Cold, cold, cold!!!

My friends, I don't know what you might think you're looking at in this picture, but more likely than not, you're wrong. :) So I will tell you what it is. This, my friends, represents two hours and fifteen minutes worth of work. What you see before you are 29 lint roller sheets! I have never seen such fuzzy lint roller sheets before in my life! Yesterday morning while Abi was at staff meeting, I took on the load of clothes full of diaper fuzz. It took me over two hours (not including the 5 min. I took to sit down and get a drink) to get those clothes back to a presentable state. Some of them are still better off than others. I did find out who washed that load of clothes but, to protect the guilty, he shall remain nameless. ;) ...Just know that it wasn't me!


 The rest of yesterday went very well. Last night a family from Karuizawa came to visit us, and stayed for dinner. I really enjoyed it! I say a family, because although not one big immediate family, we had three generations here. Parents, children, and grandchild. The grandchild is in her 30's, but it was amazing to see that much of a family together here so far from home! They are very good friends of the Lowthers. They brought me the best Chinese dumplings I've ever had, and taught me to cook them! They also brought sashimi (raw fish) the majority of it just happened to be my favorite - tuna! I've never in my life eaten so much rice, or so much raw fish at one meal! I thought I was going to be sick! We had those things with rice, green salad, potato salad, and BBQ chicken wings. To top it all off Abi made a simply delicious pumpkin cake/bread thing. Everyone loved it! After they left I made a batch of eggnog, and we had it for breakfast this morning.


This morning I woke bright (I can't say early) at 7:20 and pulled myself out of bed. It was cold! I think I was right about being sick.... This morning I didn't feel great... So I went back to bed at 10:00, cold, tired, and not feeling great. When I woke up, however, I was feeling just fine. I was able to go about the rest of my day... For lunch I cooked the rest of the gyoza (dumplings), and had it with green salad. By the way, have I ever mentioned that I love eating green salad with hashi? It is so much easier than eating it with a fork! I don't know why, but it just is... After lunch I went to the store down two blocks to look for white notecards for writing recipes on - or notecards for any color, for that matter - but couldn't find any! It seems like every store in Tsukishima is out of notecards! Anyway, I enjoyed the exercise and fresh air... Then after Eastin had a short piano lesson I did English reading with him. Around 2:00 I took him and Coen to the park. We played there with Eastin's friends until 3:20. After that I took Eastin to karate, and Baby and I came back here. When we got back Roger and Abi were meeting with a Christian drama group who preforms all over Japan. Actually, they are members of an organization who has groups all over the world! It was really nice to meet them! They gave me all of their information when I simply mentioned that I was interested in drama, etc. :) They are very passionate about their work here.


Pretty much right after they left, I started making dinner. I defrosted some chicken, made a spaghetti sauce, gluten free and regular pasta, and sauted some honey carrots to go along with it. Right after I finished eating, I had to run... I went to Toyosu to meet with Megumi, my newest English...partner... She is the 19 year old from Chiba that I've started helping... We went window shopping together, and tried out the crepe place in the mall. (If you don't know what a crepe is, look it up... It's hard to explain...) So from 7:00 to 9:00 we simply talked together, and walked around the mall pointing out our favorite stores to each other. :) It was fun! I was able to tell her about some of our Christmas traditions, and learn some of hers. It was interesting.


But it's after 10:00 here now, so I should probably close... Before I do, I'll give you lesson number two from "Lessons from a future housewife".


 #2 - Never bake things onto your pans that will not easily come off. (Because it's really hard to get them off when you need to use your pan again.) If you do make the mistake of cooking something really sticky in your pan that leaves a disgusting, sticky, residue on the bottom of your pan, always use steel wool to remove it. 


This lesson was learned today after mochi and sausages were cooked in one of Abi's frying pans... I don't know what on earth all of that sticky, oily, residue stuck to that pan was, but it was not easy to get it back off!! It took all day of soaking in water, 10 min. of scrubbing it with a soapy sponge, and 20 min. of scrubbing it with steel wool to get all of it off... And it just so happened that I was the first one to need to use the pan (for the carrots), so I got to clean it. :) I did feel very proud of myself afterwards, though!


All my love,
Hannah