Emma’s newest concoction

Finally, Daddy was here to try one of Emma’s concoctions. I have been waiting for this day. He was a good sport.  When we were at the commissary, she picked out some lemons, apparently they were in her recipe. ;) I let her get them, and then she came home and “cooked with her daughter.” I know there were lemons, a banana, lots of her expensive milk, and later pepper, peanut butter and cheese, of course. She chilled it, and set the table for everyone, ladled it with a spoon and brought it out for us to try.  Daddy said it wasn’t as bad as he expected, very lemony. I just had the pb. I would have tried it before the last few ingredients, but she got me with the pepper and cheese. Daddy started his Keto diet again,  so maybe he was just that hungry. I was not. 

This is mine. And it’s the only picture I got. I was cooking dinner so I didn’t take anymore. I see nuts in there, too, so they must have been another late addition. I wonder if she is playing chopped or something where she has to cook with weird ingredients?

Lake Okutama

Today we went hiking at Lake Okutama. We ended up on what was apparently the more challenging trail. Emma did great...more enthusiastic about it than me at times. It was pretty vertical, more than I expected, but she did great. Steven said we did 3 miles. On the way down she said her pinky toe was bothering her, and when we took her show off to check it, we realized she didn’t put socks on. 🤦‍♀️  we tried a bandaid, which helped, but then she ended up getting big a piggy back from Daddy. Next time we will make sure we wear socks. 

Lake Okutama

It wasn’t busy when we started, but it was much busier when we came down. 

Japanese ladybug? It was twice the size of ours.

Lake/dam from higher up.

This girl would do anything with Daddy.

Including climb a mountain 

This was the more difficult part, they had ropes to help though.

Daddy got her a walking stick. I found one, too, my legs were shaky on the way down!

Taking a break.

She was all smiles today. At one point we asked her if she liked hiking. “This is hiking? It’s weird but kinda fun.”  She was also afraid at one point because we saw a snake and there was a sign that said to watch out for bears. She kept thinking every noise she heard was a bear at the beginning.

We could not have done this without Daddy. 

Just a good view.

Heading back to the car.

We climbed that first one, maybe the second?

Hiking is exhausting.

Emma’s table

Emma has been setting the table. Most parents, I imagine, have trouble getting kids to do chores the right way or at all. We have the opposite problem. Emma sometimes gets a little too into her chores. She is very thorough, sometimes overboard and to an unnecessary level. (Note, not all her chores are like this, some she still needs help with.) Setting the table involves cleaning EVERYTHING off the table except placement/plates, and flowers...and food, which she arranges. This means she just puts everything else on the floor, and I may or may not know where my stuff is after dinner. We are still working out some of this, but it does look nice. She was apparently very proud of herself , because I found about 12 pictures of the table on my phone. 😏

She even tries to take away the extra chair since she is now sitting out the bench. A little overkill if you ask me...and since I’m the mom, it stays, sorry kid. 

Daddy’s rock

Steven has been working very hard learning Japanese, and carving a rock he found on the highest mountain in Korea. Today he finished it. 

All done!

His name in Japanese.

Emma wanted a picture with it.

Busy weekend

Last Saturday I went to PWOC training at Camp Zama with 7 other ladies from Yokota, about half our board. It was good to. Get away, but something sinus related (?) is bothering me and I came home feeling like I should never go away past lunch time again. I seem to develop headaches and even motion sickness in the afternoons or even when I’m out of the house for an extended period of time. I did NOT feel good, which is unfortunate because after the last couple years, I should have felt refreshed after that kind of day. But I have a doctors appointment for tomorrow, hopefully they will listen and be able to figure out what is wrong.  Anyway, Steven and Emma spent the whole day together on Saturday. And we have been enjoying having him home. And the sun is finally out, so we might even get to go swimming soon! This week we don’t have too much going on, but we seem to find things to do...maybe even a hike?  We will see!

Half our our ladies, the other half came from elsewhere in Japan.

All ready for church!

Steven has been renting games from the library. Emma has loved it! This one is nice because she can play with it for a while and when she gets bored we can take it back! I helped build this one.



Daddy made an egg salad sandwich. Emma is telling me thatnits good and I really should try some.

One thing I have missed about California, other than the sun and strawberries, is the sunsets. We finally had a good one the other night!

Oh playing with Daddy.

He was ‘sleeping.’

She put him to bed again...even turned out the light.


She and Daddy made this while I was shopping.

Rainy summer days

Today was another rainy, cool summer day. We have given Emma a schedule for summer that includes homework, chores, working out when we can, quiet time, and fun. We keep adding things, because some day she is just so fast! Today she was really into doing her homework, and kept doing homework pages until I made her stop. Apparently math is fun! It’s fun to watch her learn. For fun today we went to the movies. The theater is within walking distance and we got to see The Incredibles 2. It was ok, she came home trying to act like a superhero. And Daddy has taken 2 weeks off from work, so we have been very much enjoying having him home. I have gotten to sleep in, while he helps her with homework and breakfast. We have been playing games and trying out his new Sous Vide. So far summer is going well, although we do miss the sun. But we are figuring it out. 

Counting out her math on her fingers. :) She moved her booster seat across to the bench so she can sit by Daddy. And now I get to look at her. :) 

New hat

So when we were at the Sae Paradise, I told Emma I wished she had a hat to keep the sun out of her eyes. Well, she happened to find one at the BX yesterday, and reminded me of what I said. It was only $5, so I bought it. She has been wearing it a lot, and it’s so cute. She had a pretty good day today, got all of her chores and things done early, then played with a friend for most of the afternoon. She was very motivated today...when she would finish something she would ask what she should do next. Even made her own lunch. 

She was taking pictures while I was working on stuff for PWOC.

And selfies apparently.

Smile Mom!

All ready for a bike ride!

This is how I found her...scrambling her own egg for lunch.

She did it pretty much all by herself ...only needed a little help with the hot pan. 
I should mention that he sun was out today! We were all very excited. We are noticeably more motivated and happy when the sun is out. It has been raining a lot, so it was nice to see the sun. I think, beside the whole foreign country thing, the weather is the hardest to get used to here. 

Just like mom

Emma came out of her room and wanted to sing for me. I smiled, because I remembered doing this exact same thing. I even sang into a vacuum handle! (Mine was real though.) She is definitely mine. And even on hard almost-six-year-old days like today, I will keep her. 

Tachikawa

I think that’s how you spell it. Today we went to IKEA, and another place in Tachikawa. We live in Fussa...these are called prefectures...maybe like counties? Anyway, it was farther than we have been before. We are all exhausted. We managed to only buy some cups for Emma at IKEA, and then Steven found a yummy place to eat called Eggs & Things. It was a Hawaiian place. It was a fun outing, but we are all exhausted! 

We made Daddy Lucky Leprechaun Dessert for Father’s Day. Emma had fun making cracker crumbs.

She loved all the canopies at IKEA.

If I wasn’t so afraid of sugar, I would have gotten pancakes. They come with whipped cream like 8 inches tall! This was a kids meal...which she ate all of! She was hungry!

Outdoor play area. Notice we have the only blonde child. We rode a train, too. Thankfully our seat mates spoke English!


We found giant marshmallows, which we did not buy. She was sad because she had just tripped and fell.

A plane was taking off on base on our way home so we stopped to watch it. We got to take Daddy’s car today, Emma was super excited. 

Emma’s meeting

A couple weeks ago I was asked to be the admin/finance person one the  PWOC board here. I am familiar with PWOC and the chapel, and I had been praying that to not waste our time here, so it’s a good fit. They formmally announced it last week, and gave me all the stuff to do. It is nice to have something to do, but I had already signed up for the trip to the aquarium and it was her kindergarten graduation, so last week was extra busy. I put together all the notebooks and roster, etc. Lots of informal meetings, and our first board meeting was last Sunday night. This PWOC is much bigger than anything I have been apart of before. There are 15 people on the board!!! Quite a change from Beale where I ended up doing most things myself. It is great to have so many invested. It is also a lot of work to keep up, but I think I am finally organized. Emma was great help putting together all the notebooks. Today she had her own meeting. She even prayed and handed out notebooks. 

Daddy cooks

Steven got a Sous Vide....a French thing for cooking. You put it in water, plug it in, and it tells the app on his phone what the temp of the water is. When the light turns green, you put in your food. For steaks he put them in a  plastic bag with garlic, oil and herbs. The app tells you exactly what to do. The steaks were delicious! It was a little weird to not be cooking dinner, but I could get used to it. :)

Also...today was Emma’s last day of kindergarten!