Ordinary life over here

I like the calmness of break-time. Not having people going all directions
is really nice (though less common as they get older and have their own
plans with friends). I took this photo as we travelled back to Tokyo last
Tuesday after our day in the park. I always find these signs amusing and
slightly scary (especially if you aren't sure where you're going). But
they are also a nice metaphor for life with older kids!

In "ordinary life" over here, everyone has started back at school and work this week. We're nearly to the end of first semester and between now and the end of the school year (June 12) we have but one week of school holidays. That one week won't be restful either, as we're attending our Japan conference in Hokkaido for four of the days. So it's going to be a long slog till June, but not as bad as when the boys were little. They do have more stamina for these long school terms than they used to. 

The big regret for them this year is that they'll not get a long summer break, not in the middle of the year, nor at the end of the year. They'll have to wait a long 24 months until they get a longer-than-one-month break from school! (Though perhaps over Christmas they might get closer to six-weeks, the details haven't been sorted out yet.)

Yesterday I was at a mission meeting and today done some computer work (email and editing), I've gotten some exercise, and done some shopping (mostly for groceries). Yep, life's back to normal again.

Contrary to what you might expect moods have been pretty good (that might change when the sleep deprivation kicks in in the next day or two). In fact in the last couple of days we've had the sort of interactions over a meal that I'd like to bottle and reproduce for daily enjoyment! The moodiness that teenagers experience is not just a pain to them, but to those who live with them.

What lies ahead of me in the next few weeks is causing me to feel a bit tight around the chest. There's a lot to be done. But I'm trying to stay calm. Tomorrow I'll write about the words from the Bible that I've been repeating often to myself.

As things stand now, it is three weeks and six days until I board the aeroplane with our eldest to take him back to Australia for the start of his university studies. A deadline that is looming. 

It is also now less than six months until I board a plane with the rest of the family to fly to Australia for the rest of the year.

This Saturday we have a wrestler on the mat again. It's a shorter middle-school tournament. It will be good to get mat-side again. I'll try not to bore you with too many wrestling posts :-)

The remainder of my week includes, aside from working at my desk, a language exchange time over coffee and a trip to the orthodontist. So I should be able to get a good amount of momentum going on my desk-work.

So, back to ordinary life. At 5.30pm it has been dark outside for more than half an hour, and though that says "winter", it has felt like a spring day, with a heat wave of something like 16 degrees! Soon I'll be in the kitchen cooking up some chicken, and cutting and grating salad so people can add them into tortillas for dinner tonight. And ordinary life continues: tidying up the kitchen, showers, relaxing, reading, bed.