Trying Something New… October 6, 2008

Finally it has come to the day that I am sitting at a coffee shop, by my self, typing up my blog. (I actually don’t like the smell of Starbucks, but I didn’t know anywhere else to go…)

Dropped off Zu, she didn’t cry and just said “Bye.”
Last week was the first time she didn’t cry at preschool.  We were about to give up on the Preschool thing, but I am so glad that she is finally getting used to it.

I am doing something on my own.  By my self…  Strange…  A little uneasy of the fact that I am not running around doing something for the house, Zu, or us.  I am sitting down, sipping on tea at a coffee shop.
I said I wanted to do this when I find time for myself, but when it actually happens it just doesn’t feel right that I am not “Working” (mom job), you know!?

I even have a lunch date today with my girl friends!  It’s mid-day, and we are hanging out!  We usually have “Ladies Night”, where we all leave our kids with the dads and the Girls get together for a gourme potluck and drinks at one of our houses.  Lot’s of fun.  These are the times we get to let loose.  But this time it’s strange because it’s day time!  Our kids are in school or some of the girls are just coming out durning their lunch break from work.  I’m really excited!  We are going to a really good Japanese restaurant called Sharaku.  And it just so happens to be my cousins place, where I work!  I may like this lunch thing a lot.

So as I am typing this up, I am talking to my husband via iChat.  He says I need some “me time”.  What’s that?  Who’s me?  Me = ME! Ahhhh…  Such a strange concept that I haven’t had a chance to think about since before Zu!  Wow…  I feel a bit more comfortable with this “Me” thing now, than I did a year ago for sure!  I’m happier, more organized, and things are more under control.  Let’s see how this “Me” thing pans out in the next coming months.  I know I am going to start enjoying this.  Can’t get too cofortable though, we may want another little terror of joy.

Here’s a link to the lettus wrap recipe in the photo: my friend made it, I made the samosa’s.

http://cookpad.com/recipe/397456

Need it in English?  Just let me know and I will put up a post.

First Day of Preschool! September 5, 2008

Our 3 year old has started Preschool this week.  She was so excited about going for the past week that we used Preschool as a tool for repremanding her now.  “You won’t be able to go to school if you don’t listen…”  It’s been working very well.

So she took off this past Tuesday, with her uniform hat, badge, princess lunch bag and back pack my grandmother made for her.  Very excited that she was going with daddy.  Although we were half an hour late, I had to stop and take pictures. 
I was so happy that she actually made the school year.  She couldn’t go if she wasn’t properly potty trained.  Loads of photo’s and excitement later.  I was FREE!  No kid to watch all day.  Wow…  This was an exciting day.  Or was it?

I’ve decided to occupy my time by working at my cousins restaurant.  The extra cash & awesome Japanese lunches they give us was a plus too.  I’ve never waited tables before, but it’s not too bad.  I’m such a slow pace person, I have to get used to the fast paced 3 hours.  I’ll get a hang of it I hope… It was so busy, from time in to time out, I didn’t even get a chance to think of what Zu was doing.

After work it’s time to pick up the munchkin.  This preschool is 10 miles away from my cousins restaurant.  A lot of driving…  (Is it worth it?)  Any who, on the way there on my 30 min. drive, it dawned on me.  It’s such a strange feeling to be this far from my child, and on top of that this is the first time that I have no idea what she’s been doing!  Did she eat all of her lunch, did she get to the bathroom OK, is she getting along with others, is she lonely without me…?  I don’t know if I can get used to this.
Now I have to depend on what Zu tells me and the one sentence the teacher writes on a little piece of paper, “She played house and didn’t cry even though it was her first day.”  That’s it!?  Who did she play with?  Was she alone?  Did she make friends?  Was she listening to the teachers?  Was she ALL BY HER SELF!? Alone???

Her lunch box was empty and she seemed fine.  Did she really eat all the food or did they dump what was left over, or did she spill all her food, or did some other kid eat her lunch?  I don’t know if I like not knowing…

I asked her how school was and she seems to not remember anything…  This really sucks.

Obentou

Day #2

New bento (lunch), and off she goes.

I guess this time letting go was hard for Zu and daddy.  Daddy was dropping her off with the teacher, she grabbed on and didn’t want to let go.  “Don’t go daddy. (sob)”  Teacher tears her away and daddy bolts away without looking back.  He said it was very sad.  Poor daddy…

So, my 2nd day at work.  Busier than before, it was over in a flash!  Grab my bento from the chef, and off to pick up the Zu-meister.  This day was “Everybody get in my way and drive super super slow day.”  It took me 35 min. to get there.  (IS it worth it?)

I walk in, she sees me, runs to me, “MAMA!”  All smiles, seconds later, crying.  “I want to go on the bus with my friends!”  There’s a school bus for this preschool, but it costs more to put her on the bus, and it doesn’t stop anywhere near our side of town so we are not using it.  I tell her, “If you go on the bus, you can’t go home with mama.”  She sais, “I want to go on the bus with you… (sob)”  I say, “That bus is for little people and not for mama’s.”  She stops crying and just starts walking towards the car.

Buckled in with her snack in hand, we are off.  Bus passes by, and cue the water works.  “My friends are leaving me~!!”  A minute of crying and 2 minutes later, “I LOVE MAMA, DADDY, AND OTIS, AND SIMON, AND I MISSED YOU!  YOU WERE WITHOUT ME!!”  Niagara Falls.  Poor baby, she was so tired and lonely she just couldn’t controll herself anymore.  I had to stop the car and calm her down.  2 minutes later, she passed out.  Poor thing…  I was so sad, I thought maybe we can wait a little longer for her to go to school?  She doesn’t really have to go yet.  Preschool is not a requirement…

But then I remembered why she’s going to that preschool that is 30 minutes from our house and is a full day.  It’s for her language skills, mainly.  This is a Japanese speaking preschool.  A full day of playing and communicating in Japanese.  We thought it was important for her to grow up knowing 2 languages.  I’ve been raising her speaking only Japanese to her, and her daddy only speaking English to her.  Living in the US, surrounded by English most of the time, you start losing the secondary language.  She was actually starting to lose some of her Japanese recently, so I really wanted her to go to a Japanese speaking school to be able to keep her heritage.

It was the same for me, my parents spoke Japanese, but I learned English anyway because we lived in the States.  Eventually we moved to Japan and I learned the language very quickly after we moved, but Zu may never live in Japan.  We’ll visit, but living there may never happen.
They say that if a child learns a 2nd language (conversational) perfectly by the age of 7, they will carry that with them forever.  I really am counting on this.  So up till the point that she goes on to 1st grade, I am going to try very hard for her to learn Japanese.  It is very important for her to learn Japanese now, at her age, or she may lose it forever.

Well, hopefully she will do better next week.  I’m sure it has a lot getting used to for her and for us.  This is a big step, and a good one.  Everything will work out at the end, I know it.

So here I go! March 18, 2008

My first post!

I guess I should start out with a short introduction of myself.

I was born in Japan, grew up in the United States for most of my life.

I’m a mom, a wife, an artist, a cook. I love the idea of reducing my carbon footprint in this world, so I try very hard to have our family be as green as possible.

I cook with mostly Organic ingredients, because I believe that it is healthier for my family and I also think it tastes better. But there are a lot of obstacles, being green. One of the biggest hurdle for me is the amount of green (money) you have to dish out to buy things that are supposedly GREEN. Organic food is a bit more pricey, so I mainly concentrate on getting all dairy, meats, and eggs organic, but the rest I try.

My daughter is almost 3 and it’s awesome to be able to stay home and raise her to speak Japanese. English is my first language, but I do speak Japanese fluently as well. My husband is American and his Japanese is not as good as my daughters. It is very important to me that she grows up bilingual. I really would like her to know her heritage, language and all.

Being an artist, taking care of a baby-toddler, took away one of the most important thing in my life, which is being creative. We decided for me to stay home because I wasn’t comfortable in leaving my child with a stranger, after interviewing an at home day care that the owners husband was arrested for child molestation charges the year before. I’m sure there are plenty of good day cares out there, but if the first one you interview is the one I did, you would do the same.
Anyway, being crafty with a little one is not easy… Actually it can’t happen. So I started cooking and baking A LOT. This turned into my creative outlet, plus we are a single income family, so we have to cook at home every night. $100 feeds the 3 of us for a week( lunch & dinner). I will have a lot of these recipe’s and menus on the site to inspire people to eat at home.
Now that my daughter is a little bit bigger, she gives me time to relax now that I’ve just started to sew a bit again. Which is so exciting!

I had really bad postpartum depression, that I finally just started to come out of at the end of last year. I did not take any medication, and I feel that I have truly kicked this depression at the core. My husband is the greatest. I can’t even express in words how grateful I am for how supportive he is through all of this. I’m so lucky.

So, this is who I am in a nutshell. Through this blog I will be sharing things and thoughts that I find that help my life be happier.

Enjoy! ようこそ(welcome)