stuff

1. finished another doll sized sweater, gifted to Rose-chan's friend, Mell-chan

2. walked through the Bamboo forest in our neighborhood

3. painted tiny toes sparkly pink

4. refreshed by the idea of going to Florida. I'm not even there and my spirit feels renewed knowing I will see my Dad and brothers and touch the ocean again.

5. thrilled that we have a stop over in Portland, even an hour with friends is precious

looking at my bookmarks to plan orders for things I've been admiring that are free to check on the plane, expensive to ship by post

6. trying, everyday, to speak peace

tomorrow I will make pink onigiri.

cold

Another cloud filled rainy day here. This weather really can be a bit difficult when our main methods of transport are bikes and our feet, which are now soaked through.

Tally for new school year:

5 half days

2 full days

1 sick day

I need a break.

stand by me

While I sewed these silly cleaning cloths(above) for Japanese kindergarten I realized what a huge part of my life this machine is. I have spent more years with this machine than most of my friends, and I've known it longer. My first solo project: struggling to sew a pair of bloomers for Odyssey of the Mind, and therefore without human help, for four hours; making a gorilla stuffy for a school fair booth with black fur that shed EVERYWHERE; bobei's blue and purple princess gown now worn for 1 birthday, 1 costume tea party, 2 Halloweens and countless dress up days; the hundreds of headbands stitched in the middle of the night that helped support us on our last legs in Portland before moving to Japan... and oh! the things I've worn that were made on this machine by my mom, me always the concocter of projects.

When I was little - a warm East Coast Halloween black cat costume, a mermaid costume with a shiny tale and foot hole, my stuffed Easter bunny made from an old dress. As I got older - Romeo and Juliet Nurse costume, Joseph tunic, colonial maid outfit(which still fit me for bobei's 3rd birthday!), The Spirit Week CareBear costume project involving all of my friends, sassy tinman Spirit Week jacket, Rolf ears for the senior lip sync, Erzulie skirt, the presto change-o 3-in-1 design for Bonnie in Anything Goes, and my prom dress.

My mom passed the Pfaff onto me when we moved across country. We've always come to her in the late night last minute hours and expected her to come through, in the moments when our creativity has stewed for so long and is finally bubbling over.

I left this lady in the states back in August. What a fool I am. Tonight I uncovered her for the first time since her arrival two weeks ago and we hummed through thick layers of towel after midnight. It felt good to be back together again. I hugged her and whispered, "welcome to Japan."

metamorphosis

If you had told me five years ago today I would lead a bilingual Bible study in Tokyo I would have thrown my head back and laughed in your face with my vodka breath.

Is that enough evidence, folks?

we heart mouk

It was love at first online sighting when it came to me and Mouk. I ordered this amazing book from Amazon.co.jp around Christmas for bobei. Before we had moved from Portland I purchased All Kinds of Families from Powell's while falling madly in love with Marc Boutavant's illustrations. I love love love children's book illustrations and Mouk was just the sort of indulgence I could justify. A gorgeous and inspiring children's book I wanted to own and read to my future grandchildren and a story about a world traveling kid who tries news things and makes new friends...perfect!

So imagine our collective excitement when we saw this trailer.

So exciting! bobei had us watch it 7 times!

*after watching the trailer again today, I realized I forgot to mention that everything is better with CAKE. CAKE ga suki! Mouk ga suki!!!!

heartwarming handmade goodness

Thanks mom! It feels so good to have something handmade from family floating in the house.

Certainly has come in handy for tea party picnics with Grandma Becky over Skype.

images of tuesday hanami

climbing trees here and there

sakura and sake

that smile

playing ball games under mr. blue sky

drama

playground

I know this feeling too

flute player watched at bobei's fervent request

oh gray sky, why?!?

looking, looking...

found it!

(this is totally the face I was going for)

We went to an Easter egg hunt and/at church, but it was all so gray and cold it didn't quite feel like the sunny Easter's of my New Hampshire childhood. Last year our family had more focus on the Easter bunny, but it was really dropped this year. Bobei didn't mention it, so we didn't either. I guess that's what happens when you're a missionary all of sudden! Ha!

After church our friend, Masako, took us to our first Hanami experience in Niza(not far from here). We drank hot oolong from cans, munched on onigiri, played catch, and climbed trees. The sakura are in full bloom now and everywhere you look. On sunny days they shine like clouds and on gray days they glow pink white like snow that doesn't land. Many people were out picnicking with family and friends for the entire day. Some people had set up their own grills and were having barbecue, drinking sake and ignoring the cold weather to be together. Its incredible how people of all ages enjoy this beautiful time of year which is mainly all about flowers. I don't really know too many American teenage boys who would be jazzed about cherry blossom picnics. Shame, really.

But, I did have some not so cutesy-girl-collecting colored eggs-happy-Easter thoughts that were put on my heart:

See all these people? (And there were hundreds more, believe me)

They have no idea it is Easter.

No Easter bunny, no colored eggs, no hippity hop, no dying for sins, no savior.

And ultimately I don't want to go all missionary here, in this blog, but God really put it on my heart this Easter that this can't be in Japan. We can't be celebrating Easter at home with our Easter baskets, or at our churches, or behind the high concrete walls of the Christian Academy. We've got to honor the day that is most important to our faith and lives and eternal lives out in the open where everyone can see. So that people wonder, 'what are those people doing?' And then maybe they'll ask us, or they'll Google "egg hunt" and start to get a picture of the most important thing they could ever know. JESUS LIVES! HOSANNA! PRAISE THE LORD! I AM NOT DEAD! I CAN LIVE ETERNALLY IN HEAVEN! Not separated from God, not at the mercy of other people or my own sins...HE IS RISEN! I AM SAVED! Our own friends didn't know it was Easter, or really what Easter was and it made me want to turn back time and organize a giant Easter parade through those sakura up there so that everyone would know its Easter, man, and you gotta know it. So, there's the goal. A big community Easter parade, everyone welcome to participate, join as you watch, Portland style, Japanese style, waving sakura branches and drinking sake...but for the best reasons: because God made it all; you, me, sakura, sake, and Jesus.

Well!

Uh...ok.

So...anyway...

all in all we had a nice Easter.

'twas the night before Easter

by me

1.

An unexpected guest arrived at my home this evening.

She asked if she could come in and inquired about my Easter preparations.

"Have you an Easter basket I might call home?" she politely asked.

"Why, yes," I said, "Right this way, please."

2.

I carried her over and plopped her right into the basket to see if it suited her fancy. She seemed impressed by my hand-decorated jar of jelly beans.

3.

She requested a photo-op with the white rabbit

and seemed satisfied with our selection of classic Easter basket candies.

4.

She was a bit sad she was too small to actually play the tambourine.

"Its lovely all the same," was her soft spoken comment.

5.

But the big chocolate bunny really blew her away.

"Ohhhhh!"

6.

Without further prompting I helped tuck her into her new rightful spot in our humble basket.

A happy yellow chick, ready for Easter Sunday.

the end

*This post inspired by Bitter Baggage Seeks Same, and all the Coco books, sponsored by Grandma Carrie and the candy she brought here for us from America, and, no, I haven't gone completely off the deep end...not completely, anyway.

they started out white...

then...

Ta-da! Supery girly-fied Eastery egglies.

See how happy Bobei looks up there? That's because she's cooking. Not play cooking, not pretend cooking, but real cooking. The hotter, the sharper, the more flame; the bigger the smile. She's such a little mama. After the eggs were cooked she carried them around like little babies. She put one in her apron pouch and just walked around with it. Then she cradled it in her warm little hands, giggling and giggling.

excuse me

hopefully this helps explain why I went missing for a bit.

mmmmhmmmm

more on this later