we stole this...

off of craigslist for a mere one hundred clams!

next order of business, begin planning christmas festivities which will include some kind of gathering where we lure unsuspecting friends over with food and drink, only to force them to gather around this thing for some caroling.

halloweenies

first came the picking...

then came the pie!



this is a yummy recipe. instead of the more traditional method of adding sugar and spices to the apples inside of the pie, a buttery, brown-sugary syrup is made on the stovetop and then poured over the lattice crust before baking. yummmmm.

and speaking of butter, how about three sticks for this one? two in the crust (no shortening) and one in the syrup. not for the faint of heart, for sure!



editorial note: i added a little cinnamon to the apple filling, just for good measure. also, i want point out that even though the crust recipe calls for the use of a food processor, don't be dismayed if you haven't got one. my little processor cannot accommodate a double pie crust mixture, so i improvised by using slightly softer butter, a hand mixer and a fork.

apple sunday

we managed to squeeze in an upstate orchard outing with friends yesterday. somehow, october has whizzed by us, so this last minute trip was a little behind peak apple and foliage season. but we all still really enjoyed the time together. the kids especially look forward to this outing, and i look forward to watching them get such thrills out of something as simple as plucking apples from trees. :)

rascal

this is what happens when anna is with me and i try to take photos of anything besides her.

(incidentally, these were taken last weekend while we were at the metropolitan museum of art).



(first shot)



(second shot a few seconds later)

home movies

sharing with you today, a few little videos i made while we were traveling in japan this summer.



video #1.

for our eleventh wedding anniversary, we stayed overnight at traditional japanese onsen (hot spring inn) while grammy stayed with the kids. such a treat! the food was amazing, if not slightly unusual at times. here we are trying out some raw horse meat.







video #2.

after dinner karaoke. boy, i really had that crowd in the palm of my hand, huh? ;) actually, funny sidenote here-- i got choked up at the beginning of this for some reason (glad james didn't catch it!). somehow, being there in that moment with james hit a soft spot.






video #3

there are all sorts of fun activities at summer street festivals. here's one in which james is trying to hit a watermelon with a blindfold on. i love how you can hear samuel and his friends off-camera, trying to steer him in the right direction!





video #4

here's a little ditty of the kids upon our arrival at JFK airport after the long flight from tokyo. (james had to stay an extra week in tokyo for work, that's why your don't see him.)

colors for you today

(crazy roadside attraction off of I 95 between north and south carolina)


(flatbush avenue. brooklyn, new york)



(pachinko machines. yudanaka/shibu onsen, japan)


(lanterns lining the street at the hanagasa festival in yamagata, japan)



(friend's crocs lined up on their terrace. tokyo, japan)



(church window. state college, pennsylvania)



(peach picking farm, somewhere further out into new jersey)



(taken while on the ferris wheel at cedar point amusement park. ohio)



(also seen at cedar point)



(brooklyn, new york)



(old town san diego, california)

local love

(back at home, taking inventory of the goodness)


yesterday afternoon, while we were all out in the back, we heard our neighbor's voice a few yards over. the kids called out hello to him over the fences and he called back, asking if they wanted to come over and pick some stuff from his garden. samuel declined since he was too into playing baseball with james, but anna and i decided to go check it out.

wow-- what a garden! and the stuff is yummy. i have been craving a really good tomato all summer (apparently, a widespread fungus has made it difficult this season) and these were so good.

now, what to do with the eggplant. suggestions?

rainy saturday

can you guess which one is generally a perfectionist and which one is not? :)

come on in

here's a little peek into our new place. little by little we are making it a home. before we moved in, i was able to paint (singlehandedly, i might brag!) the entire downstairs (including the office/guest room/practice room/dumping ground, which is not pictured since it's a total mess.) now, i am trying to figure out what to do upstairs. samuel wants some kind of blue. anna can't decide between purple and yellow. as for james and me, i am at a total loss. i want something restful but also kind of romantic and grown up. ideas?

anyway, welcome to our humble abode.




(in the entryway. like a lot of old houses in brooklyn, there is no front hallway closet. so, we opted for this rack.)





(downstairs half bath. we can't seem to escape the pink bathrooms. our last place had the same color scheme)



(samuel's room, complete with little sister.)



(anna's room)



(our bedroom)

on purpose

we went to pennsylvania last weekend to attend a wedding. as i sat there watching the bride and groom exchange vows beneath two big walnut trees, i thought about how much i like going to weddings. it's one of those experiences that makes me so happy to be a human being.

and also, as a married person, it just seems like good practice. to revisit those vows. to remember that warm august morning over eleven years ago when we made promises to each other. to God. to the people there who witnessed it and said they'd help us keep them.

i stopped my neighbor on the street the other day and asked where her husband had been. i hadn't seen him in what seemed like quite a while, and i wondered if he was on yet another one of his long international business trips.

turns out, he's living a few neighborhoods away, trying to sort some things out.

on his own.

she says she is ok with it. after all, they married when they were twenty. things change. they've grown up and apart over the past fourteen years. it's all good, she says.

gulp.

there is a little section at the opening of the bcp wedding service that says, "marriage is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently and deliberately."

for some reason, the word, "deliberately" has always stuck out.

"i told you to put away your toys and you deliberately ignored me."
"she deliberately lied."
"that driver deliberately cut me off in traffic."

"i deliberately take you to be my husband."

huh?

but you know, eleven years into this thing, it's starting to make more sense.

so much about married life is about being deliberate.

in picking battles.
in compromising.
in being thankful.
in making decisions.
in discovering something new.
in embracing the silence.
in insisting on talking.
in apologizing.
in saying yes.

in choosing to love.

here

("bye, daddy!")





it's chilly here today.

per anna's request, i hauled out her sleeping bag so she could snuggle up in it and look at books.

i made a pot of coffee.

sipped a hot cupful.

put on some music.

read a little of the paper.

puttered around the kitchen.

contemplated a shower.

thought about the fresh, clean laundry upstairs that needs to be put away.

got a phone call.

looks like loved ones will come over for lunch this afternoon.

i'm thinking BLTs will be good.

and maybe some cookie baking. i should use up those chocolate chips in the cupboard.


so thankful for these kinds of days. to be here. right now. with these people. to be a mom. a wife. the maker of a home.

before and after (but no pictures of in between)

this weekend included yet another happy trip to my chinatown salon.

well, mostly happy. that is, if i don't include the incident involving a slice of chicken caesar salad pizza, the restaurant next door to the salon, a very bad stomachache and a sabotaged girl's night out.

oh well, all's well that ends well, i suppose. :)

tightrope walking

(taken this summer in tokyo at a street festival. )


so now that fall is in full swing, i've been thinking about my mama schedule and in doing so, i've put together a very rough list of how things are looking these days around here.

there are the regular attendance things like

a trumpet lesson.
an aikido class.
ballet.
first grade.
grocery shopping.
two days of nursery school.

then there are the pretty regular activities like

playdates.
house cleaning.
birthday parties.
vacuuming.
visiting museums and playspaces and playgrounds.
doing the laundry.

and then there are the every-single-day jobs like,

feeding hungry people in the morning.
making and packing lunch.
planning and preparing dinner.
doing dishes.
making beds.
tidying up the house.

and to round it all off there are the regularly occurring job perks like,

kissing booboos.
reading bedtime stories.
singing songs.
answering questions.
having conversations.
saying prayers.
making peace.

and in looking at this (albeit rough draft) mama schedule of mine, i find myself walking a line. on one side of that line are many choices about how to keep everyone active and engaged and organized and clean and well fed. on the other side of the line is the vast land of no plans, of being able to turn down invitations and class options, of resigning oneself to fried eggs for dinner and dirty dishes in the sink, of sometimes loneliness and boredom and other times contentment with being alone and unoccupied, of periods of silence and of peaceful free play and then also of noisy friction between two bored children and their tired and clueless mom.

this tightrope is tense and it seems to be strung up between staying busy and letting a big, fat "nothing" rule the day.

and so, as a wobble across today, i want to ask you-- do you walk this line?

it's winding down

(taken last october)



summer, that is.

i'm trying to be positive. trying to think about the goodness of

crisp leaves under my shoes.
soup on the stovetop.
juicy apples.
bright blue skies.
and cozy sweaters.

but to be honest, i'm not all that thrilled.

i like my iced coffee.
flipflops.
trips to the beach.
corn on the cob
and potted flowers.

thank you very much.

oh, and pancakes in the morning.

school days=no time for pancake breakfasts.

and friends, between you and me, something about this fact makes me feel sad.

japan

just a few for now













(taken by james)

today

catching up

so, i am finally able to go through the hundreds of photos i've been collecting on my camera over the past several months, and i thought i'd share a few with you. i guess i'd say that these would go in the "little reasons why i heart NY" file.














.

so excited

we finally have a new computer!

what better way to get restarted here than with a colorful photo of a downtown wig shop?

more to come, provided i can peel myself away from summer. :)

train of thought

it is so nice to have all this space (we moved to a bigger place-- come visit us. no really, i mean it)

and oh, how i am loving the breeze that blows through my kitchen window while i wash dishes.

and how at night, the moon sometimes appears right in the center of the frame.

i am so glad summer is here.

samuel has been wonderfully chill now that we are off the daily grind. it's nice to not be cracking the schedule whip.

i keep wondering what it would be like to homeschool.

lots of big families homeschool. (are we really done having kids?)

missionary families seem to have lots of kids.

there are lots of missionaries at lake nojiri.

only one month until our trip to japan.

it will be good to be there with everyone. to slow down more. to talk. to listen.

i wonder how much japanese the kids will use.

i wish i spoke japanese better.

maybe i should really consider studying it formally.

speaking of studying, i need to take a voice lesson. it has been awhile.

i am really enjoying the bits of singing i've been doing lately.

last wednesday was a recent highlight.

and everyone was so nice.

it's good to meet new people.

but i am really tired after those kinds of things. i'm not an extrovert in the true sense of the word.

speaking of tired, i need to go to bed.

kids asleep upstairs.

precious.

content.

for now

i don't have words to explain what went on friday night, but it was good.

so, so good in so many ways. like fitting back into pre-pregnancy jeans again. or sticking your toes in the warm sand after a long winter.

when i have more words, i'll explain.