Culture Day In Japan
Thursday, June 4, 2015
I remember culture day in New Mexico growing up. We usually learned about Mexican traditions, food, and culture. New Mexico is thriving in culture and it is truly one of the best of all 50 states. Here in Japan my little guy is learning about kimonos, judo, Taiko drums, bon dances, mochi pounding, etc. I had the awesome privilege of attending Bears first culture day. The school is on base but they had volunteers come in to demonstrate their wonderful talents. We had a blast and Bear now wants to play Taiko, pound mochi, and learn Judo.
A Paleo Journey
Monday, June 1, 2015
We have been tackling this lifestyle for awhile. More in a way that we can't quite give up on certain things. Cake, bread, pasta, cookies, cheese...oh sweet delicious gouda. Paleo...what is paleo? Well it's basically the caveman diet. There's a lot online that talks about the Paleo "diet" and it all makes it sounds complicated. I am hoping as I journey through it I can help you our a little more. All I saw when I researched Paleo was NO FREAKING ICE CREAM!?!?!?!?! WHY!?!?!
The Mister and I have bounced back and forth with this thing. What made us change? Well miss Mom over here decided to hurt her back. That's what happened. Let's go back a bit before we get into my back. In February I decided to start working out not just simple working out but like legit hardcore working out. Weights, running, swimming, bike, classes, etc. You name it I wanted to try it. I instantly fell in love with weight lifting. It made me feel like a beast and that I could conquer the world while punching everyone. Ok maybe not that beast like but you get the point. Loved weights. As some know I do photography part time. Well here in Japanland there's a special torture for us photogs called Sakura season or is you don't know what that means Cherry Blossom season. I remember before coming to Japan thinking I was going to have to travel far to see the magnificent blossoms of Japan. Like they were tucked away in the mountains somewhere and would have to trek to them. Wrong! They're everywhere here. Every corner, park, 7-11, shrine, temple, and basically most front yards have either a cherry blossom (sakura) tree or plum blossom (ume) blooming. Why are they torturous for us photogs. Well these pink blossoms of beautiful doom like to bloom unexpectedly. Sure we get our prediction charts and what not but you can't predict these things sometimes. Blossoms also don't last more than 2-3 weeks. So you basically have to jump on them while they last. This season I was completely over booked. Blossoms are actually very wonderful. It is my favorite time in Japan because they represent the start of spring. Everything is covered in pink and it's just wonderful. Combine my blossom season on top of being a new weight lifter and things can get sort of bad. Hurt my back and had to stop lifting and running. How the heck was I going to lose weight and get a work-out in?
Insert Paleo and yoga. Once the pain in my back got slightly better I started doing 20 minutes of yoga a day. Every morning I did it to ease my pain to relieve stress. I completely cut out sugar, gluten, processed foods and dairy from my diet. Which is basically what paleo is I think I will make a special post about exactly what and how it works. Like I said simple foods. Since I have been doing these things I have lost 10 pounds. I plan on starting up with swimming soon to add onto my now 30 minutes of yoga a day. Simple changes can really help you in so many ways. I do miss lifting and maybe I will go back but right now I am sticking to what is working. Plus I get that precious 30 minutes of quiet in the mornings.
I hope you decide to stick around while I figure this whole paleo madness out. I will be posting recipes and other things as I go.
The Mister and I have bounced back and forth with this thing. What made us change? Well miss Mom over here decided to hurt her back. That's what happened. Let's go back a bit before we get into my back. In February I decided to start working out not just simple working out but like legit hardcore working out. Weights, running, swimming, bike, classes, etc. You name it I wanted to try it. I instantly fell in love with weight lifting. It made me feel like a beast and that I could conquer the world while punching everyone. Ok maybe not that beast like but you get the point. Loved weights. As some know I do photography part time. Well here in Japanland there's a special torture for us photogs called Sakura season or is you don't know what that means Cherry Blossom season. I remember before coming to Japan thinking I was going to have to travel far to see the magnificent blossoms of Japan. Like they were tucked away in the mountains somewhere and would have to trek to them. Wrong! They're everywhere here. Every corner, park, 7-11, shrine, temple, and basically most front yards have either a cherry blossom (sakura) tree or plum blossom (ume) blooming. Why are they torturous for us photogs. Well these pink blossoms of beautiful doom like to bloom unexpectedly. Sure we get our prediction charts and what not but you can't predict these things sometimes. Blossoms also don't last more than 2-3 weeks. So you basically have to jump on them while they last. This season I was completely over booked. Blossoms are actually very wonderful. It is my favorite time in Japan because they represent the start of spring. Everything is covered in pink and it's just wonderful. Combine my blossom season on top of being a new weight lifter and things can get sort of bad. Hurt my back and had to stop lifting and running. How the heck was I going to lose weight and get a work-out in?
Insert Paleo and yoga. Once the pain in my back got slightly better I started doing 20 minutes of yoga a day. Every morning I did it to ease my pain to relieve stress. I completely cut out sugar, gluten, processed foods and dairy from my diet. Which is basically what paleo is I think I will make a special post about exactly what and how it works. Like I said simple foods. Since I have been doing these things I have lost 10 pounds. I plan on starting up with swimming soon to add onto my now 30 minutes of yoga a day. Simple changes can really help you in so many ways. I do miss lifting and maybe I will go back but right now I am sticking to what is working. Plus I get that precious 30 minutes of quiet in the mornings.
I hope you decide to stick around while I figure this whole paleo madness out. I will be posting recipes and other things as I go.
A Year Later....
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Wow I haven't blogged in a whole year.....oops.
Since our move to Japan I have really been neglectful with this blog. I guess there's been so much going on that I just didn't sit down to really write it out. I am going to try and make an effort of keeping this thing going. Especially since it's our last year and I would like to document our travels.
So what's been going on in our world...lots and lots of work. My photography business has really blossomed in the last year. I took a little break but I came back and things are steadily going well. I haven't decided if I will continue the business side of things back stateside but we will see. I really like the idea of just taking portraits of the boys for the rest of their lives (insert evil laugh).
Steven has been very busy with work as usual we get to pick our next destination very soon and before we know it we will be gone. More on that later.
Bear is in Kinder and will be ending soon. We decided to send him to school when homeschooling was going well but not as well as planned. I still love to teach him at home but he loves school and his friends at school. His teachers have been incredible and we're so thankful things have really worked out on that end. He is also in baseball this season and loves it so far. He has one more game then we will try out something else. I fully plan on having these monkeys at the beach or pool all summer. Then maybe Bear can do Judo plus an arts and crafts class. He's very interested in coding so we will play around with that this summer plus keep him reading a lot by doing a 100 book summer with him. I can't believe we will have a 1st grader soon! Where has our baby gone?
Since our move to Japan I have really been neglectful with this blog. I guess there's been so much going on that I just didn't sit down to really write it out. I am going to try and make an effort of keeping this thing going. Especially since it's our last year and I would like to document our travels.
So what's been going on in our world...lots and lots of work. My photography business has really blossomed in the last year. I took a little break but I came back and things are steadily going well. I haven't decided if I will continue the business side of things back stateside but we will see. I really like the idea of just taking portraits of the boys for the rest of their lives (insert evil laugh).
Steven has been very busy with work as usual we get to pick our next destination very soon and before we know it we will be gone. More on that later.
Bear is in Kinder and will be ending soon. We decided to send him to school when homeschooling was going well but not as well as planned. I still love to teach him at home but he loves school and his friends at school. His teachers have been incredible and we're so thankful things have really worked out on that end. He is also in baseball this season and loves it so far. He has one more game then we will try out something else. I fully plan on having these monkeys at the beach or pool all summer. Then maybe Bear can do Judo plus an arts and crafts class. He's very interested in coding so we will play around with that this summer plus keep him reading a lot by doing a 100 book summer with him. I can't believe we will have a 1st grader soon! Where has our baby gone?
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| Bears 1st 4th July 2009 |
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| Bear at his culture day May 2015 |
The Pig is officially potty trained. Well he's been potty trained since Feb but this is one of the biggest things in his little life. He just pretty much started on his own and went with it. We really tried not to force him into this. He's quite the stubborn and independent little guy. He keeps growing and learning everyday. We have been working on getting him into speech therapy as he is still not talking as much as we want him to, but he's getting better daily. We had his ears checked out and they said everything is normal. He likes to say phrases over basic words. So we will get a "May I please" or a "thank you" here and there. I guess we should be very happy about that but it's still behind and we're hoping to have him a little more on track before our move.
Other than all that we are doing good. I have a lot of pictures to post for you all and I am going to try and do my best to get them up in the next week. Hope you all are having a great start to your summers.
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