Looking back at 2024

For a few years now I've been using this last week of the year to write a blog post that reflects on the year past. In particular, I've been using questions to help me focus my thoughts and keep me honest. I've done the same today.

One of the many beautiful things we saw on our long
road trip in 2024.

The questions and categories I've used are these (in case you'd like to copy and use them yourself):

1. What makes this year unforgettable?

2. What did I enjoy doing this year?

3. What/who is one thing/person I'm grateful for?

4. What did I read/watch/listen to that made the most impact this year?

5. What did I worry about most and how did it turn out?

6. What is my biggest regret?

7. What's something that has changed about me?

8. What surprised me most this year?

9. What Bible truths impacted me this year?

10. What meta-themes have I thought about this year? (in no particular order)

Highlights

Lowlights

Concluding thoughts.

1. What makes this year unforgettable?

Ah, so many things. I've just written our monthly prayer/newsletter and spent some space looking back at the many amazing things that happened in 2024. Here's a short list:

• Our youngest two sons moved out, leaving us without any children under our roof for the first time in almost 25 years.
• We took two months long service leave (an Australia institution that rewards long service with extended paid leave).
• We spent two months driving around south-east Australia in a motorhome, including a month in Tasmania
• Major changes for all our kids. Our youngest son started university. After a lengthy period of unemployment our middle son got his first job, a licence, and a car. Our eldest son (within a single month) moved 1,400 km north, took up a carpentry apprenticeship, and got engaged. Now we're contemplating a new daughter-in-law joining the family in the next fortnight.
• After 12 months away we moved back to Japan and into a new apartment, completing a downsize that's been ongoing for a few years. 
• Living for the first time in Japan with no children.
• I had a bad run with a tooth abscess that was misdiagnosed during our sojourn south (and repeatedly in the following months) which ended with dental surgery, and now have one less tooth than I started the year with, as well as my first fake body part in the form of a one-tooth denture. 

2. What did I enjoy doing this year?

• Our motorhome trip was definitely the biggest joy. We've never done such a massive journey (time-wise, this was only 500km shorter than our 16-day trip to Uluru in 2012, but obviously much longer at 58 days).
• There were many things tucked into that motorhome journey that were wonderful, like visiting the MCG for a day (large sports stadium in Melbourne where we did a tour, then enjoyed two museums) and the Bradman museum. Going to "end of the road" type places in Tasmania: e.g. most southerly point and to the north-eastern tip.
• I've enjoyed being just a couple again, setting up our new apartment together in July and August was satisfying.
• I did a one-night two-day retreat with close friends in February.
• Going on an unusual date to watch wheelchair rugby between our two countries.
• Helping run a wrestling tournament at CAJ also fits on this list!

...and yes, there's lots of sport there!

3. What/who is one thing/person I'm grateful for?

• As usual: my husband, but also that God allowed us to come back to Japan rather than a much more dramatic change of direction. 
• And my closest friends: how would I do life without them?

4. What did I read/watch/listen to that made the most impact this year?

• A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers, D.A. Carson
• Awe: Why it Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do by David Paul Tripp
• Bullies and Saints, John Dickson
• The Meaning of Marriage, Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller
• Continued to enjoy Undeceptions podcast.
• I also enjoyed Storytellers: Questions, Answers and the Craft of Journalism by Leigh Sales.

5. What did I worry about most and how did it turn out?

• Despite writing this (in my first blog post this year): "I think that giving up worrying is a worthy goal, not just for 2024, but for the rest of my life. I'm certain that I will fail again and again, but with God's help I surely can improve on what I've done up till now!" I worried about whether 2024 would be a major turn in the road for us. That is, whether we'd return to Japan and how our kids would cope without us nearby. Well it's turned out much better than I expected.

6. What is my biggest regret?

• I can't think of one, except for the first lowlight below: that our long trip was marred by my illness, which of course wasn't my fault, but I wish it hadn't happened.

7. What's something that has changed about me?

• I think I'm trusting God more. It's been a long, hard road of learning that is by no means over, but I think I've made progress.

8. What surprised me most this year?

• A new (almost) daughter-in-law. I've had a quarter of a century of being a mum to boys, adding a girl to the family has been a pleasant surprise. And though we are far apart and have only met three times, I have been excited to get to know her a bit and start to forge a relationship with her that is unlike anything I've experienced before.

9. What Bible truths impacted me this year?

• It's hard to remember anything especially. But here are some Bible verses that I included on my blog through the year:
• Luke 12:23–26 (the folly of worry)
• Numbers 13 & 14 (story of 12 Israelite spies)
• Isaiah 55:8–9 (my thoughts are not yours declares the Lord)
• Psalm 91:2 (the Lord is my refuge and my fortress)
• Deuteronomy 31:8 (the Lord goes before you, he will not leave or forsake you)
• 2 Corinthians 4:18 (fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen–that is eternal)
• Psalm 145:4 (you are called to make the invisible glory of God visible)
• Various prayers of Paul (for example, see Ephesians 3, Colossians 1)

10. What meta-themes have I thought about this year? (in no particular order)

• Trusting God
• Letting go makes room for growth and new opportunities
• Downsizing
• Is "feeling useful" a good thing?
• What kind of mother-in-law do I want to be?
• Stepping back from my adult kids means I enable them to grow.
• Retirement planning!
• Belonging
• Who am I apart from my children?
• Aging
• Accepting again that I am who God made me to be: weaknesses included

Highlights

• Obviously our long service leave trip in a motorhome.
• Seeing our sons grow in character and skill, living independently, and making adult-level decisions.
• Retreat with close friends.
• Moving into our new apartment in Tokyo.
• Attending live sporting events: cricket, wheelchair rugby, wrestling.
• Many times with friends on both sides of the ocean.
• Finishing a long-term cross-stitch project.
• Successfully blogging my way through our two-month road trip.

Lowlights

• Our motorhome journey was marred by my battle with a misdiagnosed tooth abscess. Easter weekend was particularly low in that regard.
• As usual, goodbyes and an international move were hard, and saying goodbye to all our kids this time was extra difficult, but the flipside of that is (the second) highlight I've already mentioned.

Concluding thoughts

I'm really glad that 2024 is over. The past two years have been a lot of hard work and exhausting. I still feel the shadow of the exhaustion from it all. But I'm also glad for all the things we were able to achieve during the last two years, by God's grace! My next blog post is about looking forward to 2025...so I won't go there now.

I'm going to finish this year of blogging with a favourite Bible passage of mine, one I like to pray when I don't know what else to pray for someone. For sure God has done more than we could imagine in 2024!

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:16–21 NIV)

Looking back at 2022

The last three years I've used some interesting and challenging questions to write this last post of the year, so I'm going to do it again.

1. What makes this year unforgettable?

The context of the year (coming after nearly two years of a global pandemic) makes it both forgettable and unforgettable. Looking back even at this short distance at the pandemic and it's hard to remember what happened when, because we don't have big hooks to hang them on. There was a lot of "not doing" during 2020, 2021, and early 2022. However this year life began to change, moving closer to "normal", though masks are still a real part of our daily lives in Japan. We started the year not knowing when the borders would open again to tourists in Japan and end the year with our eldest son in our house (without a visa).

We will remember this year as the year we went to Australia in the middle of the year and did lots of fun stuff, as well as some hard stuff. August was a difficult month for me: I farewelled David and our youngest son at the start of the month, contracted COVID within a couple of days, and had some challenging times on my own with our middle son while living in someone else's house.

It was the year that our last son started his last year of high school. And we entered our last year of living in this house we've raised our family in since 2010.

2. What did I enjoy doing this year?

A sunset on a Queensland beach midyear.

A definite highlight was a week's holiday in June/July with two of my best friends and their families at a beach in Australia. Hours and hours to just talk and be together was like being in paradise. I also got to stay with one of them for ten days at the end of August, which was also precious. Plus I got one-on-one time with two other close friends, which I treasured.

Walking after dinner with David is occasionally a chore, but more often than not it's a joy, even when the temperatures aren't really hospitable. I really missed the regular catchup with him when we were in Australia.

We've enjoyed watching cricket again on TV, finally they've begun to provide ways for fans in Japan to subscribe.

3. What/who is one thing/person I'm grateful for?

David. I rely on him a lot, but he also leans on me. We make a good team and don't function as well when we're apart. This year marked our 25th wedding anniversary. I'm so thankful.

4. What did I read/watch/listen to that made the most impact this year?

Again, I've really enjoyed listening to various episodes of the Undeceptions podcast.

I hit my target of 100 books read in 2022. But also discarded more than 20 books as "didn't finish", these were books that I'd invested time in (not just read a couple of pages). I'm getting more fussy about what I read, partly due to getting older, but also because I've got easy access to a whole library of ebooks. One of my loves is browsing in the library from the comfort of my own home (or, to be honest, bed...the place I do much of my reading).

Gentle and Lowly by Dane C. Orlund was a standout non-fiction book this year. I read it slowly over eight months (I usually read a couple of fiction books a week). I think I need to read it again. It's a balm to a weary soul. For example this sentence from Ch 4: "If you are in Christ, you have a Friend who, in your sorrow, will never lob down a pep talk from heaven. He cannot bear to hold himself at a distance."

Sacred Pathways by Gary L. Thomas was another really valuable book to read. I came across it through working on a magazine issue themed "Arts and Ministry". It showed me a few things about myself and my life experiences that I hadn't realised.

5. What did I worry about most and how did it turn out?

We had a prolonged passport/visa renewal situation that strung out over several months earlier in the year. In April we very nearly had an illegal immigrant in our household, but managed to dodge that by pleading with the embassy for an appointment. Flying to and from Australia is never fun, but it was pretty miserable this year. We had all our original flights to and from Australia cancelled by airlines. Our journey to Australia took 35 hours, which is more than three times the usual length. We also ended up paying more for peace of mind as we changed our return flights to ensure that we go there before our visas expired. Japan still required negative PCR tests and cancelled flights made that complicated. I worried a lot through all of this. I lost sleep, had headaches, reflux, and various bacterial, viral, and fungal infections, as well as asthma-complicated COVID.

I also worried about our eldest son's lack of employment. His savings ran very low this year before he finally found consistent work. This was very hard to watch. 

6. What is my biggest regret?

Hard question! The Merriam Webster dictionary gives two disparate definitions of regret. One is a verb: to be very sorry for (a mistake) and the other is a noun: sorrow aroused by circumstances beyond one's control or power to repair. 

There are things that happened that I regret, but I didn't have the power to change them. I regret that my family has sometimes caused pain for others, but much of that hasn't been within my power to change. I regret that others haven't understood us (sometimes because they don't have the life experience to help, or they have biases that mean they can't see the full picture), but again, while I may have tried to help others understand, their understanding is beyond my ability to change.

I regret some of the things I've said yes to and later ended up with too much on my plate, often because of things outside of my control or beyond my ability to anticipate what was coming in the future.

7. What's something that has changed about me?

I've begun to more strongly identify as a writer this year. When someone asks me what I do, I say "I'm a writer and an editor". That's an easy summary that doesn't overwhelm people. I haven't written a book, and don't (yet) have an ambition to, but that doesn't mean that I'm not a writer. Writing this post about life with mental illness was a bit of a turning point: https://mmuser.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-truth-about-journeying-with-illness.html

A close friend wrote this to me in early November: "Have been observing a really positive shift in you Wendy, from anxiety and feeling isolated to coming to peace with what is and inviting others into a space of being honest and vulnerable...which alleviates isolation for yourself and them also. Just thought you might like to hear from the outsider's perspective. God is good!! He's been at work and continues to be so." She connected a few dots I was too close to see, God has been good to me in giving me friends who will do that!

8. What surprised me most this year?

Some of the change we longed for during the depth of the pandemic was actually harder to adjust to than we would have imagined. I struggled to interact socially in a group at times this year, even in groups that I previously was fine with.

I was also pleasantly surprised by an opportunity to do an interview (for an article) with four Japanese people in the one afternoon, some of that was in English and some in Japanese.

9. What Bible truths impacted me this year?

A verse that has stuck with me arrived in my mail box in January last year (see here). It's Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." This was a great comfort, though I admit that in the midst of my worrying, I should have clung to it more tightly at times!

10. What meta-themes have I thought about this year? (in no particular order)

Life with non-physical illnesses and neurodiversity

Being a parent to adult children when they're struggling

Families as a microcosm of culture

Maintaining margin

My work always provides me with lots to ponder. I've thought about (and worked with) themes like honour–shame culture, rest, arts and ministry, mobilisation, prayer, women, fear of failure, missionary partnership development, nature, aging society, and Japanese festivals and traditions.

Highlights

• As I've already stated above: the week's holiday with friends.
• Being able to see our eldest son again and spend significant time with him. 
• We only got one camping trip in this year, and it was a cold one marred by debilitating pain for one of our friends. But still it was a highlight.
• Seeing gradual improvement and growth in our boys. But it's been slow, small steps.

Lowlights

• This year I've only written 39 blog posts, the fewest in it's 13 ½ year existence. So it's ironic that I'm thinking of myself more as a writer than ever before!
• Watching my kids struggle in various realms and wondering about their futures.
• Feeling tired as a parent.
• The start of the year I was stretched way beyond what was healthy, partly by work, partly by responsibilities to my family, and partly with what had happened in 2020 and 2021.

Other thoughts

For much of this year "it's complicated" would probably have been a good response to people's questions to how I was at the time. I've lived more than half my life doing things in ways that most people don't understand. A call to overseas missions leads to a loss of friends and a loss of potential friends, I learned this early on. It turns out that walking with mental illness and neurodiversity is similar and leads to much misunderstanding, even amongst those you thought would "get it". You'd think I was used to this already, but it turns out I wasn't, and probably never will be. I'm ever so thankful to those who do "get me" and have stuck by through all the challenges this year, even when they didn't understand us or our decisions.

My first post of this year was remarkable in the lack of concrete thoughts I could muster for the coming year (or at least that I was willing to commit to a blog post). I think my first post in 2023 will be quite different to that. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Calendars

I love calendars. My preferred schedule keeper is a full month calendar page, even the portable diary I keep in my bag is a full month to a page. I like to have a bigger picture in mind as I try to keep my and my family's schedule at a reasonable pace.

But I also love the changing scenes of photographic calendars: amusing, beautiful, nastukashii (Japanese for a good memory, nostalgic), inspiring etc.

We scored a lot of calendars this year and I did a tour round the house to take photos of them for you.

This was a freebie from a local shop where we buy some of our meat. The cover sheet was entirely raw meat. Something that would cause my boys to start salivating! Thankfully this page is a little more balanced. And yes, I put it up in our kitchen.

An Australian friend teaching in Cambodia sent us this beautiful little prayer calendar.

This is a standard in our downstairs toilet. It's a little cringe-worthy: why does a Japanese calendar have white kids on it? But it's useful (as is the one above) to keep in touch with the Japanese public holidays. CAJ's holidays don't often coincide and it's easy to get mixed up.

A lovely calendar with photos from our home state. This is a natsukashii-kind of calendar. It also has information on it about school holidays and public holidays in Australia, a little connection with "home".

A pretty one that I can see from my desk.

This we gave to our middle son and is in his bedroom, photos from Japan.

This is a new attempt to keep a track of our increasingly busy family. With columns for each member of the family (though the first column I am sharing with the "family" schedule).

And this is the most important calendar and sits on my right side next to my computer. It's the master copy of what's going on from my perspective. It's got my schedule on it plus family and school stuff. Most of what's on this is also on the calendar in my bag so that I can schedule things when I'm out as well. This year it is a Psalms calendar with photos from Israel. Excellent!

Celebrating the end of another publishing project

Side-by-side with last year's calendar to show the changes.
It required some tight writing, with only two sentences
per month.

This is a project I've spent quite a bit of time on over the year. I produce this for our field every year, but our sales were declining. So I did a survey, put everything out on the table to be considered, and ended up doing a re-design of the product I was already producing. What do you think? I'm pretty impressed. It looks even better in my hand that it did on the screen.

As producer of the calendar I was able to even slip some of my own photos into it. This one is from our camping trip in July.

It is a product designed, not for general sales, but for use by our missionaries as gifts to supporters. We printed 2,200 English copies and 1,000 German copies. I really hope that is is a great blessing to all who receive them.

One piece of proactive parenting

Today I've been to my final Friday morning ladies Bible study at church, followed by going out to lunch together. Thankfully there were no painful goodbye speeches or presentations like there might be at a Japanese farewell.

Tonight I'm going with the youth group for the final event of the term. They're rock climbing.

Tomorrow we're holding an open event in the park for anyone who wants to come and say hi.

Sunday we stop sleeping here, moving out so that we can finish packing up and cleaning the house (you can't pack fully when you are still using things like sheets, towel, and kitchen stuff).

And on the list goes.

I got tired yesterday of telling the boys about all the events coming up in our lives over the next weeks. So I made a calendar detailing all that we know about the next three months, especially big things, like changes of residence and when planes leave etc.

Today I was talking with a friend who still has little ones, explaining how our stage of parenting has its own challenges when you're undergoing big transitions. In particular you need to try to get the kids on-board for various family events that impact them. In the changes coming up, many of the decisions we've made without their input and have a dramatic consequences for them. They can feel very disempowered and therefore very resistant. At least this is my family. My boys like to know what's coming up. Surprises, especially for one of them, aren't appreciated.

Last night the calendar I'd created made for interesting reading for them all. I hope that it will continue to help them anticipate changes and make our journey as a family smoother, with less complaints.

Culture shock with the calendar

I'm probably stretching it a little to call this culture shock, but we did get a little bit of a jolt on Sunday-Monday and it was largely because we weren't in touch with the local calendar.

First on Sunday night we missed a big football final (National Rugby League Grand Final).

No, this wasn't our pantry shelves on
Saturday! It was filled with non-perishables.
But I have to admit that I'm loving this
walk-in lighted pantry. It's wonderful,
especially that it's filled with Australian
food (and a little bit of Japanese).

The boys would have loved to have seen it, but we simply had lost touch with the competition and when the final date was.

Second we had some grocery difficulties. On Saturday our plan was to pick up some groceries close to home after our 800km drive, but the local grocery store was shut when we got there. We missed it by 15 minutes! So I improvised and found some essentials at a nearby fruit and veg shop.

We also neglected to shop on Sunday, we were just too tired to think about it (and I prefer not to shop on Sundays anyway). So on Monday I optimistically trooped off to the store armed with my carefully constructed list. Nope, the shops were shut again. I knew it was a public holiday, the boys were home from school. But I didn't realise that most major shops shut on Labour Day. Afterall they are open most other public holidays, including weekends.

Alas, after driving to another shop at a major shopping centre and finding that shut too, I located a less well-known shop that was open. Half of the local suburb was there, it was crazy! Obviously I wasn't the only one who was caught out.

So, again, I don't know if you can put these down to culture shock. Possibly it is more  along the lines of cultural ignorance?

It was time to say "no"

Today I've been tail up, head down, editing articles for our next issue of Japan Harvest. It's been fun, actually. Especially editing my favourite kind of article: a first person story. The story needed quite a bit of tightening, but it was fun. The kind of thing I usually have to do to my own work. But it was nice to come at it without knowing all the extra details that can cloud your own story writing, and help make this missionaries testimony shine brighter.

But to get this time I've faced a challenge. I had to say no to a party. My job is based at home, on the computer. It is not meeting-driven. So, when I have a clear day on the calendar, a day free of other commitments, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm free from work and free to say yes to anything I wish. In fact I shouldn't. It is when I say yes to a whole lot of little things that I start to fall apart.

At this time in the editing process (just after the submission deadline for a new issue) I feel stressed because I've imposed a deadline on others that they've met. If I'm not doing my best to work on editing their work, I'm being unfair to my writers. In this case, I've also got a tail-end deadline that is rolling up fast. Christmas. I want to have this magazine done and dusted before the Christmas break. It isn't going to happen, but I want to have as much of it done as I can.

But all of that probably isn't of huge interest to you. What is more relevant is the challenge of  organising your time. More so when you have a lot of freedom.

As I've worked on this magazine, I've had a prime view of different people's challenges with time management. Of course I usually see it when people have trouble with time management and are struggling with the deadlines. My observation is that different people struggle differently with time management, but most people have difficulties with it. At least two of my co-workers have difficulties without deadlines. I have to give them clear deadlines to help them work efficiently. I myself struggle more with shoving too much into a set period. I am too ambitious and frequently find myself with too many goals, or, as I said earlier, too many things that I've said "yes" to.

So, I need to learn to keep an eye on my calendar and think a bit more carefully about how much I try to shove into a day, or a week, or a month. Of course there are times when I don't have much control over that. But there is much I do have control over. Even if it is hard to do it, sometimes I do need to say no to a party.

So, you ask me, how do you organise your time? I don't know what works for you. Everyone is different. But for sure, do your best to get it under control before it starts to control you and the important things in life get crowded out.

Fill in the calendar

This is the time of year when I'm filling up my calendar.

After a blissful week of almost no fixed appointments/meetings, I've flipped the calendar to September and am getting brave enough to start filling in all those meetings and obligations that I have.

I've put some of the prayer meetings in. There are about seven school prayer meetings that I go to in a month (one for each grade of my kids, plus a weekly all-school one). Then there is a monthly OMF one on the other side of the city. Twice a year a bunch of missionary women from a variety of missions get together to pray too.

Then there are a number of over-nighters that both of us have scheduled. I've got an OMF Ladies Retreat later this month and only two nights later am going to a three-day coaching workshop. Later in October I have an overnight running the Writer's Workshop I mentioned yesterday. That's about it for 2012, though we do are planning to book some time away the week before Christmas.

I've also put some of the student-free and school days-off into the calendar. Parent-teacher interviews and various half-days. These are important to know about! I'm wondering if we could go camping one more weekend before winter? We have a long weekend coming up in October . . .

Unfortunately my wall calendar only goes up until the end of January, so 2013 will have to wait until Christmas time.

I'm probably old fashioned, but I like to have these things up on my wall calendar, as well as in my iPhone. The whole school uses iCal, a Mac calendar that is regularly updated. Middle and high school teachers even use it to put the day's homework! (Useful for checking up on our kids!) And it is very useful to have all that at my fingertips when I'm out and someone says, "Can I meet you on such and such a date?" But if I don't have everything on both, I can easily double book. I know it isn't the most time efficient, but it helps me to see things laid out as they are on the wall calendar.

In the southern hemisphere the Jan-Dec calendar makes sense because that lines up with our school year. Just wondering why north AmericansEuropeans don't use a July-June calendar? Maybe they do? The north American/European year seems to organised along those lines. The Dec/Jan divide seems to be just a bit of inconvenience. I know that many Japanese calendars are designed to be April-March.

Can't get to sleep...

Last night it was nearing midnight (well after my Cinderella hour) and I couldn't go to sleep. I realised I have a lot going around in my head, so I did the writer's thing. I put it down on "paper"

Stuff that's going down around here this week:

• A boy's birthday. Very positive, not too stressful. A little bit of obsession by all the boys about playing the game that was received as a present.
• Conference with teachers of one child. Not great news, not totally sure what to do about it, though. Praying.
• Not good news from one of our supporting churches. (Deliberate vagueness here in this public forum.) Praying.
• Excitement of everything coming up — elementary field day (bit like an Australian sports/athletics day), two camping trips, boys going to summer camps for the first time, trip to Australia, Uluru, mother-in-law visiting us for the first time in Japan.
• House sitters suddenly on the horizon for our Tokyo house during our visit to Australia (changes how much we have to tidy up before we leave).
• Recital yesterday

And then, after waking up this morning, I had a yucky headache (probably hormonal) and then at breakfast one boy had a bit of an emotional meltdown with new a loose tooth that prevented him from thinking about anything, including eating.

And the end of the school year is upon me (next Friday), way before I feel ready for it. I think it is a calendar confusion thing, mid-year just doesn't seem the right time of year to finish school, even though the season is right (but no Christmas or cricket)!

And I just look at all the things that keep landing on my desk to do, and wonder how it is all going to work once they're all at home again.

Just a bit too much. And I haven't told you everything. A bit of work stress, too, there is a certain magazine due to the presses in a few weeks...

Just keep plodding onwards, that's what my husband tells me. And praying!

A bulging calendar

I have a feeling that the coming week will be a little like the last week of January. I didn't mention it in this post, but it wasn't just that that week was busy, it was that my to-do list was building up and I was having trouble getting to it.

This coming week could be the same. The deadline for articles for the next issue of Japan Harvest is coming and articles are rolling in (yay!), but I haven't got time to look at them and that stresses me. But I think I'll just need to learn to leave that alone. I know writers would love me to look at their articles straight away, but that isn't always possible and certainly won't be this week.

This is what's on the calendar:-

Monday: several hours renewing my driver's license
Tuesday: several hours packing the new issue of Japan Harvest for posting out
Wednesday: my one free day, hence I'll be trying to pack lots into this day, like groceries, gym, emails, editing, Bible Study preparation etc.
Thursday: I'm driving some of the Third Graders on their excursion to the Tama Science Museum. An all-day trip. When I agreed to this I didn't realise that all these other things (besides Friday/Saturday) would end up on my calendar too.
Friday: English Bible Study at church followed by an OMF Ladies retreat on the other side of Tokyo until Saturday afternoon.
Saturday: my youngest turns 7!! Somewhere in there a cake will need to be baked and decorated (thankfully my husband is gearing up for the decorating).

Phew, I hope that I'm not overdoing it, especially after a Thrift Shop week. Thankfully most of this is not too mentally taxing, in fact most of it could be a lot of fun because it is with people I enjoy (there's the extrovert in me talking). But I'll certainly be careful about going to bed on time in the evenings (I had a 1 1/2 hour nap this afternoon too, so I'm not starting the week too badly). Next Sunday I might be taking another one of those naps, I'll probably be indulging my strong introvert "shadow" too!

Today is the end of the year

Did you know that today is the end of the year in Japan? Well, the end of the financial year and the school year. This flows on to be the end of the general business year and church calendar too.

This time of year is somewhat tied to the Sakura blossoms
(cherry blossoms), the symbolic beginning of spring in Japan.
That doesn't mean the sakura bloom on this day, but in Tokyo
they are often blooming about this time (not this year, though).

This means that this is the time of year that students start school, change schools, start university, and are looking for jobs. Companies transfer their employees at this time of year. Churches hold AGMs, finish programmes, and begin new ones.

Because most of our lives are bound up with an American-style school, it doesn't affect our family very much. Our end of school year is still two months away.

Are there any other countries in the world that start their "functional" year in April, at the beginning of spring? I've got no idea. Maybe you do.

A typical day?

This probing question was asked of us yesterday by a friend. It was hard to answer, because we don't really have typical days at the moment. Let me look back at my calendar and give you some idea of what I've been doing. Kids to school and home again. Grocery shopping and the gym. Probably these have been the most routine parts of our days, although the last two have had to be juggled to fit in in recent days. So between 9 and 2.30 I've done these things in the two and a half weeks:

• Seen the doctor
• Visited Koorong
• Professional development (observing an OT treatment session)
• Visited OMF office for more resources for deputation
• Deputation - Japan Focus morning teas
• Visiting with friends
• Spent time with my mother in law
• Lunch with husband !!!
• Slept (after the Manila return debacle)
• Shuffled a boy to Prep orientation day and back to PrePrep
• Tourism (pupil free day on Monday)
• E-mail - answered, wrote, deleted etc.
• Blogged
• Schedule arranging
• Deputation planning
• Cleaned (a little)
• Baked
• Wrote a prayer/newsletter
• Miscellaneous errands like library book returns, pet shopping, banking, photocopied
• Encouraged my husband in his assignment writing for his masters
• Critiqued several pieces of writing for my internet critique group
• Sought after resources on the internet for people

Is that enough? No day has been alike, except for the drop-off and pick-up times for the boys. And after all is said and done, I am still the mum of three lively boys who take up a good portion of time and energy, though thankfully not all at present. My time has been more flexible due to my husband being at home this year. It means that if I don't get to the gym in time in the morning (they are shut from 10.30 till 2.15, pretty inconvenient for school mums), I can go in the afternoon and know my kids will be taken care of. A luxury most don't have, I know. I'm enjoying it while I do! Weekends and after school has been pretty variable too. With swimming lessons, basket ball training and games, church visits, women's convention, a musical and guests for dinner three weeks running. We're keeping pretty busy. We feel it is okay to occasionally take it a little easy during the day as our weekends can be pretty crazy with work, not to mention boys.

Public holidays mess with my internal calendar

I am a bit confused this weekend. It is a 'long weekend' due to public holidays, however with the retreat tacked onto the start my head feels all messed up. First I went away Friday and Saturday, without husband or children and came home tired (like the end of a week). Then we got up and went to church on Sunday (which is always a good anchor). Then this morning I slept in (a little), just like on a Saturday and we've had a fairly typical 'Saturday' even though it is a Monday on my wall calendar. So - will I race out of bed and head for church tomorrow? Actually I am planning to take the boys to a large park for a few hours and a picnic to get us all out of the house while my "packing expert" husband does what he does best - pack! And then the next day, Wednesday on the wall calendar, everyone will go back to their usual routines but in my head we'll still be on Monday. Anyone else have problems like this? You will find a good explanation of why we have public holidays this weekend here. Actually for once the Japanese have more holidays that those of us at CAJ (Christian Academy in Japan). We're very thankful for what we've got, though. A small break in the weekly routine is actually useful for catching up and getting some headway into the packing. I'll let you know how I go!