthew was helping me put laundry in the washer and bumped against the orange and white spray bottle on top of the dryer.

He looked up at me very seriously.

"Mommy, you're almost out of Yell."



I have to admit that it took me a minute.




Ah...context clues.

Cross country

Patrick is running for Edgren High School's cross country team again this year. After a rough start--all of us were affected at least a little bit by the rotten cold that became Matthew's pneumonia--he is feeling better about his running. New running shoes probably didn't hurt--I think his old ones were completely worn out, and I didn't even think of new shoes before the season started.

He was running hurt (shin splints in addition to the family illness) early in the season, but this week was feeling better. Today, he ran the mile in 5:54. A personal best. So please keep him in your prayers for safe travel on the weekends and for success as he works his way through the season. He would really like to make the Far East team, which means staying in the top 6 or 7 for most of the season. For fun, you can check his stats online.

He will travel to Tokyo again this weekend for a meet. It's a rough schedule. They leave here on the bus around 9 p.m. on Thursday nights and arrive in Tokyo between 9 and 10 the next morning. They check in to the hotel, take a morning run, eat lunch with the team, have about 2 hours of study time, check out the race course, eat dinner with the team and get to bed early Friday night. On Saturday, they leave the hotel at 6 a.m. for the races, which start around 9 a.m. It takes that long to get to the race because of Tokyo's horrendous traffic. After the races (girls race first at 9, then boys after the g irls' race is over), they head back to the hotel, shower, get some food and try to leave Tokyo by around 3 p.m. They try to get back to Misawa by 2 or 3 a.m. on Sunday. Exhausting!

This weekend, because of the coming typhoon, they may not be able to leave Tokyo as scheduled and may be stuck down there until Sunday afternoon, arriving back in Misawa sometime in the wee hours on Monday. The up-side is that they have the bus to themselves. The tennis team doesn't play in the rain, so they aren't going along tonight. Cross country runs in all weather except lightening. So Patrick's new running shoes are going to get soggy. Not to mention Patrick himself.

We're discovering that this is a sport that requires mental toughness, resilience, and determination unlike anything John or I have ever participated in. I have to pay attention to what I'm serving for dinner to be sure I'm giving Patrick the needed energy to run well every day--he runs 3-4 miles every afternoon. Patrick has to pay attention to keep himself hydrated early in the day so he can practice well. He has to rest well, too, which isn't a bad thing, but requires a lot of planning in order to get school work done. He can't just stay up till all hours to finish his work when he gets behind if he wants to run well the next day.

It takes a lot of responsibility on Patrick's part to do this and maintain his grades. He's in 6 honors level classes this year (Pre-Calc, Physics, History, Literature, English, & Theology). For fun, he's taking Architectural Drawing at Edgren. This gives him a chance to study in the quiet at the library on class days between his class and practice. It's a great challenge to do all of this, but Patrick is working on figuring out the balance. Some days and weeks are better than others, but he keeps plugging away.

Can you tell how proud I am of him for taking this on and working his way through it? There's a popular new book out there that says teenagers should do hard things for the glory of God. It encourages them to accomplish much and posits that our cultural expectations of teens are way too low. Patrick has not read the book, but I certainly do see him continuing to choose to do challenging things and succeeding at them--Eagle Scout, Philmont, climbing Mt. Fuji, running cross country. I can't wait to see how God uses these experiences as preparation for whatever He has planned for our son.

In the end, my greatest hope is that he will say, with St. Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:6-7).

Blessed Mother's Birthday

After watching (and smelling) all those cakes being baked for cross country and then taking them out to the sale, most of us were feeling a bit cake-deprived. :-) Katie came to our rescue on the Blessed Mother's birthday, September 8th.


Besides cake and ice cream for dessert, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Our Lady and prayed a Hail Mary at dinner. It was just a little celebration, but I think that with a new baby in the house this is going to be a year of little celebrations.

We all enjoyed the cake, and the kids know why we got to have dessert on a week night. Hopefully, our Mother in Heaven understands.

No complaints here!

Yummy!

Need a laugh today?

I literally laughed till I cried reading this story from a dad of 5 kids via Amy Welborn's blog.

Enjoy!

Back to school

The day after Labor Day, we started back to school. Which is why I have started several posts and haven't had time to finish and post them. I'm going to try to catch up this evening, since Patrick is leaving for Tokyo. This means he and I don't have discussion time this evening, and I have a free evening. :-)

Patrick is in 11th grade this year. Katie is in 6th (these are some of her books), Joseph in 2nd, and Matthew starting preschool. Meghan is in "lap school." She sits on my lap (or plays on the floor near my feet) while we work at the table in the living room. No you can't see any photos of the table yet--I'm still getting organized, and, like closet cleaning, my work area always looks much worse before it looks better. Here's hoping for a productive weekend. ;-)

Fundraising

One of the fun things about Patrick's participation in Edgren sports is that we "get" to help with fundraising. Actually, it isn't so bad. I find I meet more of his friends' parents when we get involved in these activities, and the cross country fundraising tends to be pretty low key.

Two weeks ago, we baked a dozen cakes for the Edgren High School cake sale. Every year, the school has a fundraising booth at the base Air Show. All the classes, the sports, and various other clubs, etc., bake for the sale (we baked for the cross country team). Then each group get the proceeds from its contributions.

Our Japanese guests love to buy the square cakes with no frosting pictured above. The school sells them for $5 each. They regularly sell every cake they have. This year that meant 2,000 cakes!

Next up, car wash! (anyone want to buy a ticket? Only $5 ;-) Darn, I guess your car does need to be in Misawa for this one). But expect to be solicited to sponsor Patrick in the fun run again this year. The team is trying really hard to earn enough money to buy new warm-ups. The old ones leave a bit to be desired in the style category. No one even likes to wear the pants.

First haircut

Sort of. I've been cutting Matthew's hair since he was little. But last weekend, he asked to go to the barber like Joseph.

So we took them both.

Matthew did much better at sitting still for the barber than he does for me at home. I'm thinking this is going to be a permanent change.


The result:



Too grown up!


Hey, mom, take a picture of me, too! :-)

UD fans

John brought Meghan a pink UD onesie, but she was sleeping when we took this photo. We'll have to post that one later.

Good Samaritans

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
--Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

Living as we do, in a different place every few years, it is difficult to build lasting friendships. When we do make friends, we rarely live near to each other again. So it happens, in emergencies like Matthew's illness two weeks ago, that I find myself on the telephone asking for help from people whom I don't know very well.

This has happened for one reason or another in almost every place we have lived. Life happens. Especially in a family. Especially, it seems, when John is away from home. ;-)

This time, the situation was made a bit less awkward because I could call on a family who have been neighbors through several moves. But I don't like to ask for help, even when I know people a little. I prefer the illusion that we are completely self-sufficient. God, however, likes to remind me that He has put us in a community for a good reason.

Last Friday morning, when I called for assistance, the phone was unexpectedly answered by the husband of my friend.

"Uh, hi, M---."

"K's at school working on her classroom," he told me, "Would you like to call her there?"

I launched in, telling him yes, because I was at the hospital with Matthew and Meghan and the other kids were at home. Fine at the moment, but Patrick would need to go to school today and Katie and Joseph would have been okay at home until noon, when I first thought Matthew would be released, but now we were going to be there at least until the afternoon, and so was he on his way to work (i.e. to the base anyway)? and was there any way he could bring the kids to me at the hospital?

It was a family day on base, I later realized, and I suspect that this family had their own family plans. But he never let on. He called his wife, my friend, arranged for our kids to go to her classroom with their kids, then drove all the kids to the hospital first so they could see Matthew and know that he was okay. I know this cut his morning free time short and that he had other plans for that time. He did it anyway without mentioning the inconvenience.

Later in the afternoon, K called and volunteered to keep Katie and Joseph overnight if I needed to stay at the hospital again. When we were released at 7:30 p.m., she proceeded to cook extra dinner for us to take home with us.

Other acquaintances volunteered to change their family's plans and take care of the kids that day, too. Several brought dinners during the week. Even more phoned to make sure we were okay, to offer prayers, and to reassure us that they were just a phone call away for help, if needed.

It is difficult to find a way to express the gratefulness that fills my heart for the support our family received that week. I know that it's what everyone does here, with spouses and extended families often far away. But the relief I felt just knowing that there were people to call on and the relief I experienced from those who stepped in to get Patrick to school, and to care for our healthy children, and to cook our dinner is beyond description.

I am grateful to God for placing us in this community and for giving us these friends. I am grateful to Him for His care for us through the hands and hearts of our neighbors in Misawa.

Tommy at school

John brought home some photos of Tommy moving in at UD.

His dorm: Madonna Hall

Tommy's desk

closet space

They bunked the beds to get more space.

So, there you have it--a typical college dorm room.

Before leaving, John also took some nice photos of the campus:

chapel

See you in December, Tommy! Don't forget to call and email. :-) We miss you and we love you!!