Food for all-day wrestling meets

Wrestling starts on Saturday, and I'm starting to think about food for our family again. This time we will be split across two venues. I need to get back into the groove and was relieved to find this post from last year that showed some of the things I was taking last season.

This obviously won't work, but I thought it was a cute food
photo! We own a number of these "food eyes", bought
here in Japan.

Now I just need to do a bit of work to ensure that I can provide stuff like this. The boys particularly complain if I don't put enough savoury stuff in. At meets it's easy to just snack on unhealthy stuff all day long (there often is no defined lunch break). People eat when they're hungry and wrestlers eat when they can (usually very soon after a bout). The wrestlers particularly need protein-heavy food.

This week is a bit of an easy start for three of us because the high school meet is just down the road at school, we don't have 2–5 hours of driving to factor in, and we know that reliable lunch can be bought at the venue. Hey, I even know where I can buy coffee when I need it!

Now I'd better get my mind back onto today's jobs and the 15+ item To Do list that's waiting.

Thinking about stuff...

What am I thinking about?

Turns out, that, as usual, there's lots going on in my head.

I read this article yesterday about iNtuitives on the Myers-Briggs inventory. A lot of it describes me. In this case, the "overanalysing everything" fits. I had space this weekend to think and it was great! 

I'm thinking that a ride might be good thing to factor into my
schedule this week!

Editing and networking
I went to a meeting last Friday at our Japan headquarters about revamping the OMF Japan website with the aim of using it better for mobilisation of people into mission involvement.  One of the jobs is to get a bunch more current stories up there and keep them coming. My expertise is in the writing/editing side of things, so that's what I'm working on. I mentioned last week that I've recently started editing blog posts for one of our Japan regions, and that's going to be expanded to cover all our three regions. So I'll need help as my plate is already pretty full.

So I've been searching out new editors as well as thinking about guidelines for writers. As of today, we've got three potential editors on the sidelines, two of whom need a bit of mentoring. But I'm excited, I love getting people's stories out there. I love involving other people in my work, building a team. I also love seeing people develop their abilities and moving into areas where they're skilled. I also love new projects (another aspect of my iNtuitive personality). 

Illness among missionaries
Our mission's field director in Japan has been battling two rare blood cancers this year. A couple of months ago they received the unexpected news that the cancer hadn't responded well to the chemo he'd already received. He's now undergoing even stronger chemotherapy and has a stem cell transplant is coming up too. As I work closely with his wife (our personnel director) this is never far from our mind.

Then a couple of weeks ago we heard that the elementary art teacher from school had been diagnosed with a large brain tumour. She had emergency surgery to save her life last week and they found an extra tumour that wasn't there a few days earlier during her scan. There's another they weren't able to get and are planning to operate again this week. The cancer is aggressive and malignant. Her husband is the school's long-term and much beloved business manager. They grew up themselves in Japan and are both CAJ alumni, so have a real heart for missionary kids. They're also members of our church here. You can understand that it's been a big shock for us and many around the world who know this family.

Then yesterday I was reminded by FB that I posted about stress and missionaries two years ago on this day. I referenced a study that "revealed that 200 points of stressful life events caused 50 percent of people to become seriously ill (cancer, heart attack) within the subsequent two years." Noting that the missionaries they studied had an average of 600 points of stress! Though it distresses us when missionaries get ill, it really shouldn't surprise us. Especially when we take into consideration spiritual warfare as well.

Exhaustion
I was really tired last week (probably pushed over the edge by our snow-camp). It was hard to get out of bed every day (barring Wednesday when I woke early with news related to the above illnesses running relentlessly through my head). I also craved coffee every day, which is a sure sign that I'm over-tired, and a warning sign that I need to rest. 

Thankfully yesterday afternoon I was able to take a nap, I put my eye mask on at 2.45 and was awoken by the community "go home" bells at 4.20. My husband also reminded me of the borderline anaemia that showed up on a blood test in April, so I'm trialling a low dose of iron supplements. I'm hopeful this will help and very much looking forward to our week away in 12 days!

Wrestling
To finish on a less serious topic, wrestling season is upon us. Yay! This Saturday are the first tournaments and the high school one is in our "backyard". CAJ is hosting and I'm in charge of providing breakfast and lunch for 25 coaches and refs. Um...yeah, I'll let you know how that turns out.

It will also be our family's first time to split up during the wrestling season. Our youngest is an official member of the middle school team and they're competing at a different school at the same time. David's driving the middle school team and I'm staying here with the high schoolers. Thankfully it isn't too hard to video a wrestling match, and we'll be able to share!


So there, are you a bit scared at everything going on in my head? I didn't even mentioned Christmas shopping or the ongoing magazine editing or regularly feed-and-clothe-and-provide-a -home-for-the-boys, nor the all-day prayer meeting David and I went to today on the other side of Tokyo! If you pray, please do keep us in your prayers. Sometimes when I take a step back and look at our lives it scares me!

A sizeable Christmas tree

The Christmas tree we bought at Thrift Shop in October has turned out larger than we expected. It came in three boxes (see the photo here). We've had to shift furniture around to fit it into the small Japanese room we call our lounge room. It's diameter is about half-a-room and it nearly hits the ceiling. 

It doesn't look so intimidating in this photo, possibly because you might expect that the room goes a lot further back than the camera, but I was perched on the lounge and plastered against the back wall when I took the photo. Our 11 year old can easily crawl into the corner under the tree and barely be seen.

We're adjusting to it (we put it up last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent) and watching the TV in that position isn't too bad. The only trouble we're having is figuring out what to put under the tree . . . teenage boys aren't so easy to buy for, especially when it's not our habit to spend much on presents.

But then I read this post from a "kid" who doesn't have parents anymore and remember how little presents mean in the long run. We're hoping for some great memories to be made this Christmas.

The people you meet

Sometimes I get stuck behind my computer doing lots of writing/editing work, but this week, between computer and family management, I've had an interesting time meeting people.

On Monday I had a video call with my forever-friend Mel. We do this regularly. It's mutual debriefing. When our family were in Australia last Mel and I regularly did this over coffee, and found it so beneficial that we've continued. Not quite the same at a distance but still something we both look forward to.

CAJ campus is gorgeous with autumn leaves just now!

Late on Monday afternoon (is 5.30 still afternoon if the sun's been down an hour already?) I attended a short information session about basic wrestling rules at school. I didn't really need to go, but went primarily to support a new wrestling-mum who I invited. Still, it was fun to be there with her and I learnt more than one new thing!

On Tuesday I met a lady who I also know a lot about. Over the last nine years I've critiqued much of her writing and she's critiqued mine--we're in a small writing group. She's in town because her son and daughter-in-law work here, in fact her daughter-in-law taught my youngest son last year. We met up and FaceTimed the third person in our group. 11am here, 9pm there, in Virginia, US. We chatted for over two hours! Our writing is non-fiction and often very personal, so we know a lot about one another and it wasn't hard to talk for ages. These are the ladies (along with a couple of others who are no longer part of the group) who taught me how to write well and how to edit. I owe a lot to them!

On Wednesday I met my language exchange partners. With so much going on I found it a challenge to talk and listen in Japanese, especially when their English is much better than my Japanese, but they're so encouraging helping me to persevere even in little steps to improve my Japanese.

That night we had former OMF Japan colleagues visit for dinner. A Japanese-Singaporean family. They also have three boys, our middle sons were classmates at CAJ for a time and good friends. Alas they are now based in Singapore. But the mum's hometown is our city so when they visit family on their holidays they land in our "backyard". Most short term visitors to Tokyo don't come this far west so we relished this opportunity. Six boys, though: they ate a lot!

My Friday meeting. 

On Thursday I got to stay mostly at home behind my computer ticking stuff off my To Do list. Editing, desktop publishing, magazine managing etc. I did have a short meeting at school about one boy's behaviour, but we won't talk about that!

Thursday night I took the night off cooking because CAJ was hosting two basketball games and the accompanying "concessions stand" with Japanese curry rice or chili dogs or hot dogs for sale. It was a great place to cross paths with friends I rarely see.

Today I've been at another OMF Japan website revamp focus group on the other side of town: left home at 8.15, got back at 3.45. But another good time connecting with likeminded people.

Almost every morning this week I've had trouble waking up. I'm feeling residual tiredness that was exacerbated by our extreme camping experience last week. I'm looking forward to a sleep-in tomorrow and quiet weekend. But there is a lot of baking needed. Thankfully that's something I enjoy.

Hopefully I'll enter into next week with more energy! Especially because next weekend is a big one: the first wrestling tournament of the season and our school is hosting it, which means more work for us (we provide breakfast and lunch for the coaches and officials).

Publishing a book (or an article) isn't a solitary act

I like this blog post, it gives a succinct explanation, not just of the process a book goes through to be published, but it differentiates the different types of editing that editors do. It helps me understand how many different skills I need as a managing editor of a small magazine where I hold many different editing roles (although it doesn't cover all the managerial tasks I also do with the magazine).

Here's a summary of the list from the blog post (which is about book editors) and how it fits into my job:

Acquisitions editor: this editor is the entry point to the publisher for an author seeking to publish a book, though often in a big market like the US there is an agent between the author and the acquisitions editor. This editor may decline your "project" straight away or may present it to what the author of the post calls the "Pub board": the group that decides whether your project is viable (this is a business after all).

I am the acquisitions editor for Japan Harvest. I send out calls for proposals (we don't get many submitted otherwise, our pool of authors are missionaries and are very busy doing things other than writing). I receive proposals, summarise them, and usually pitch them to our executive editor and together we decide what we'll include and what we won't. I then communicate the terms with the author and receive their article at the due date.

Development editor: this editor does the first edit, but mostly writes their thoughts about the project and sends it back to the author for the author to revise. That includes things like improving the plot, dialogue, characters, structure, etc. Me or one other editor on my team does this, but not with every article. Quite a lot of articles we receive don't need the author to do major revisions. But of course we are dealing with much shorter pieces of writing (generally less than 1,300 words).

Substantive/line editor: this editor rearranges/deletes/adds paragraphs or sections, rephrases, reorganises, tightens, and recasts sentences or dialogue. They try to catch most spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes, but it isn't their main focus. I do this too. If the article doesn't need a revision from the author, then we dive straight into this editing mode.

Copyeditor: this is the editor that most people think of when they think of editors. They are "persnickety" (to use the word the blog writer used). They pay attention to everything. Our editing process with the magazine means this task generally falls to a second editor after the first editor has done the above two steps. But our proofreader also doubles in this role (and often our designer sticks his or her oar in too).

Proofreader: this is the person who looks to catch all those last minute errors, after the text and graphics are in place in the digital draft of the magazine. We have a great proofreader, but after he's gone over the magazine, I also do a second complete read-through myself, and it's surprising how much I find at times.

Looking at this, I can see how at different stages I'm focused on different things. I shouldn't be so upset with myself for missing things in the early stages of editing, I'm not perfect and the itty bitty things that the proofreader picks up aren't my focus early on.


My editing role here is currently expanding, though not with the magazine. I'm now editing a blog that one of our Japan regions is publishing (see here). There's more coming as we revamp the OMF Japan website too and get more up-to-date stories flowing onto there. 

It's good to take a step back for a moment and think about the different types of editing that are necessary, especially as I realise I'll need to get help. I think when people think about helping someone else with editing (in a non-professional fashion) they think about proofreading or perhaps copy editing. Not so many are experienced or willing to do development or substantive/line editing, though that's sometimes necessary.

Citrus tree at a local house

This last week of the month is once again proving to be very busy. I've got lots going on to write about, but no good time to do it. Hence another short "cheat" post based around a photo.

I took this photo this afternoon. This is a short, quiet street near us that I often walk or ride along, sometimes multiple times a day. I love it that even though Japanese often have almost no yard, they usually use the space well. It is not uncommon to see fruit trees. This citrus tree just looks scrumptious (I'm not sure exactly what kind of fruit it is, though, there are many, I wrote about the most common ones in a post back here in March.)

Lego organisation

Now for an unusual post (not that our camping trip wasn't unusual). I told a friend I would "show" how our family organises our Lego. The boys don't actually play with it that much anymore, unfortunately. Though they aren't interested in giving it away. We talked on the weekend about how we could divide it up and "smuggle" it back to Australia as they all gradually leave home over the next eight years.

However, here is the system. The pieces are filed by function/size. So we have a drawer of flat pieces, a drawer of long thin pieces, one of weapons, etc. The yellow set of drawers in the top left has dismembered mini-figures!

The brown drawers are full of tiny bits. The white box has medium bits.

This one is technic lego.

We know people who have their Lego sorted by colour, but my guys are against that, saying that this is much easier to find the functional piece you want.