Not on the clock?

Screen shot of "Project Time Log"

I'm busy writing and editing today. I've mentioned here before that I'm on the look out for someone who can take over this Managing Editor's job while we're in Australia from June next year. People keep asking me how many hours a week the job takes.

Trouble is, I'm not on the clock. I'm not paid, and therefore don't clock in or out. In fact my usual modus operandi is to sit at this computer and work on several different things at (almost) the same time.

I can go from writing a prayer letter, to answering an email about the magazine, to checking a fact for an article, to answering an enquiry from the OMF website, to answering an email about another publishing project, to jotting down an idea for a blog post, and back to writing the prayer letter. In the middle there (if I'm being very naughty and disorganised), I could drop by Facebook. But I try not to! 

Does that sound a little ADHDish? I suspect I'm not the only person who works this way.

So from today I'm trying to monitor my hours spent on the magazine, we'll see how long I manage it for. I've found a iPhone app called "Project Time Log" that keeps a track of my time (as long as I press start on the timer). So far today I've spent (approximately) 1 hr 31 minutes and 24 seconds on the magazine. We'll see how long this diligence lasts! It does mean that I can't easily flit between the magazine work and other work, because that means fiddling with my phone. Maybe it'll help me be more focused.

In other news, we're getting a wrestling buzz going here. Focused training began more than

a week ago at school. The high schoolers train for more than two hours a day, five days a week. Even though our high schooler's been training on and off through the summer, he's been feeling sore. He even managed to score a bruised eye socket by kneeing himself in the eye. No lasting harm done. Don't ask how he did it (he couldn't even explain). When these guys get going there can be a serious tangling of limbs!

The first meet is on Dec 3 and I'm hoping to be able to go. The big talk amongst the wrestlers is the weight category that they want to be in by the time the season starts. For some of them that means losing weight! It seems a bit crazy to us: these fit teenagers don't have much extra on them. Some of them are still growing, and even those that aren't are still becoming men: more dense than they were last year. We'll see what happens.

In any case, the wrestling buzz is going off in our house, and the guys love to wrestle in our lounge room after dinner before going to bed. Tomorrow night our youngest son has his first over-night guest. I'm thinking that there might be more wrestling than usual going on tomorrow!

Japan Photo #42 answer

Last week I posed this question (here):

Can you tell me where I found these leaves for sale? Bonus points if you can tell my why I might spend 250 yen (AU$2.50) on them.

Well, I had few responses. Carol correctly guessed exactly which shop I found them (she's a local): a fruit and vegetable shop. And there were several guesses as to what I would do with them if I'd bought them, including use them for wrapping mochi (pounded rice treat) or onigiri (rice balls) or even in tempura.

Today I put the question to my two language-exchange partners. Though they are both Japanese, neither could come up with a good reason for why these were for sale in a fruit and vegetable shop.

The small-print writing indicates the contents are fruit, though they clearly aren't. So my friends' best guess was that it was a mistake.

So I guess we'll never know! Which is true for many things when you're living in a culture that you didn't grow up in. Many, many things you just don't know or don't know why. That is highlighted when you get visitors from "home" who ask all the "why" questions, many of which you have to answer, "I don't know." It is strange or even frustrating  to them, I'm sure. But, in order to not drive yourself crazy, you do learn to be comfortable with a high level of mystery about your country of residence.

Shocked and sickened!

Last night I was shocked to see a news report on Japanese TV that talked of the discovery of 1,699 disabled people who'd been abused in Japan in the last 6 months.

Here is an excerpt from this newspaper article:

The health ministry has confirmed that more than 1,500 disabled people were abused, most of them by relatives, in the six months through March this year.

Local governments nationwide received reports or were consulted over a total of 4,502 cases of allged abuse against disabled people in the six months after a law to prevent abuse of the disabled came into effect in October last year. Of this number, abuse was confirmed to have occurred in 1,524 cases involving 1,699 victims, according to the first such survey ever conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The survey found that more than 80 percent of the 1,524 cases involved abuse by relatives of the disabled people. Three victims died as a result of the abuse they suffered.

The TV report included more detailed information about one of the care homes that has been found guilty. They gave an example of a man in his 70s who'd come to live in the home after receiving a head injury 10 years ago. Since he'd been in the the home, it was recorded that he's had 70 injuries, three of which were broken bones. The report went on to quote care givers who said things like,

"We hit them to get them to finish their food faster. There were others waiting for it. It worked the first time, so we kept doing it." 

"He refused to get out of bed, so he was punched." 

"We all had our own threshold of acceptable violence." 

"Some patients were found to have been abused daily."

I felt sick! I know that in Japan these caregivers are frequently poorly paid and trained, and there is a high turn-over. But behaviour like this is abysmal. I find it hard to find the words to describe how evil it is to treat other human beings with such a lack of compassion and dignity.

I also know that this is a world-wide problem. I don't want to be judgmental, because I've worked a bit in this field and know it can be extremely frustrating and exhausting. Care givers endure a lot and suffer a lot of stress. BUT these people with disabilities often have no voice to complain. We need to be their advocates.

I'm glad that the laws have changed in Japan and this area is being exposed. I'm also glad to discover that Australia currently has a National project on abuse and neglect of People with Disability takes shape-5 August 2013.

Boys don't smile: some advice

How many times have you been in a group photograph with kids and had lots of trouble getting everyone to smile? With three boys, we have terrible trouble! I remember a family situation about four years ago. It was one of those rare times when all the kids and adults of a certain part of a family were together and a photograph was "required". One family, who've only got girls, couldn't understand why one of my boys wouldn't cooperate. It was nearly a very nasty situation!

We have a friend who used to be a photographer, well she still is, but not so much professionally these days. She's taken a a couple of great portraits of our family in the last 12 months and one day some time ago, she wrote the below (yes, she's also a writer) in a Facebook comment. I thought it had some useful insight that might benefit others.


When it comes to younger kids, I have found that every girl secretly (or not so secretly) believes she is a star. A princess. A diva. She *loves* the attention of the camera because it fulfills this desire to be paid attention to and adored.

Here is a classic case of a photo gone wrong (aside from
from it being out of focus). Clearly our eldest son
was "done" with photo taking that day.

Boys see it as an obligation, and obligations are not fun. So they don't cooperate as well until you make them forget there's a camera between them and the photographer. Get them to enjoy themselves/have the photographer say and do silly things with them, and they start to smile. That's why "fart" and "boogers" works best with them. They're not supposed to say those things, but they all find it funny, and so receiving permission (even encouragement!) to act a bit silly makes them happy... and they forget about obligation that comes with a camera.

It's not as easy as kids get older. They become self-conscious. They know people will see these photos and make judgements about them. Girls try really hard to make it perfect—perfect hair, perfect make up, perfect clothes, and yes, perfect smile.

Boys believe doing those things will make them sissies. And they are NOT sissies, believe you me! So they will do the opposite. They will not smile. They will be present if obligated to, but they will not engage.


There are exceptions to both genders, of course, but this is the general way of things. The trick, again, is to make them forget about the camera and all it entails. This is true for both boys and girls (since girls who try too hard look stiff), but especially for boys.

Appealing to their inner child works with some... again, "fart" and "boogers" were my best tools as a photographer to get people to smile, even grown ups.

Another option is to engage their creativity. Once they're involved, they'll forget about "the obligation of a camera and all that entails" and start to have fun. And THAT'S when the smiles happen.

How you tap into their creative, fun spirit depends on the kid, so you'll have to try a few things before you find what works. Perhaps make them the photographer, even if you use the timer. Have them decide what people wear, where they pose, what is to be said just before the shutter clicks. They may get a kick out of making everyone do goofy things, or perhaps they'll thrive on taking the role seriously.

Maybe letting them show off will work. Handstands, playing an instrument, flexing their muscles, beat-boxing, popping wheelies on their bike, whatever it is they're proud of. Let them try several variations/candid shots before settling them down for a posed shot. They'll be more relaxed by then.

For almost any age and any gender, giving the person something to do will usually loosen them up enough to produce genuine smiles. A task, an object in their hands, etc. It gives them something to focus on other than the camera in their face.

You'll have to judge based on your child's personality what will draw them out of their shell. One of the above suggestions might work, or maybe none. Keep trying... but above all else, remember that if the he/she is done taking photos, you stop. Even if you didn't get the picture you wanted, stop. Even if your hair is perfect today and tomorrow your schedule is full, stop. You will just have to try again another time. You will NOT get a good picture if you twist your child's arm. That's true for any age.

Hope that helps, rambling and long as it is!


The wisdom of the advice about having something else in your hands or doing something else, we clearly demonstrated yesterday. Our boys were cuddling our friend's baby and were very happy to pose for photos with lovely smiles: a rare event (the happily smiling bit) for at least one of our boys.

Photo a Day. Week Two.

Continuing on with this photo a day prompt this week. I'm posting them daily on Facebook, but thought a weekly summary here would be fun too because the photos do reflect something of my daily life.

November 4: Table. 

The physical centre of our home, the one place we all gather together most frequently. If this table could talk it could tell you some really embarrassing things about us, and some fun things too. It was given to us by friends. After we received it we discovered it also opens out to fit 8-10 people around it. A hospitable table too! I love this well-worn piece of furniture.

November 5: I collect . . . nothing actually. But my eldest son collects dice. 

After I posted this on Facebook my husband called me on it and suggested that I collect stories. A friend also suggested that I collect green things, hence what I posted on Nov. 7. 

Another thing I could have posted was my collection of rulers, especially ones with photos in the  middle. That is a static thing, I haven't added to it in about 20 years, however the collection is in Australia and I don't have a photo!

November 6: Music. 

I've been surrounded by music and musical instruments for as long as I can remember (especially pianos). This photo is of an inscription by my childhood piano teacher in a music book that she gave me. I owe a lot to her and my parents for putting up with me in my early years and giving me a solid musical foundation. That's not to say it was an easily gained foundation (she was very strict), but I'm grateful for it.

November 7: Yes! 

I love green, it always pops out at me saying "Yes! Look at me!" My friend April pointed out I could have put this as something I collect. It fits here too. I have many green things, from my precious emerald engagement ring to everyday cups and mugs.

November 8: Someone I miss.

Now this is a big ask for someone who's lived away from their home country for 11 of the past 13 years! And it isn't just people we've left in Australia that I miss, we've met many people overseas who we're no longer near-by who I miss too. I am very thankful, though, that in my 40 years, no one really close to me has died.

But when pushed for a photo on this topic, I'll include a photo of these friends. I miss the times we had together when we were "carefree" singles and childless couples. We've seen them rarely in the last 13 years, but even when we do, it's crowded and crazy. We've now got nine boisterous children between us (seven are boys) and it isn't quite what it used to be.

November 9: Mine.

My eldest son brought me this packet of Australian liquorice back from his recent trip to Guam. I was stoked that he remembered I love liquorice!

November 10: Book. 

This is a book I finished on Friday.  Most of the week it kept me up later than I should have been up. A crime thriller right up my alley. And bought cheaply at CAJ's Thrift Shop to boot!

Today's Creative Burst

We're getting ready for our annual end of November camping trip. Not much to do, except ponder which of our favourite camping recipes we want to eat (we have a collection now), and make some bags. Yes, all the camping over the summer has done-in a couple of our bags, namely one of sleeping bag bags, and the bag that the tent lives in. Important bags! 

It's been on my to do list since August, but, frankly, I haven't had time. I've been working hard on editing ever since we got back from our Hokkaido Camping Trip and then once school started we jumped into cross-country every Saturday. My creative free-time was tied up in making sure we had snacks for lunch-boxes and afternoon teas.

On Thursday I passed a significant point in editing for our Winter issue, so I decided to take some time to go shopping at my favourite craft shop for material on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately I came down with a nasty headache (that included chills and a bit of nausea). So instead, I lay on the bed from one o-clock till the boys came home.

Thankfully today my head was fine again and I squeezed in a visit to the shop. Found some suitable material quickly (thankfully colour and pattern doesn't really matter in this case, I'm dreadful at picking material to make clothes).

Nope, these aren't pencils. They are chopsticks. You
use the other end to eat with. We now have one blue
pair and one green pair.

I also enjoyed browsing quietly. It is a visually appealing shop, a combination of crafting materials and cute homeware products. I found a pair of charming chopsticks for our middle son. Now each boy has their own pair (again). They'd outgrown the cutesy chopsticks that Japan abounds in and new ones were desired.

Here are some other things I found . . . but didn't buy.

I can't figure out if these are to be worn
inside or outside of your trousers. Or perhaps
they are "room clothes" as Japanese
people tend to call them: clothes
that are suitable for "inside the house",
but not to be worn outside.

Um, yes. The "shorts" version of the above.
Confusingly titled "Over pants".

Almond Bars

I got home at two and have been baking ever since. I baked this new recipe and it's turned out fabulously! German Almond Bar. Very easy, tasty, and has the thumbs up from our most picky sweets-eater. Ticks all the boxes for me.

German Almond Bars
Knead together:
300g flour
150g chopped almonds
100g sugar
200g margarine
1 egg
vanilla
Roll out 0.5-1cm thick.
Cut into longish pieces.
Bake at 190⁰C until firm (recipe says 12-15 minutes, but I had it in there about twice that amount of time, admittedly in a slow oven).

At the request of the boys I also made some Chocolate Biscuits that require biscuit cutters. Mostly they specified that they wanted the Lego shaped biscuits (see here). I sighed, these take a long time to make, mostly because of the rolling out and cutting process. Cute, when you have little ones, but tiresome when you're making enough to feed hungry teen/pre-teen boys.

In the foreground is the "adult's" pizza.
It had homemade tomato sauce, with
chicken, capsicum, pineapple,
and mushrooms.
Delicious!

Then I moved straight on to making Pizza Dough. Commercial delivery pizzas are just too expensive here, so we never order them at home. Instead we make our own pizzas. We used to use our bread maker for the dough, but appetites have outstripped the bread makers' capacity and so I've been trying to make it myself. I'm still not totally happy with the result, so I'll keep trying. It's a team effort, saved for a Saturday night after a quiet day. I make the dough and David does the rest. Here's tonight's effort. It didn't rise enough, though. Either it needs to rest longer or it needs more yeast, or perhaps it needs both?

I wanted to get started on cutting out the material for the bags this afternoon, and maybe I would have if I'd been able to buy them yesterday. However I plainly ran out of time. Perhaps tonight, if David decides to continue working on his 3,000 word assignment for his Masters.

I'm feeling relaxed, but weary after this creative day. While I type this, my boys are wrestling in the next room, prior to going to bed. I think I'd better pull the plug on it before it gets out of control, and send them upstairs for devotion time.

Pencil grip: not as important as we thought?

I don't often write about my Occupational Therapy "hat" here, but I came across a study on pencil grip and this stunning conclusion that challenges popular opinion:

There was no difference in the quality or speed scores among the different pencil grasps before and after the copy task. The dynamic tripod pencil grasp did not offer any advantage over the lateral tripod or the dynamic or lateral quadrupod pencil grasps in terms of quality of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task. These four pencil grasp patterns performed equivalently. Our findings question the practice of having students adopt the dynamic tripod pencil grasp. 

This was published in the Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, June 2012.You can read the abstract here. 

Pencil grip is one of the most common problems people talk to paediatric OTs about within mainstream education. This is quite a finding because it's been assumed for a long time that dynamic tripod*, is the only valid grip. Much anxiety and pain has resulted from children not wanting to use this grip.

This illustration of mature pencil grips comes from here.

The article ends with a recommendation that the dynamic tripod rasp be recommended for children when they commence writing. But if difficulties occur and one of the above four grasps are being used, then remediation should look beyond correcting the pencil grasp to other factors impacting writing. In fact, it has been proven that it is intensely difficult to change a child's pencil grip beyond the beginning of second grade (though I've heard of it being done, but only when the child has high motivation).


*Fingers involved include the thumb opposed to the index and middle fingers, with all three fingers positioned in a tripod. The ring and little finger stabilise against the writing surface.