A day in the life of...

Today was a pretty special day so I probably shouldn't write a "A day in the life of..." blog posting about a day like today. But as it was a special day, it's one I want to remember and share...

After Juhee did her daily Kumon homework, the kids ate breakfast (they finished their rice and sausage and then shared a slice of PB&J too!), changed, I did Juhee's hair, and they usually get to watch a bit of Japanese NHK kids' tv in the morning, but they rushed out the door today with no TV. I hung the laundry out, etc bit of housework and rushed to get ready as I had to pick up a friend before heading to flower arrangement class at the kids' school by 10:30. Today we made a "bouquet"... I didn't think bouquets went in vases..?

The flower arrangement class at the kids' school, called "Mary Poppins" (no clue why), serves multiple purposes for me. One is that I've always been the flower arranger in our family growing up and have always wanted to learn proper flower arrangement so this class fulfills a longtime wish. Yay! :) I'm not a naturally creative person, but I like learning new things, and enjoy a challenge, so I'm always excited before a class. Another important reason is that I get to spend time with other moms. There are 7 classes per year, each from 10:30-noon and at the beginning of this academic year, I had to really pray about whether to take part in it this year or not due to other responsibilities. But the time I get to spend chatting with other moms in a somewhat relaxed and slow paced environment and the relationships I am able to build, is so worth it, so valuable. Another important reason for me is that it brings flowers into our home and I love that. :)

After Mary Poppins, my friend and I dropped off our flower arrangements at her house and then went to eat lunch together at a restaurant nearby. It wasn't really a restaurant though. It was more like a coffee shop that served lunch too. I've never been to a restaurant that only had ONE MEAL OPTION, have you? Well, here it is, lunch (or "lan-chi" as they call it) is served...

It was all delicious and actually somewhat genius. Everything could be prepared in advance in large quantities. The only thing that needed to be cooked before serving was the deep-fried stuff. They had many pages of desserts and breakfast specials in their menu, and they're apparently known for their waffles of which they had a few different kinds too. I'd never had miso soup with eggplant (yay! something new for me to try at home!) or deep fried fish cake with okra inside. It was my first time having a traditional Japanese meal with no tea too. They served cold water with the meal and then for my after-meal drink I was served orange juice (other options were coffee and Black Tea). The view from the restaurant was beautiful as it's on a hill overseeing much of Hiroshima below and a view of the mountains on the other side. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies, so a perfect day to enjoy a view. :)

My friend and I talked about a few things including her friends that I had just met and how they'd both tried saying "I love you" to their children, one of her friend's increasing interest in Christianity, about parenting and children, about husbands, how the definition of "healthy food" differs for Japanese and most of the rest of the world (e.g. deep-fried tofu donut is considered "healthy" in Japan because it's made of tofu, whereas most of the world would consider it unhealthy because it's deep-fried), etc. It was nice to be able to sit and enjoy a meal with a friend in a place with a nice view. It reminded me of the last meal I enjoyed with a nice view about two years ago somewhere near San Francisco (Saulsalito?). :)

Unfortunately, I only had 50 minutes for lunch as I was scheduled to do my monthly "English Time" at two of Juhee's preschool classes that afternoon. I'd visited two classes last week and today's were my other two, one of them being Juhee's. We counted together from 1-10, then 10-0, then I read them the book "My Happy Pumpkin" (an awesome Christian alternative to the usual Halloween book!) which Jeeyun sent us a few weeks ago. I then told them a bit about Halloween in America, that the way kids celebrate it, especially Christian kids, is different to what's seen in the media. Kids dress up as cute things/people/animals, not just scary things when they dress up for Halloween / Harvest Festivals / etc at school and/or church. It's about having fun with neighbors and friends. I then taught them "Smile~ I love you~" and had them pick a treat out of a pumpkin hat. We had tons of sweets left from various packages sent to us from the US. I needed just over 100 and we had just enough! Praise God! :)

Most kids can't remember the whole phrase, so after lining up, I say "smile" to the kid in front of me, s/he repeats "smile" then I say "I love you" and then ditto. Kid puts hand in pumpkin hat, picks one out and then it's the next kid's turn. At my last class, I had two things happen that hadn't happened in any of the other classes. I said "smile" to the boy in front of me and he didn't say anything, just gave me a big grin. I said "smile" again and same thing. I said "smile" one more time and then it clicked: he was doing "smile" instead of saying "smile"! =D So then I said "I love you", he repeated, and he got his treat. Phew! =D The other thing that happened was that one girl said the whole thing but then didn't want to put her hand in the hat to pick out candy. She actually looked a bit scared. So I picked one for her and gave it to her. The kids were all crowded around me so I took the opportunity to get a group photo with some of them holding up their treats and me holding "My Happy Pumpkin".

They were SO happy to receive their treats. They're so cute. :) There were a few pieces of candy left and so I gave them to the teachers of the classes I go too and they said, "Smile~ I love you~" to me too! Over the past week, I've had more than 100 people tell me that they love me (albeit for the wrong reason =D).

My English thing is always at the end of the day so Juhee and I went to pick up my flower arrangement. We ended up eating snacks and chatting there till it was time to pick up Sungjae. Juhee had fun jumping on their mini trampoline too. :) We picked up Sungjae, went home, I put the bags away, got the laundry from outside, had the kids play outside for a bit, talked with our neighbor and gave her some kimchi, borrowed a vase from her, made dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up dinner, said bye-bye to Peter who went to Wednesday night Prayer Meeting, got Juhee's bag ready for her sweet potato digging field trip tomorrow, read the kids a couple of books, put them to bed, set the laundry on timer (so it runs when electricity is cheapest) and was doing some admin and facebook when I decided to write about today... And it's taken wa~~~y longer than I thought it would.

I'm too detail orientated. :/

Tomorrow is going to be a completely different day. ^^; But know that about two days per month, I have days like today's (minus the fancy lunch =DDD). Also know that through the relationships that are deepened during times like these, and even just the mere opportunity to meet more moms, allows me to invite them to outreach events held at the churches. And because they've come to know me, they come if they can.

Pray for the Thanksgiving Party invitations I handed out today to some of my closer friends at Mary Poppins. Pray that they'll be excited about the opportunity to eat turkey for the first time ever in their lives and come, even if just for that! Pray that they'll have fun and feel loved during their time with us.

Thank you God for flower arrangement classes at the kids' school and thank you God for new friends! :)