my earnest expectation

I have finally conquered jet lag! Those first four days were a lot tougher than I expected them to be, but I am sleeping through the night now and feeling much more rested when I wake up. For a few days, I was exhausted all the time and even shaky sometimes from needing good sleep. It's done for now and in a week and a half we will do it all over again when we return to the U.S.  We have been packing a lot in each day from helping with mom and dad's work at camp to visiting Tokyo and biking around Moroyama. This is the town of Moroyama where my in-laws live. It's not a small town by any means, but everyone is packed in so tightly, you could see the whole place on top of the bridge going across the train tracks. Mom and Dad's house is about a 10 minute walk from the train tracks, a 2 minute walk from the nearest grocery store, and 15ish minutes from their church. For some reason, I still don't have a picture of their house, but this one is a lot like it. Se...

Ever since we were dating, Daniel and I have been planning a trip to his hometown in Japan. We wanted to visit his parents, help out with their ministry some, and most of all, help me understand his family better by understanding and seeing the culture firsthand.  So, for our first year of marriage, we ate lots of hot dogs and boxed macaroni, spent very little on household items and drove his old college car, saving as much money as we could. Traveling is a passion we both share, so for the most part, it wasn't hard for us. Occasionally a shopping spree would happen, but even then, it was still mostly on things to use while on trips. Finally, the day came! Japan here we come! We spent 14+ hours on a plane, 12 of that straight flying from Toronto to Nartia. From Nartia airport, we took a bus for two hours to the closest station to Moroyama, and Daniel's parents picked us up from the bus stop to finally take us to their home. In total, it was 24 hours of traveling, including...

I am finished with my Bible reading plan! I didn't quite complete it in 90 days, and towards the end I had no motivation at all, but it is done. It took me 104 days total, but I felt that even though I got off schedule, it was a huge accomplishment for me. I would definitely recommend this plan to everyone desiring to know God more and to challenge themselves spiritually in a different way. There were days when the reading was really difficult, and it was all I could do to finish the assigned passage, and then there were days when I nearly read two days worth of reading in one sitting! There are so many pieces of Scripture that came alive in a new way, but there were also passages that never seemed to get any clearer as I read them, proving to me the necessity of a daily Bible reading/studying habit. I do plan at some point in the near future (aka, sometime in 2017) to purchase a chronological Bible and read through it, although at a slower pace this time. Now that I have the b...

Reading through the Bible in 90 days is probably the most difficult devotional challenge I have ever tried. I am very pleased to say that I am over halfway done with this challenge and learning more about God and His character than I ever have before! It is amazing how much better you understand books when you read them in a short amount of time. I know, that may sound like a duh! moment, but really. We read novels in a week or two flat, but for some reason we almost always read through the Bible in a year. granted, it is a much bigger (and sometimes less interesting) book, but it's still one book. And yes, I did say it is sometimes boring, because I just don't think I have ever heard of someone who absolutely loves to read the genealogies sections.  I'm currently reading in Jeremiah and should finish it within 3 days before moving on to Lamentations. I struggled through Isaiah, once even going back and rereading a section that I just really didn't read with my brain...

Whew! Life is so busy during soccer season, and basketball tryouts are this weekend! We will clearly be going nonstop til mid-April this school year. I love that Daniel is able to coach so much, but I do miss seeing him. We text as much as we can these days, and often stay up extra late at night just trying to catch up with each other's lives. It certainly isn't easy, but we are usually able to squeeze a date night in here and there.  When we were doing our marriage counseling, our pastor encouraged us to do as much of the ordinary tasks that would could together. He and his wife both coached in their early years of marriage, and the little things like grocery shopping, getting gas, returning books to the library, mailing items at the post office were all the best ways to spend time together. It's something that must be done, so if at all possible, do it together!  Daniel and I have really tried to practice doing this, and it's wonderful for our marriage. We get tim...

A few days ago . . . well, 10 to be exact, I decided to try the Bible in 90 days reading challenge. I printed off a schedule from Zondervan and got going! With the amount of time the kids I nanny spend napping, I could probably read the Bible in 60 days, so getting in my reading has been easy-peasy. I absolutely love how much my understanding of Scripture has increased, even in just 10 days. I've read Genesis, Exodus, and today I finished Leviticus and started into Numbers. I am a little excited to get out of the Books of the Law and into the History books. It's not very exciting to me to read about the different offerings that must be made for different sins and what animals you can and cannot eat. It did really make me appreciate that we are no longer under those rules anymore though. Can you imagine?  Genesis has definitely been my favorite by far. I love reading the Creation account, and about the promises God made to Abraham and Israel. Reading so much of it in one sit...

Oh, the inevitable meltdown . . . or tantrum or fit or whatever you wish to call it. They often seem to catch us off guard and in the worst places (usually public places)! It's an embarrassing, frustrating, and awkward situation that even the most perfect mom can't always avoid. Over the years I have witnessed many many of these meltdowns and, of course, I have had to deal with my fair share of them. Definitely not one of the highlights of my day! Timeouts, sending a child to his room, or taking away a favorite toy as punishment is not always an option either. As a nanny, I have worked out a little system for diffusing most of the bombs before they go off. Say something positive. If your child is yelling about how he can't do this or he's so angry about that or life is just unfair, usually the first thing I will try to do is get him to say yes to something. "That made you so angry didn't it?" "Yes! Because I . . ." It may seem strange, b...