Reading Lessons

I have a love/hate relationship with reading lessons.  As an educator, I value learning to read over gaining any other educational skill.  It is the single greatest predictor of a child's success--both in school and in life.  Anyway, I don't trust the public school system to teach this valuable skill to my kids, therefore, I take it on as my own responsibility.  It is a lot of work, but so worth it.

This week, Grover and I finished reading lessons!  After multiple starts and 13 months, we finally did it.  The 100 lessons turned into more like 150, but we did it.  We Did It!  Can you tell I am excited?!  WE DID IT!  Yesterday, just the two of us went out to celebrate.  He is super jazzed about reading right now, and is excited to start reading our ridiculously large children's reading collection.  Me?  I am super excited to have re-claimed my nap time!

Life currently

Life has been crazy.  I am beginning to think this is just how my life will always be!  Here in Iwakuni, the blossoms are starting to pop out everywhere.  I keep getting my hopes up that spring is here, but the cold temperatures tell me to keep waiting.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will be able to post pictures of the cherry blossoms! In the mean time...

 

 

This crazy pants is on the move.  She is crawling and standing and climbing.  And eating all non-edibles she can find.  Her favorite find: lint balls!  She started really getting around about a week ago, and since then, she has become a far more pleasant baby.  I am actually beginning to think I may be able to start getting stuff done during her awake hours!  When I nurse her to bed at night and she is relaxed, I can see in her facial features glimpses of every one of my boys.  And sometimes her little cousin Josie.  She is such a sweet, welcome gift to our family. 

 

 

This kid is also nuts.  He has a handful of hilarious sayings that I need to record for future laughs.  One of his favorites is, "Oh my goodness sakes of America!"  Seriously.  I laugh every time.  He also says, "Yep-ee-doodle" instead of a simple yes.  On the way home from church today we were having a conversation of clarification (I love bows, but not as much as I love my kids) and he said, "Oh, I gotcha."  He is entirely too articulate than any two-year-old should be.  Cracks me up.  This was after our pancake dinner tonight with Nutella and strawberries and whipping cream.  Mmm.  He enjoyed it too!

 

 

This is another new aspect of my life.  I'm so frighteningly depleted (5 babies in 8 years + nursing them all), my body is kind of a wreck.  My wonderful brother-in-law ran a bunch of tests on me and this is the solution.  Crazy supplementation with the hopes of stopping the chronic pain and other issues.  Fingers crossed! 

Oshima Island

One of my favorite places here in Japan is Oshima Island.  It is located within a reasonable driving distance from our house but it feels a world apart.  It has a slightly Hawaiian feel to it.  The drive along the coast is amazing.  There are a ton of little (and big) islands and palm trees and beaches.  We spent the day there yesterday and did some fun things.

 

First up was strawberry picking. 

 

In Japan, strawberry season is January through April.  The reason is because they grow the strawberries inside of greenhouses.  You can kind of see from the pictures how they do it.

 

The strawberries are beautiful and tasty.  Oh, so tasty!  I don't even like strawberries (at least plain) and straight off the plant they were amazing. 

 

We let the kids all pick a bunch and they got to eat some of them right away.  Grey was being weird about having his picture taken, but you can see how much he enjoyed them!  We took home a bunch of strawberries and I made freezer jam with them today before they spoil. 

 

It made me feel better about the 4400 yen total! 

 

 

After strawberry picking, we headed up the coast to this tiny little aquarium.

The best thing about the aquarium is that they have this room at the back where you can literally get in the water and pet all of the sea creatures they have.

 

Stone and Ollie loved the sharks!  Sharks!  Can you believe they let you pet sharks?!

 

Grover was determined to pet a fish.  He never caught one, but did finally get his hands on a sting ray!

 

 

 

After the aquarium, we went to Aloha Orange.  It is a "Hawaiian-themed" restaurant although I think it definitely is a Japan-infused-Hawaiian.  Delicious burgers and popular steak dish.   

 

 

Great weekend with my favorite people!

A View From Our Yard

Earlier in the week, I came down from feeding Pepper to this amazing sight!  I can't believe we live here!