Scary English

Since I'm out in the "wilds" today "camping" with my middle son and the 5th grade class, here's a post I prepared earlier.

On our shopping trip to the hardware store on Saturday I found this "Compression Underwear". That's not so unusual, except the English is a little suspect. 

Here's a close-up. "The "Gladiatorarmor" is a functional fiber that improves your bodily functions more efficiently."

Hmmm. I didn't buy them!

School Camp!

Today I'm going out to west corner of Tokyo for a two-day overnight camping trip with my middle son's 5th grade class. They used to tent it, but the weather can be very unpredictable at this time of year, so this is the second year the class is staying at a

campsite in real buildings overnight. However, much of the time will be spent in the great outdoors, hiking around in the mountains. 

One part of me isn't looking forward to the physical exertion and the time away from my desk (meaning a pile-up on Monday). The other part of me is longing to get away from the constant emails and the pressures that are building as we prepare for going to Australia.

We've camped as a family several times out in this area and know that it is beautiful. So I know that my spirit will be refreshed by the beauty.

This is a class I've found very loud over the last four years I've interacted with them, so I could come back significantly frazzled. We'll see. We're also sleeping in the same room as the kids, so I'm not sure how much sleep I'll get. It's been a very long time since I've been on a school camp!

 Stay tuned for how it all goes.

A good book: my turn-to when stressed

When I'm stressed-out, my turn-to is a good book in bed before I go to sleep. Well, I always prefer a good book at that time, although sometimes I force myself to read a harder book (often one that's very good for me).

So, I was stressed yesterday. Too many things happening, most of them good things, but a lot of stuff to do and process. Thankfully I had a good book to read, come bed-time.

This is about a doctor who gets caught up in a murder-mystery when a man she doesn't know is shot on her front lawn. The author seems to have thrown almost as much as he could think of at his protagonist to the point where you wonder how much more she can take before she cracks. The end is a little too sweet and perfect, but still this was an enjoyable read, especially when trying to relax in the midst of a busy, stressful period. Only trouble was: I read a little too late as it was hard to put down!

Disclaimer: A complimentary electronic copy of this book was provided to me for review by Thomas Nelson Books http://booklookbloggers.com. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Accommodation decided

After much prayer, thought, and discussion, we've decided to take the house I wrote about last week. With the decision comes peace. 

Here are some photos.

The suburb is Bellbird Park, which is to the west of Brisbane
near Goodna, if you know the area.
But doesn't "Bellbird Park" just sound lovely?

Very nice looking kitchen.

Lots of outdoor undercover spaces.

It is on a ¼ acre block with an established garden. Way beyond
our expectations. This will be our "green therapy" after living
in Tokyo for the last four years with almost no yard.

Living room/lounge.

How's your packing going?

When people think of missionaries going on home assignment soon, the first thing that comes to mind is: they must be packing. 

Actually we're not really packing, not yet anyway. If we were moving out, we'd probably be packing, but as we're not, we're leaving the packing till later. We are doing a lot of other small things, though, on top of our usual work commitments. Here are some from the last week or so:

This is the grungy carpet that we're replacing. The boys
helpfully suggested that actual wrestling mats would
make a good floor covering for this room... Hmmm.

• Emailing back and forth about an accommodation option in Australia
• Thinking about, praying, and discussing pros and cons of above accommodation option.
• Emailing relevant people about details surrounding our house sitters: owner's approval, permission for the owners to check out the inside of the house before our house sitters move in
• Emails about phones, mobiles, utilities etc. for both here and Australia. 
• A few meetings and several emails about the handover of my various roles.
• Family outing on Saturday to buy a new carpet for the lounge tatami room (old carpet stained and ugly). We also bought a new feeding container for turtle (for whom we've arranged a turtle-sitter for the 12-months), a piece of door frame that needed replacing, more moisture absorbers etc.  One the same trip we took the old oven/microwave back to electrical store who will dispose of it because we bought a new one from them.
• Changed the curtains in one boys' room from car-themed to floral. 
• Went through some old magazines that were piled up. Removed some good recipes, threw the rest of the mags out. 
• Went to OMF prayer meeting across town today with David. They prayed for us as we make this transition, especially because this will be David's last time to meet with them before HA. 
• Scrubbed my off-white winter jacket well, knowing I won't be wearing it for over a year. 
• Thinking about the management of our larder, so that we don't leave too much food behind.
• Continued scanning favourite recipes, so that we don't have to take recipe books with us.

And 

Had many conversations about "how you're g/doing" in our preparation.

Sorry, I know that isn't that fun to read through, not even for me! But it does help me to realise though we aren't specifically packing yet, we're doing a lot towards preparing for leaving.

So, perhaps, a better question than "How's your packing going?" is, "How are you holding up?" Or "Are the details coming together?"

Chocolate ice-cream at last

I've been experimenting with my new icecream and 
frozen yoghurt maker. I made vanilla frozen yoghurt that David and I both enjoyed. Some friends I shared it with also enjoyed it.

But I've particularly been searching for something we can all appreciate. Our middle son pretty much only eats chocolate ice-cream. Or vanilla with chocolate sauce. He's not big on sweet things, much more of a savoury person.

It looks like I've found one recipe for chocolate ice-cream that works. I made it yesterday and it took a long time to become firm enough. I had it in the machine for about an hour, but it still was just like melted ice-cream. So I put it in the freezer for 24 hrs. 

Tonight I pulled it out and it was too hard to serve, but by the time we'd eaten our main course it was too soft again. Oh well, I guess we'll figure it all out in time.


But the reviews from the diners, the most important thing, was raving approval. I believe I heard, 

"Better than bought ice-cream!"

I'm going to keep experimenting in this new area of food creation! Very fun and tasty, although definitely needing to be rationed as it's not so good for the waistline.

Can you be truly Australian, but also love wrestling?

During the week I had an IM chat with a single male friend in Australia. He's a fun guy and we all enjoy spending time with him, especially because he loves boys (he's a lower primary school teacher). 

Just before we finished chatting he had one more thing to say but he wasn't sure how I'd take it. He said, 

Friend: Don't take this personally, it's funny how in myself I get frustrated that your boys are not "Australian" but I understand why!

Me: How?

Friend: They've spent so much time in Japan that the culture of CAJ and living in Japan is really shaping who they are at this point in time.

Friend: I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong.  Please don't think that I just love Australia and want your boys to be Australian too! But seeing them love wrestling, I'm like GUYS WE LOVE CRICKET AND RUGBY HERE!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!! 

Interesting conversation. He was placated that our boys like cricket and loved watching Rugby League when we were last home in 2012 (we went to a State of Origin party, for those of you who know about that).

This was not something I'd thought about before. I've always encouraged my boys to do sport, to be active. I think it is a key part of who a boy is and how he learns to manage himself.

As you know, if you've been reading this blog for a while, I'm a very enthusiastic supporter of our boys doing wrestling as a sport. I've been blown away by the opportunity for our Aussie boys to do something that they more-than-likely wouldn't have had the opportunity to try out in Australia. It does seem so unlikely. 

So my first thought is to defend, "They are fiercely Australian, ask anyone who knows them." 

My second thought is, "They simply don't have the opportunity to be involved in cricket and rugby where they are, so why not encourage them to thrive in their current environment?"

If they want to try out footy and cricket when they have the opportunity in Australia, I will not be standing in their way. Certainly that is what we'll be watching on TV. Certainly, as big cricket fans ourselves, we've not been slack in trying to watch cricket here. Blame those people who hold the purse strings of cricket. They don't seem to want fans in Japan to watch or listen to the games!

A foreign missionary we knew in Australia before we left in 2000 gave us some great advice about settling in another country. She said, "You need to find things to do and enjoy there that you can do here in Australia."

I guess it is about being present where you are, instead of always longing for a place you aren't. We've done our best to do that, in our own way. There will be lots of things we miss about Japan when we return to Australia, but in Australia we will be striving to be present there, enjoying the things that we can do there, but not here.

Certainly our kids are not 100% Aussies. They never will be. Though being Australian is a strong part of their identity, having now spent much more of their lives in Japan than Australia, there is bound to be a mixture.

And part of what we're doing in coming back to Australia for this year is helping them to connect with that Australian part of themselves. It will probably be the last time our eldest son goes there before he graduates from high school and faces moving to Australia more permanently to go to university. So hopefully this 12 months will help them all grow to understand their passport country better.

But for those of you who will spend time with them, their eyes are going to be looking forward—returning to CAJ and Japan will be on their minds. That means that we will be pursuing wrestling, because that will likely be a part of their future when we return to Japan. 

So we have Aussie kids who wrestle. Something of a symbol of the mixed-identy that they'll hold for the rest of their lives.