The Great Bedroom Challenge

I am the first to admit that I don't like cleaning.  I hate it but it has to be done!   I spend a lot of time keeping the downstairs rooms in some sort of order and making sure that the kitchen isn't growing mold and other nasty things that the bedrooms get neglected.  So last weekend was the bedroom challenge.  Bedrooms should be peaceful and inviting, a place to go to at the end of a stressful day.  The bedrooms here are a disaster area, full of traps for unwary visitors!



Hannah's room,there is a floor, somewhere!




See a disater    



Mikey and David's room, the drawers are empty!



Same room from the window,even the walk in closet is a disaster!

 So Saturday afternoon we started.  Furniture has been moved, dust has been swept up, things are looking better, but not finished.

This is how I feel everytime I look at the bedrooms!

I keep telling myself that it is a work in progress otherwise I would go crazy!

Sunday I made stuffed peppers for dinner.  Kind of okay, at least no soya sause or miso!  Could of used more taste in the sauce.  Next time!



Stuffed peppers with tomatoe sauce



Of course we had salad and some fried chickedn cutlets for the fussy eaters

Today it has been cool, which is nice for me.    Hannah had a new dress last Friday, she had to wear it today.



Cute!

 


What to make for lunch?

That is the question I ask everyday!  Recently I have gone off Japanese food, I think hubby made udon noodles once to often in the winter and just the thought of soya taste makes me feel sick.  But this is Japan and I have a budget.  So a few days a week I make Japanese style meals.  Today I made Gyudon, beef bowl.  The recipe I use is from a book I got years ago called "Stone Soup", I think it's out of print now, but I love this book.  It has all the basic recipes plus it is written in both Japanese and English,  helps when I don't know what the ingredients are!



The basic ingredients beef and shirataki




The finished product




Salad to balance all that meat

My kids love this and always want more.  I don't make too often though it is easy.
The recipe from the book is for just one serving,  I just add more of everything to make enough for six of us.
                                  

                                      Beef Bowl  (Gyudon)     For one person

                2oz (60gr)   beef, sliced thin
                1/4  onion
                1/4 pack of shiratake ( thin strands of konnyaku)
                1/2Tbsp. vegetable oil
                1/2Tbsp. sugar
                1/2 Tbsp. sake
                1  Tbsp.  soy sauce
                1/2   cup of dashi

                1 cup of steamed rice


    Cut meat into bite-sized pieces.  Slice onion thin.  Cut shirataki into 2ins (5cm) length and boil them briefly.

    Heat oil.  Add onions and saute until tender.  Add beef.
    When beef changes color add sugar,sake, soy sauce and dashi, in that order.  Add shirataki noodles,
cook about 5 minutes more.
     Place rice in large donburi bowl and arrange beef, onion and shiratake on top, spoon sauce over generously.
     Enjoy!!!

Homesick....kind of

Each summer I get homesick.  I think the heat and humidity here are too much for me and I want to escape to cooler climes.  Of course that is impossible, so I make do with the Internet.  I found a great site that has photos near my home.



This is the street next to my parents street and shows the kind of houses in the area, of course it is raining

             © Copyright Gordon Griffiths and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence





The church my Mom use to work at,



               © Copyright John M and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence



My elementary school

          © Copyright Richard Law and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
These photos are from a great site http://www.geograph.org.uk/ You can search almost anywhere in the UK and see photos of the area.  I love this site!





This is near my parents as well, taken on our last trip, 9 years ago

 Just a little look into my home.  Between the Internet, watching English dramas and lots of tea I will get through my homesickness!!!

Rain

The rainy season started a couple of weeks ago but we were lucky here in north Kyushu and no rain until Friday.  Then the heavens opended and it poured!   I like a good rain storm but with 4 kids more than one day of rain really makes for a mountain of laundry.  Yesterday was cloudy so I managed to wash the school stuff.  Today it has rained on and off.  Hubby has been trying to get the garden done, every time he went out it would rain.  Looks like he has the bitter gourd planted (ゴーヤ).  hope it grows as it provides great shade against the heat of summer.  Hubby's plan is have them grow all round the house, it will really be a green house!

The start of the goya!

I know they are beautiful but they always remind me of rain

Hannah ready for the rain,she has new rain boots, didn't get a photo of those!

Doctors visit and kewpie dolls

Yesterday I went to the doctor.  I'm not sick but this year I turn fifty and I can get a free basic health check.  So I went for it!!   The only shock I got was that I have lost 4cms, I use to be 162cms tall but I am now 158. I couldn't believe it!    Got blood drawn (will get results next month), had a pee pee test.  Then saw the doctor, he checked my mouth.  "Oh you don't have many teeth"  he said, my answer was "I know that". Checked blood pressure, normal, listened to my heart and stomach both okay.  Looked a the pee pee test result, no diabetes.  The doc takes one more look at me and stated the obvious "You are fat".  I just smile and wonder how many years of medical training did he have to come up with that!!!

On a totally different note.  What my oldest boys do with kewpie dolls!!  I was in the bathroom the other night and this is what I found when I came out.  By the way, the dolls were for Hannah, this was Mikey and Davids doing, they are only 20 and 18, years not months!

The march of the kewpie dolls

Magpies

Some magpies have built a nest in one of our trees.  The adult birds have given us hours of free
entertainment.  They strut about the garden, creep up to the dogs food and if they feel very courageous they
get into the food bowl!  But now the eggs have hatched and the noise that the chicks make is incredible.
Early mornings, 5am, are the worst.  I get that they are hungry and want Mom and Dad to fed them, but I don't need to know!!

The nest, it is really big.

In other gardening news, our green curtain is growing.   Last year hubby planted some goya, the vines grew up to roof and provided some relief from the heat.  We are hoping for the same this year, especially since we are being asked not to run air conditioners all the time.

Not a good start!

I have been meaning to write the past few weeks but.......
things happen, I get busy, kids get sick and time flies!  

For some unknown reason I have gone off Japanese food.  I just can't face another bowl of miso soup or

                Hannah has been helping me in the kitchen, this is the salad she made by herself.

What to say?  Mikey with an eye for the future?

soy sauce tasting dish.  So I have been making different things.  The other day I made coq au vin and then a French cake for dessert.  That was nice and went down well.  I need to get my thinking cap on and come up with different things!