It's an odd kind-of week, starting tomorrow, but I'll start at the very beginning (actually before the beginning, the start of the weekend).
Friday night
A new family has moved into our neighbourhood from our mission, they've been in Japan for a number of years, but have moved here now so their two daughters can go to CAJ for school. We were glad to be able to have them over for dinner on Friday night. They actually moved in just before we went to Korea last month and it was horrible timing for us, it would have been great to have them over much earlier, but you do what you can.
Saturday
On Saturday we spent most of the afternoon and evening at a Wrestling-parents-in-the-stands party. A group of those families that just keep turning up every week to wrestling meets (there were five main families), and we've forged a bond. The wrestlers had a end-of-season party a couple of weeks back, so we thought we'd have a "family" end-of-season party celebrating the bond we'd formed while sitting on hard benches for hours on end, weekend after weekend. It was great fun!
Sunday
Was a pretty quiet day aside from our usual attendance at church. And after all the socialising, our "introverted" introvert son really needed it.
Monday
This was a long day for most of us. I left at 7.45, before all the boys, to go to meetings on the other side of Tokyo. I didn't get home until 5.45, and was beaten home by just one boy. Our two younger boys had athletics training. David and our eldest son had a meeting about what's happening from Friday for them (I'll tell you in a minute). Our son didn't get home till about 7.30 from that (thankfully they fed them there). David didn't get home till after 9 as he also had a head-of-school Search Committee meeting.
Tuesday
Yesterday was a catch-up day at the computer. I also had a Skype meeting with my editorial boss. We made some important decisions and had good discussion about relevant topics. Then I spent an hour or more following up on that before I went to the gym. I had to talk myself into it, it's been a couple of months–wrestling season really derailed me.
From the gym I went to the post office to mail a parcel to my sister and then got some groceries to feed the mob. Then last night I chatted to my parents for an hour, particularly talking about their visit here at the end of May for a couple of graduations coming up.
Wednesday
This morning was even more heads-down than yesterday at the computer. I had to decide and give out all the assignments for those who've proposed to write for our Summer issue of the magazine. That was more complex than you might imagine. The jury is still out as to whether we will: 1. Fill the magazine. 2. Get too much. 3. Receive appropriate material from those I've said yes too. 4. Need to do some major adjusting to the current plans.
From lunch time I tried to listen to a Japanese grammar video in order to prepare mentally for my Japanese-English exchange time at 2pm (after last time's debacle). It did help.
Tonight our eldest goes out to a Christian high schoolers meeting, starting at 6.30. It happens every Wednesday, but always catches me by surprise. I need to do my best to feed him before he goes. Our middle son needs to pack for tomorrow, but he's resisting that necessity.
Thursday
The eighth grade class go on their "40-hour" Kyoto trip early tomorrow morning. It is a much-looked forward to event at the end of Middle School (by most).
Meanwhile I have a quiet day at home, continuing to work on my to-do list, which includes dealing with various issues that come up with both the Spring and Summer magazine, which are at either end of the production schedule at present. If I've got time, I'll also fill out a passport renewal form for one boy, send out a Kids newsletter, and get back to work at my inDesign online course. I probably won't have time to think about writing some guidelines to help train more editors for the OMF website, though, that's being too ambitious!
Friday
Early Friday morning David, our eldest son, and the rest of his senior class leave for Thailand. It is also a much anticipated event. They will travel all day Friday to northern Thailand where they will be helping a hillside tribe doing some building for their local school. Our eighth grader won't get home until late on Friday, so this day it will be just me and my youngest son for breakfast and dinner. He'll be the only one at school that day. We're planning on a TV dinner watching a movie he's been waiting to see for a few years now.
I'm meeting all the other OMF/CAJ mums locally for lunch. This year we've had two more families join the community, so for the first time in a long time our mission has five families at the school. Lots of fun!
The next eight days
It will be just me and our two youngest boys. I'll figure out just how much the two of them are eating (it is more than I last remember...particularly as they are both training for athletics now too). School finishes next Friday for the one-week Spring break and the seniors return the next day.
For sanity sake, I've scheduled some "adult" time during the day with girlfriends next week.
Two days after they return we go camping! In the meantime, I hope the temperature increases sharply. Today was only 9C!
No resting on our laurels here.
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