What do you DO all day??

Ever wondered what a stay-at-home mom and two little girls living in a foreign country with Daddy gone do all day?  Here is a glimpse.  Mommy wakes up at 6AM every day.  This give me time to turn on the heaters and get the house warm, brew and drink a cup of coffee (or two), and get a head start on my chores.  Japan has strict rules about trash, so each morning I figure out which trash day it is, empty one of our four trashcans, and take it out to the curb for pick up.  I also start of load of laundry so that it is finished and ready to hang up early, in hopes that it will dry by the end of the day, which in winter is unlikely.  I also make sure Leyton has all her school stuff for the day.  Each day is different, and on Thursday and Friday I have to pack her lunch.  I have to put away the dishes that I hand washed the night before.  As well as clean up any mess leftover that I decided to leave until the morning.  If I have time, I get dressed and ready.  Leyton wakes up between 7 and 7:30, and I hang out with her for a bit.  We almost always have to wake Ellis up at 7:30.  This is necessary in order for us to make it to school by 9.  After the girls go potty, it's time for breakfast.  Usually yogurt and cereal or overnight crockpot oatmeal.  Then the girls get dressed.  Leyton has to dress herself at school, and she has been taking a VERY long time, so they have asked me several times to talk to her about it.  We start putting on shoes and jackets at 8:45 and take Leyton to school by 9.  Then Ellis and I do our thing until 2pm, when we pick Sissy back up.  Sometimes we go grocery shopping, or pay bills, or visit a park.  About twice a week, we trek to Atsugi base, mostly because that is where our mailbox is, and also because they have a family gym, which Ellis hates.  There is a partition to keep the kids away from the limited equipment, and there is a TV, but Ellis usually starts crying to leave after about 10 minutes.  I can't blame her, last week a younger kid bit her.  So I have to make my workouts quick.  The lack to consistent exercise is probably what I struggle with most during this move.  Oh how I miss my 6am cross fit, or my 5am spin, or swimming, or marathon training.  Anyway, we usually home by noon, to make lunch.  Then I try and clean up and play with Ellis until we pick LC up at 2pm.  Then home and nap for Ellis, playtime for Mommy and Leyton.  Weather permitting, we go outside.  Leyton has gotten much better with her pedal bike, and I think she will be ready for the next size up very soon.  After playtime, LC usually helps me make dinner.  With Daddy gone, I try and keep it simple.  We wake Ellis at 4:30, eat dinner around 5, and then we have an hour to kill between 5:30 and 6:30.  This is usually my least favorite time of day.  Finally it's 6:30, and I start brushing teeth and getting them ready for bath.  I make them get out at 7:05, get them dried and dressed.  They get to watch usually about 10ish minutes on the computer, until 7:30 when I make them go upstairs.  By the time I get both girls in bed, books read, prayers said, I usually make it downstairs about 8PM.  Then I finally get to finish cleaning in quiet, then shower, and I am in bed by 9:30.  I don't stay up late, because then I wake up late and it throws the entire day off.  I like to keep things predictable when I'm running the show by myself.  Don't worry though, Leyton and Ellis have their own special way of keeping things plenty interesting.

Leyton makes random things at school.  These are necklaces.

This is a Bon Bon Ribbon bag that I bought to turn into a seat cushion.   I can't read the directions, but I can follow the diagrams.  

Such angels

Ellis climbing on top of her dresser

Ellis after I make her get off the dresser

We pulled out our Easter bag.  The girls have been enjoying all the 'new' toys that I hide for a year.

They love to pretend to sleep.  They also love to body slam and jump on each other's heads.

Because I am responsible for 100% of the cooking and cleaning, I allow myself a few shortcuts.  This is our Sunday-after-church lunch.  Roasted Japanese sweet potato, winter strawberries and sushi from the grocery store a block away.  YUMMY!!

One day Ellis and I were upstairs playing, and when I came down to check on Leyton, she had 'made the wall beautiful' by gluing her art to it.

While it really did look nice (she did some nice spacing with this collage), I told her I would take a picture and then she would have to clean the wall.  I explained that glue isn't good for walls.

We have a reward/penalty system set up for Leyton.  If she is sweet and kind and helpful, she earns 'minutes'.  If she is not sweet and kind (or if she disobeys and does things like gluing paper to the wall), then she loses minutes.  After bath, she counts up her minutes, and this is how long she gets to watch a Nick Jr show on the computer before bed.  

I bought Ellis her own headphones for our upcoming plane ride.  And she has been practicing wearing her backpack -which has a convenient detachable leash- that she will also be using on the trip.

Both girls are on the waiting list for gymnastic class.  They love to flip upside down.

Chopped my hair off.  Got sick of the ponytail so it was time to change things up.

Thursday and Friday I have to pack Leyton's lunch.  Apparently the American style lunch I had been packing was taking her too long to eat, so Mari Senseii asked me to just send one bento.  I took a picture to remind me how to make it.

We have been enjoying the longer days.  Doing a little bike riding after dinner.

Dressed up as bunnies and hopped all around the house

Ellis loves wearing her princess 'slippers'.  She has gotten picky about her shoes lately.  The more impractical, the better.

Oh dear.  This post took way too long to type and now I have to hurry and shower and get to bed.  Mommies don't get time-off, or sick pay, or personal time.... ready or not, those girls will be ready to roll in the morning!

Konichiwa Tomodachi! (Hello Friends!)

Things are plugging along here in Japan.  We have been keeping a low profile, just waiting for Ryan to go out on deployment again.  He will be gone three-and-a-half of the next four months.  Leyton is wrapping up her first full year of school.  She will graduate to the 4-year-old class on March 20.  Hosen also recently informed me that Ellis will not be able to start school until September.  I guess she wouldn't listen or sit still during her last practice school (sounds familiar).  So they said she needed to do some maturing.  Therefore, all of my kid-free plans will have to go on hold a few months (feel free to pause here and feel sorry for me -I sure did!).  But I am sure we will have fun, too.  In fact, we will certainly have fun in a few weeks when we fly across the world to Germany.  We will be visiting our wonderful friends, the Mallory's.  Leyton is already driving me crazy with her uncontrollable and excessive 'packing'. 

This is from LC's school performance.  She is on the far left, doing her 'Nekko Ya-Ya-Ya' song.  I only got to see three songs, because Ellis had had enough.  Fortunately, Leyton performed second.  I bought the DVD of the entire show.  It is sure to be a hit.

Leyton has been requesting hairstyles like those of her Japanese friends whose Mommies have WAY more skill in this area than hers.  I googled how to French braid.  I need LOTS of practice and a patient victim with straighter, all-one-length hair.

We got the girls a Balance bike.  They both like it.

I needed to buy Leyton her school supplies for next year, so I took Ellis on a scouting mission to a nearby mall.  It was awesome and we will be back, especially during the rainy season.

Leyton was sick last week.  She threw up one night and blamed it on the broccoli  she ate at dinner.

She had a little fever so she got to stay home and watch movies all day.  After Tylenol she felt good enough to do some crafting.  This kid LOVES to craft.  She will literally spend an hour every day cutting up paper and glueing it onto things.  If you want to get the girls some great gifts, go for stickers, paper, and art supplies.  They certainly have enough clothes and toys, but art supplies are time-consuming and I can throw them away after use.  Everyone wins!

Passed out on the couch, even with Ellis running around.

Last week we went to Hiro's house for his birthday.

Lots of kids and toys and I enjoyed talking to the Japanese mothers.  I am amazed that I have known these women for a year and am just now hearing them speak English.  Many Japanese are shy with their English.  If they can't speak it perfectly, they are embarrassed to speak it at all.  But I guess after hearing me struggle all year with Japanese, they figured I wouldn't mind their broken (though generally still good) English.  While we were chatting, they told me that I have a 'small face.'  I had the same reaction you just did.  'Huh?'  They explained that it was a compliment.  So I went home and googled it.  Apparently the Japanese have a complex about the size of their head/face.  I guess it's generally larger that other nationalities.  So a small face is a sign of beauty in Japan.  How fortunate for me to be on the positive side of a societies random determination of beauty.  Meanwhile, I can assure you that each and every Japanese woman sitting at that table was absolutely lovely.  

It's still pretty chilly here, but there are signs of spring.  A few early plum and cherry blossoms are appearing.  And Ellis and I are hitting up our favorite parks.  Here she is lying on a bench instead of walking to the car like I asked her.  Sometime over the past year, she went from being my 'easy' child to being the difficult one.  Leyton is generally a good kid and no trouble at all when we go somewhere.  Ellis, on-the-other-hand.... I guess that's the difference between being two-years-old and being four.  I recall LC being a little stinker, too.

Happy March!