Phew its been busy

July 3, 2017 StefanieLeave a comment

Wow it has been super busy around here lately.

Lets play catch up for a little bit. The kids and I headed into Hiroshima and enjoyed the Children’s Science Museum. This place was awesome and we will be going again. Completely interactive and FREE!!!! The kids all had so much fun climbing and trying out everything. However we had an adventure when it came to parking. I attempted to park in a large parking structure only to get into the line for compact cars, I drive a very large van. Then I gave up on that and decide I would just find a pay parking on the street. Went great found a spot and everyone unloaded and started walking to the museum. We passed the bank of Hiroshima which Z remembered from our visit to the Peace Memorial. We walked past the A bomb site and made it to the museum, spent a few hours in there having a blast and decided it was time to start heading back and get an early dinner. Walked outside to a drizzle and no umbrellas. Meh no big deal its not raining hard so we start walking back. As we were walking it started to come down a little harder so I decided we would jump over a block and walk down the covered streets until we were even with the van and then it would just be 1-2 block in the rain. Everything was going great we were all laughing that mom forgot the umbrella and discussing what we wanted to eat for dinner. M was trying to convince me to just stop and the Indian food where we were. Then came the discovery that the pin I had dropped when we parked had dropped in the wrong location on the map.

Now were are walking up and down the block that the van is supposed to be on and it starts down pouring. I mean there was nothing dry on any of us, the kids were troopers and all I could do was laugh. Here the four of us are running in and out of covers looking for this huge white van and parking lot that is no where to be found. Japanese people are laughing at us and shaking their heads. Finally after about 30 minutes I remember the bank. I decide lets walk to the bank and backtrack from there since I know we parked on the same street and side. Bam found it! The pin was two blocks over from where the van was. I have no idea why it dropped in the wrong spot but oh well we have great memories. We finally loaded up and I had to turn the heat on to try to dry us all out. We ended up going to CoCo ichibanya for dinner (Japanese curry). It was great and warmed us all up. I think that we were all in bed asleep by 8 that night.

I have had a lot of fun getting vegetables from my little container garden in the back yard here. It was really nice the other day I was making a salad and thinking man I wish I had a cucumber and I was able to just walk in the yard and pick one. I am considering this as my learning year with vegetables (lets be honest I will probably always mess something up). I have been able to share different peppers with the neighbors because I just can’t eat them fast enough.

I splurged and bought a watermelon last weekend, this will be our only watermelon of the summer unless mine decide to actually have fruit. Those of you that have never been to Japan or know the prices for fruits and vegetables are probably really confused by me saying I splurged. My medium watermelon cost $9.51. You better believe I used every bit of that thing. The kids and I ate it chopped up, I made watermelon salsa, watermelon ice tea (we didn’t really care for it that much), I used to rind to start my compost bin. Not on bit of that thing went to waste. I am actually really proud of that.

If you stuck with me to the end thank you. I will be better about posting more often. Don’t forget you can follow my instagram and check out the links I share in previous posts.

First Vegetables

June 13, 2017 StefanieLeave a comment

A few days ago I was able to pick my first vegetables, YAY! I didn’t get many but I was super excited for what I did get. Here is a picture of my haul, minus one cucumber, I ate that thing before I could get a picture and it was so good.

I gave a couple of the peppers to a neighbor and then M and J snagged two of the bell peppers and went to town on them before I could stop them. How can you stop a kid eating their vegetables though? Plus look how cute and happy he is.

Today I was most excited because I was prepping a meal for a new mom in out command and I got to use some of my vegetables in the recipe. It wasn’t much but it still made me do a little happy dance. I am still trying to figure out how to add recipes to this so bear with me, I will get some up here. I did use my pressure cooker in my prep yesterday and I can’t tell you how many times that thing has saved me. I tossed in a bag of still slightly frozen chicken breasts with some chicken broth and in 20 minutes they were falling apart as I took them out. I love prepping chicken that way and then it is ready to go for the week. This is the affiliate link to Amazon and this is the exact one that I have.

We also started our next year of school already, I decided to go ahead and start because I knew I wanted to leave plenty of time for day trips and just general time off. This will be our first full year of homeschooling so wish us luck, so far we are doing pretty well but who am I kidding we are only 5 days in. Z has asked to study the history of Japan and who am I to say no. What better time than now for us to do this and take those trips to see the places we are studying and then bonus family time. We have made it to the Kinta Bridge twice now but haven’t been able to stay and explore. First time J man ended up accidentally having his poor little foot closed in the sliding door of our van by yours truly, thankfully nothing was broken just some nasty swelling but we had to leave the bridge to come back to base and have an X-ray taken to be sure and the second time right as we arrived it started raining. I am hoping that we get out there this week. Maybe that will be the next blog post. Let me know your favorite places in Japan or where you want to go in Japan. I love reading your comments. Thank you for the support.

Homeschool · Homesteading · Scentsy · Uncategorized

Bread, vegetables, homeschool and Scentsy

May 27, 2017May 27, 2017 Stefanie2 Comments

Today I tried my hand at making bread. I have made bread plenty of times before but I always use the fancy bread machine my parents got me. I decided today would be the day I make it by hand and actually have to do everything versus just adding stuff to the machine. I was hoping the kids would help me make it but they were either playing outside or taking a nap, I chose to not interrupt them. This was a pretty easy recipe I found on Pinterest and it came out pretty good.

My husband Chris is deployed right now so there is a lot of emails going back and forth all day about just everyday shenanigans around the house. Today I couldn’t wait to tell him that the vegetables I have been trying to grow are actually starting to produce. I decided that I would try my hand at container gardening since we are in military housing and will be moving in a few years. We all went to the local store here and just picked out a bunch of different starter plants to give it a try. I am so proud to say that everything is coming along nicely and I actually have small cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. I also have flowers on spaghetti squash, zucchini, and watermelon. I am now requesting that he build me planters when he gets home since I can apparently grow something when I put my mind to it. It is always a running joke that I have a black thumb. My dad is amazing though, that man can grow anything. I am hoping that I can begin to learn his tricks because I need to grow as much as possible so I can keep up with the rate the kids eat.

I have decided that we will homeschool year round because it will just fit in better with the schedule that my husband has. I finally have everything in hands for both of the girls for this upcoming year. I have decided that M will have a two year kindergarten since I just don’t think she is completely ready to do everything but she is to advanced to stick to strictly preschool assignments. She is super happy because her books are brand new, being the younger sister she gets stuck with a lot of hand me downs. Z however has used curriculum that I was able to get for half the price from a friend that had only used about two weeks worth of the lessons. Some time spent erasing all the pencil markings and it is good as new. I am still deciding on beginning our year in June or July, one part is ready to start but the other part of me wants to hold out a little longer. I think that the rainy season will be a big deciding factor in our start time.

I am an Independant Scentsy consultant and I have been doing that for a little over a year. I really enjoy it since I am able to make a small income and still be home with the kids. Well Scentsy launched a new collection named La Habana and it is supposed to be influenced by the vibrancy of Cuba. Well Cuba will always be special to me since that is where Chris and I met so of course I had to buy it. I have had Cafe Cubano warming and it is making my whole house smell amazing! My kids love picking out what scent we will be warming next and telling everyone what their favorite scents are. Both of the girls are very different in their tastes and it is so funny. Z is more of a cafe collection and M is all about the fruity.

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