what a summer! i am so glad it's nearly over! what a thing to say, but there it is!

a few weeks ago, i was taking pictures in order to write a post on my cooking blog (HAHA) and noticed how freaking messy the kitchen was! this motivated me to clean up, and to do it vicky style, that is take pictures and blog about it!

so, here is a picture of the kitchen. you can see that it is very narrow. my oven is there on the left, the sink is on the right. the bucket next to the wall is the compost. (ew)



so messy.

next is a picture of the sink and counter space. there isn't a lot of space and it attracts clutter. the grey thing in the lower right hand side is the dish washer. i also notice, from this picture, that a lot of the clutter is recycling that is drying...



here is my limited counter space--so cluttered with things! two thermoses and an insulated cup, two water glasses (one of which has since been smashed by a child) and just lots of stuff. *sigh*



and, the sink. a lot of the mess is drying milk cartons, but there's a pot waiting to be washed (this is actually a 'clean' kitchen, it wasn't until i started taking photos for a blog post that i noticed how cluttered it is! everything has a place, honest, it just doesn't always make it back to that place! when the kitchen isn't 'clean', that sink is chock full of dishes!)



ok, much better (although the water glasses are still there. however, i need to drink a lot of water, so there you go!) guess i could have moved the cutting board for the photo, but i was about to start cooking.



and the sink a bit better, though there's still a milk carton and pet bottle drying, and all those dishes draining. but still, not bad!



well, that's pretty much it. i actually really dislike my kitchen, it's no better than any you would find in an apartment. which is sad, really, seeing as we live in a house!

last thursday i was up late combing tommy's hair (it's so much easier to do tasks like that when the kids are asleep) when i heard something messing with the trash can outside. it has a lid with 'locks' and it's great for keeping the garbage outside until garbage day. however, it's getting old and the plastic is degrading. it was a nice cool night, with no rain, so i had the window in the upstairs hallway open, and it just happens to be over the trashcan. at first i thought yoshi was putting trash outside, but the noise continued for longer than it would take someone to put something in the trash. so then i thought it was a cat and i went downstairs to tell yoshi to take care of it (nothing like being a girl. *sigh*) but it was no use, he had fallen asleep and so i went out with a flashlight to scare off the cat.

not a bloody cat, it was a fucking ferret!! CRAP ON A STICK!

i woke yoshi up but he had no idea what a ferret was. i finally got him to go look but then he just went to bed. fuck a duck.

the damn ferret was stuck in a crack that had formed near one of the locks and when it saw me it tried to get away. at first i shhed at it but when i saw it was stuck i was stumped. i didn't want to try to poke it with a broom or something, but then i didn't want to leave it in the trash can. eventually it got free and ran off (i guess. i hope it doesn't come back!!) guess it's time for a new outside can. *sigh* ah, the joys of suburban life.

at least we have a roof over our head. *sigh*

it wasn't until this morning that i realized that today was friday the thirteenth. not that i think it's an unlucky day, just one of those things that i used to worry about when i was younger. let me tell you, today is so beautiful. the weather is nice, the kids are asleep...well, tommy isn't, but he doesn't run around screaming. he just scoots around putting things in his mouth. hmmm, better clean. you would hardly know it is rainy season!

speaking of which, i made umeshu yesterday. i wasn't going to, since i still have so much from the batch that i made four (five??) years ago, but i have been drinking quite a bit lately, and it's better if it's aged for at least a year. so, i was wavering over making it until i saw amy's post yesterday, and decided that yes, i will make umeshu. i can hardly wait!! (please check out amy's blog and post, she's done a gorgeous job about making umeshu that i can hardly do better! i used white liquor instead of brandy, though.)

that's about it for today, i'm afraid. i've misplaced my camera, so i have to do some tidying. also, yoshi's parents are coming on sunday, so we gotta clean up!!

i have never really blogged about my house before. i was going to share pictures, but just after i took a butt-load of them, my camera (or rather, the disk) went all wonky. i managed to save the pictures to a CD, but that CD has disappeared and i have no idea where it is. anyway.

i have not blogged about the house because, well, it's a delicate subject. while i don't hate my house, it is not the house i would have chosen for myself. i really need to leave it at that, sorry for the vagueness. also, if i talk about it, i get upset and there's nothing that can be changed (for the time being anyway) and so there's no reason to worry about something that can't be helped.

just another reason why i don't feel like a grownup. *sigh*

when i was writing the previous post, i was thinking about whether or not i *wanted* japan to feel like home. at this time, i don't. again, from the e-mail group i belong to, some said they felt that home was where their mother was. i feel that way too. even if i never live in her house again, i feel that is my home.

a few years ago i was talking to someone and my brother was there. i said something about 'my' house, and my brother corrected me, saying it was my parents' house. but i still felt like it was my home, even though i lived on my own, in japan. i wonder if that feeling ever goes away. i hope not.

ok, sorry this is short, hiro needs more salad.

this was recently asked on an e-mail group i belong to. i didn't answer there, because i wasn't sure what i could say. the person who posed the question really seemed to be in a downward trend in culture shock, and i didn't want to make her more upset with my answer.

i've been thinking about it for the past few days, though. my answer, no japan does not feel like home. there are many many reasons why, but i don't think i have the time (or energy) right now to answer them all. one thing, though, is my inability to have japanese girlfriends. why is that?? not that every foreign woman i meet becomes a bosom buddy, but i have quite a few canadian, american, british, kiwi and australian friends, but no japanese. i think it has something to do with me, but there you go. although, this evening we were out while the neighbors were, with their kids, and now the woman around the corner and i have plans to go to costco tomorrow. hm.

one person on the e-mail group said she didn't feel like japan was her home until her daughter was born. but i don't have that same feeling. too often, when i go out with my kids, it's almost like a traveling side-show. i know my kids are gorgeous, but getting so much unwarranted attention is annoying. and divisive. hm.

it's funny, because the other day i was telling a very close friend how i just didn't feel like an adult. here i am, nearing 35 and i feel like i'm playing at grown-up. i don't feel like this is my house, my car, my job (although i do like being a SAHM, it's not forever, and to be honest, spending so much time with my beautiful, but ACTIVE, children is exhausting and i almost want to get a job just to get a break!! lol) and i don't know when i'll feel like i'm there. i used to think i was still a ten-year-old in a older body, but these days i think i'm more like sixteen. not feeling at home at japan probably contributes to me feeling like a child.

**************

some time ago, chelle asked about wii fit. i am embarrassed to say that i haven't used it much lately. lol the main reason is i just don't have time! it's fun, but i'm not progrssing, since i'm not getting any exercise otherwise, and wii fit seems to be more for training (yoga and simple exercises) than burning fat (although that's what the running and hula hoop is for.) i *have* been getting up earlier, now that yoshi is getting up earlier, so maybe, once my body has adjusted to this new time, i can do some wii training in the morning before the kids wake up.

also, the kids have discovered my neighbor totoro, and we've watched that at least four times a day every day this week! and, if they're awake when i get out the wii, they want me to do the ball balance game, and nothing else!

today i went to coin laundry because it was raining. it had been raining since yesterday morning, and the load of laundry i had done from the night before was mouldering away. i hate to hang things up in my house, i think it's tacky. just me, i'm sure, but i can't help it. so, i spend the money making sure my clothes and towels are truly dry.

since they had spent more than 24 hours in the washing machine, i got a couple of scented bounce dryer sheets to help mask any musty smells. i actually grabbed three or more (oops) and although i only ran them for thirty minutes (i only had 300 yen) they were very dry--and very smelly. a lovely clean smell that reminds me of home.

yoshi doesn't like smells, especially those he calls detergent smells. for the most part i use unscented or lightly scented liquid detergents, and hanging the clothes outside takes away almost any scent added by dreft. and i do have a box of unscented bounce dryer sheets, but i just wanted to make sure the clothes smelled nice for a change.

folding up the clothes in the coin laundry this morning reminded me of taking clothes fresh from the dryer when i was a child. i do miss this smell. but i hope none of yoshi's clothes were in that load.

i am losing patience. not that i had a lot to begin with. while yoshi was home, i did go out with tommy alone, but really, it wasn't enough. i can get so much more accomplished when yoshi comes home at night. *sigh* well, he'll be home tomorrow night and hopefully the rest of the week will become better.

only one more day left with my mom. she leaves on thursday. *sigh* i think it's going to be tough without her here, it's great having an extra pair of arms and hands. hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow so we can get some laundry done. and it would be nice to visit munakata shrine for the chrysanthemum festival. wish us luck!

tonight is a nabe night, it's getting colder here in fukuoka. i hate winter, but i guess it will be a good excuse for staying home all the time.

yoshi took last friday off because of a trip he made to mie one saturday last month. yesterday was a holiday (sports appreciation day? let's have another three-day-weekend day? i can't remember). having him at home so much is rather tiring. he has no idea how home-life works around here, and has a hard time remembering that pregnancy home-life time is very different than regular. and...everything is going to change when number 3 shows up.

i know i shouldn't complain, he's really a good father and can be helpful around the house, but...well, first off, he has very definite ideas on a clean house (not really how, just that it should be.) i am tired and everything is just not getting done. i really hate to vacuum, and now it just exhausts me, so i really wish he'd just step up and do it. and then not complain about it, or expect some kind of royal recognition for doing it. second, i really need a break from the kids. he will take them out, play with them, and even bathe them, but...sometimes it's not enough. i am grateful for every minute alone i receive, but i don't like feeling resented for doing so. he should take his kids and enjoy them for goodness' sake! am i wrong? am i supposed to sacrifice every living moment so that my husband can go to work, go jogging or swimming, go to the library or study for some important exam he wants to take in november, while i feed, change, bathe and entertain the children? it's not fair, and while life may not be fair, it's not as though i'm really doing this alone. for the most part, they are great kids, just so young, and they aren't going to be like this forever. and i feel so guilty about wanting to get away--from the kids, from the house, from my husband. *sigh* i need some reece's peanut butter cups...

and when is this baby coming?! lol

um...12 centimeters isn't really that big a difference. is it? only about four inches, right? which means about 2 inches on each side. so...a standard (japanese) queen sized fitted sheet should still fit fine on my new mattress. right? *sigh* another joy of living in a foreign country. maybe i will have a look at aeon (jusco) and see what they have for single fitted sheets (queen size). i'm still going to wait until after the bed arrives.

we also bought a dresser for the kids. we have far too many clothes but no where to put them. have i complained about the closets yet? in the rooms with lofts, there are small closets with rails in them. you know, for hanging clothes. the larger room (which has no loft) has a bigger closet--but no rail. *sigh* i got some spring-rod type rails for this closet, but they don't bear a lot of weight. first mine fell, then yoshi's. mine got put up again, but yoshi's did not. he has been wearing the same clothes to work for forever. he thinks he has no clothes but that's not the truth. he just can't see his clothes (and, i guess he thinks that his clothes don't get very dirty so he doesn't need to put them in the laundry) so we don't know what he has. i really really really want to get the clothes organized so then i can get him a couple more things that he needs (probably a couple of shirts and a pair of pants. *sigh*) but...i've been so tired and lazy with pregnancy that my husband just wears the same thing day after day. at least he changes his underwear!

wow, lots of lovely help! for what it's worth, i'll let you know what the problem is: the mattress we got is actually two mattresses put together to make a 'queen' size. they are 'small singles' which measure 86cm across. so, together, that makes 172 cm, unless my math is wrong (always possible.) however, the standard queen sized sheets here in japan seems to be 160 cm. a difference of twelve centimeters. seems like a lot to me, and i don't want the fitted sheet to always be slipping off. i also don't want to buy a sheet that i'm not going to be able to use. at the moment, i'm just going to wait until the bed is here and measure it myself.

btw, using an online measurement converter, 172 cm is about 67.7 inches. like i said previously, jc penney doesn't show the dimensions of its sheets, but if anyone knows what the standard queen size back home is, it would be nice to know. (and maybe i should think about king sized sheets.)

how is it i feel constipated when i have a BM every day? very very icky feeling. my least favorite of pregnancy (with heartburn a close second. obviously, i've never had morning sickness.) sorry for the tmi right off the bat, but that's how i've been feeling for about two weeks. it's kind of weird. first, i had bad constipation. i really won't delve into why it's so nasty for me, let's just say that after a while, if things aren't regular, my bowels revolt. so, i asked my doctor for some medication (laxitives) which i have only taken once. ugh. it's just been icky.


ok, enough unpleasantness. we are otherwise doing well here. sasha can crawl anywhere (and so far hasn't managed to crawl off the step in the genkan), she can pull herself up into a sitting position and now can pull herself to standing (usually with the kotatsu, but also she tries really hard with my leg.) hiro is talking more. he is even using some japanese with yoshi. for example, he's really into pointing out airplanes. to me, he'll say, 'airplane!' with yoshi, however, he usually says, 'hikoki!' it's really cute. have i written about this before? seems like i've said that before...

we bought some lanterns for the garden. they have solar panels that recharge batteries, so we don't really have to worry about them. this year the garden is pretty much going to look like crap. we didn't even get a vegetable patch going. i bought some seeds, and i though yoshi was going to help me with that (especially since the yard is mostly sand, though weeds grow in it well, and i don't know where to go, or even inquire, for top soil) but he's really let that go. ah well, the seeds should work next year, right? he really has no time, and he thinks he's going to build a wooden deck. ha! of course, we much rather spend time together as a family, and with only one income at the moment, it's not like we can afford to pay someone to make one, but...well, someday i may have a yard.

a couple of people have commented that they thought we had already moved when we hadn't. are are all moved now, but still have lots of unpacking to do.

but to clear up: we only moved to a different neighborhood in the same city, maybe a five minute drive away. so, we tried to move a lot of stuff ourselves. i guess we started moving the day after we got the keys to the house (which was january 16) and finished when we gave the keys to the old house to the real estate agent. which was...um, i forgot already! LOL the same weekend that my in-laws came to stay i guess. it was a long, drawn-out process that means i wasn't really moved until a week and a half ago. sorry for the confusion, and hope i haven't made it worse!

well, i cleaned the old house. top to bottom. really rather an event! here's a blow by blow (as if i wanted to keep any readers lurking around here! LOL)

so, first i went through the house with a duster. i hate to dust, but this didn't take long at all. amazing how fast you can clean if there's no furniture in the house! next it was time to use the floor duster. it's kind of like a mop but you put a dust catching cloth on the end and chase down dust bunnies! next it was time for a wipe down. for the tatami rooms, i used a spray bottle with vinegar and water and a rag. the other rooms (mainly for window sills and frames) i used household cleaning wipes. thank god for costco! then came the hardest part: mopping. i have an excellent mop from clorox, i just love it. i don't know what i'm going to do when i run out of refills! i mopped every room, except for the tatami ones, i even mopped the bathroom floor! it's embarassing how dirty the bath is, but the water was turned off sooner than we expected. ah well, at least i'm confident in the knowledge that the house is cleaner than on the day we moved in! last of all, i washed the windows. on the inside only, but hey, i'm not really bothered about it since it was such a pit when we moved in. i had to do a little bit of finishing up in the kitchen (easily the dirtiest room in the house) but i am not ashamed of how it looks.

you may be wondering where the kids were during the cleaning. well....they fell asleep on the way to the house, so i left them in the car. it took me about two hours to get it all done, so they got a nice long nap and i got the house clean. don't worry, i had all the windows open and i wasn't wearing earphones!

now all i have to do is clean the current house!