sad news

My mom just called to say that my granma passed away yesterday, they don't know why yet, hopefully it was peacefully in her sleep.
It wasn't totally unexpected, she has had a couple of strokes in the last few years actually since grandad died she kinda went downhill. At least she is with him again now, happy together again.
I think the hardest thing about living so far away is when something like this happens, not that I can really do anything, just feel useless the other side of the world.

I'll probably add more to this post later, now I need a glass of wine....

*the next morning*


My granma....

learned to horse ride when she was 49 and bought a horse called Red.

Made meringue snowmen every christmas.

never drank but she thought she would be drinking gin and tonics, grandad would make it the same as his but not put the gin in! granma would get "drunk" and get up and do her Berlington Bertie routine.

Saved a little pony called Toffee Crisp from the dog meat factory and gave him to me when I was 18mths old. I can't remember learning to ride, like I can't remember learning to walk. He was the naughtiest pony ever!

Would try and teach me to play the piano when ever we went to visit, she had a mini grand piano which was white with gold trim - it was a failed mission, I haven't got a musical bone in my body.

Used to live in a beautiful thatched cottage and when the (fox) hunt came through she wouldn't allow them on her grounds and would help hide the fox or try and destroy the trail so the hounds couldn't follow him.

She also used to live here, no, not the whole place, just a flat at the top of 49 steps. It was a great place to go and play since the grounds are massive, my brother did manage to cut his head open by running into a sun dial though.

loved crafting, she was always making something, every year I would get some kind of knitted garment like the mittens which were two different sizes, I still have the big sloppy joe jumper she knitted last. Sadly, after a bad fall and breaking her arm she wasn't able to do any knitting or sewing. She was an excellent embroiderer she always said that the back should look as good as the front.

she was not a red head, I only recently found out that she dyed her hair - I always thought she was a red head before she went grey :o)

she wore this catsuit (kindly modled by Mrs Coke) for her 50th birthday

closet finally sorted

After a trek to Ikea in the typhoon on Saturday I came back with an array of boxes and draws to sort all our closets out with.
After reading Tim Seldons book How To Raise An Amazing Child I decided I wanted to implement some of his ideas. Sleeping on a low bed or futon is something we have always done so no need to work that in but, I did want BabyEbi to be able to turn the lights on and off by himself, so we had his light switched placed a bit lower than normal when we had the house built. I also wanted him to be able to reach all his clothes and toys. To my disappointment, the closet shelves are fixed so I had to work with what we have got so the bottom two shelves are for his clothes and he can reach the next two shelvesso some of his toys are on there, he has a bookcase for his books and draws/shelves/baskets for his other toys.

I made labels for his clothes draws (as much for his dad as they are for him!) one side it is written, the other has a picture. So, not only can he take his clothes out by himself, he can also help me with the laundry and put them away.

To help him keep his room tidy I have made sure everything had a "home" he knows where everything lives and can quite easily get what he wants out and put them away after. Now I just have to get his Montessori equipment shelves sorted.....

colour tablets (shopping game)

Baby Ebi can already match the 2nd set of colour tablets with no problem so I introduced him to ext. 2 (I think it is ext 2). Anyway, he lays one set of the colours out on the floor, top to bottom then the other cards get put randomly in the next room. He has to see which is the first colour then go and fetch the corresponding one from the other room, put it in his little basket then place it next to the first tablet. If he picks up the wrong colour he has to take it back and bring the correct one. It sounds quite simple but for a two year old, he sometimes forgets what he has gone in the other room for hahahaa (happens to us all!)

We have also done this exercise with other cards such and the fruit and art cards.

cards laid out on the floor

going to look for the next card



bringing the card in his basket

rainy rainy day

We got up this morning and it was wet and grey and looked set for the day. I don't mind rainy days so much, usually give me a good excuse to do something arty/crafty and today was no exception. So after snack time, a rather juicy satsuma - I think BabyEbi enjoys peeling them as much as he does eating them, we got to work.

 

I decided to make a threading board, very easy to do and kills a good hour or more. 

You will need.... 

• scissors 
• hole punch 
• stiff card (that will still fit in the hole punch) 
• wool 
• tape 
• pens/crayons 

1. Cut out a shape from the board, it can be anything, I did a butterfly and then a caterpillar with the scrap that was left. 

2. Punch holes around the edge of the shape 1-2 cm apart. 

3. Give the card shapes to the kids to colour. 

4. While they are completing the work of art cut pieces of wool (I had some scraps and so just used them) and add a piece of tape to one end to make a 'needle' this makes it easier for the child to thread. 

5. Once the card has been coloured show your child how to sew using the wool. I tied the end off so he could sew without pulling the whole thing through. Whilst your child is busy sewing, go and have a nice cup of tea!

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what to do?

OK here is the dilema.
I have about half a million yen set on one side purely for Montessori. I thought about opening my own little school but my weak Japanese will be a major problem and I can't afford to pay someone to help me on the that side - no, dear hubby can't do it, he works long enough hours as it is.
If I wanted to set up a business it would mean making nearly all the materials because I won't have spare cash to buy them, initially I thought it would be quite easy to do but the more I think about the less confidence I have in myself to actually do it!
The alternative is to buy a good amount of materials for babyebi and just teach him at home, spend less time making stuff and hopefully free up some time to make money from home. I would like babyebi to go to kindy once or twice a week so he can get to play with Japaense kids his age but then I will have to have some kind of income to do this.
The easy option - and my least favourite would be to go back to teaching English.

Oh I don't know.

sorry, confused and indecisive!!

Scary Spider

To answer Linda's question first, the rest of the house is getting there, I finally sorted the spare room today so we can now set up all his Montessori things, our bedroom is almost there, just need some more storage boxes for clothes and a mirror. The curtains for the dining area have been ordered and I have almost got as far as getting the machine out to make the other curtains. We still need to put up a shelf in the bathroom so I have a box of bath related stuff to unpack and then 2 boxes of "stuff" which just make me feel queasy when ever I open the box, the thought of sorting it out....

So, whilst I have been busy unpacking BabyEbi has mastered the art of drawing scary spiders.....

coloured in on photoshop under his instruction!

Unveiling of BabyEbi's room

Finally, we have finished! (I tell a small lie, I haven't done theinside of the closet yet...)

When I was thinking of how to do his room, I wanted something

fun, somewhere to play, sleep and relax. Somewhere that would stretch his imagination but would also be his special place, I also wanted a theme which started out as jungle and ended up "under the sea" partly because he loves fish and penguins and partly because there were so many cute fishy things available. However we did the room it needed to grow with him, so nothing too permanent.

So here we are... (click on the picture to make it bigger)

View from the door

We wanted a custom made bed but couldn't afford it, so this is an Ikea one, Mr Ebi built a rail for the top to make it safer but then forgot that his son wasn't teenage size and could fall through the gap in the posts! So we added the net, which looks loose but is well fixed and has the added touch of looking like fishing net.

The view of the balcony and fukinuke windows

Just love that anchor! The pictures are giant wall stickers the advantage of these is that thy can be peeled off and moved or just taken off for good when he has grown out of fish. initially I was going to paint the walls but ran into no end of problems so opted for the sticker for an easy life.

I rather unconventionally put the thick curtains behind the net ones since the nets are cute and the regular curtains are just plain blue blackout one, so the room still looks good when the curtains are closed.

This is taken inside the bed

The shelves also act as steps (also Ikea but they were out of actual shelves so the rest of books are still waiting to go in) the draws have all his wooden train set pieces, he can take them out by himself but needs a bit of help getting them back in.

This is the other end of the bed, there was a gap between the wall and the bed so we used some Ikea Stripa shelves to fill the gap and make little shelves for his special things. The wallpaper on these walls is really lovely, they are like little bubbles, some a silver the others shades of blue.

View from the bed looking into the room, wavy mirrors, how cool are they?

The bed, I made the curtain it is attched using velcro so I can take it off when he goes to bed. It was inspired by Hoorah for Fish by Lucy Cousins - one of BabyEbi's favourite books, he picked out "grumpy fish" and "little fish" to go on it, the rest were made up as I went along. I did intend to sew 'spikes' to the yellow coral but just haven't got round to it, one day....

Somewhere to hide or read

He actually loves climbing onto the top of the bed and watching what is going on out of the round window, it has been quite exciting this week because there have been diggers, big drilling machines and cement mixers!

We had the light switch put lower in his room so he can already turn it off and on and there are two wall lamps, a seahorse and seashell that he can do himself too. I wanted all his things to be low down so that he can reach them himself, hence the shelves/steps, this is why the closet is taking me some time to organise. I want him to be able to choose which clothes to wear plus be able to reach the toys he wants to play with. I decided that his Montessori equipment would mostly be in the spare room which opens up into his room and I have set up a small practical life shelf in the kitchen, I will be able to expand that once we can get into the pantry.

So, BabyEbi is a big boy now and sleeps in his own room, we had a few tears the first couple of nights but now he loves it.

Step back in time....

A couple of weeks ago when we were back in the UK my best mate came to stay so we could catch up proper (the hen night involved too much cheese, wine and dancing!), mom suggested we went to The Ceramic Experience so off we went. It was great, all three of us had fun in the ball pool - luckily there were no other kids about otherwise they would have been in stiches laughing at Di and me screaming as we went down the slide! BabyEbi picked a penguin to paint so I did a sea turtle and Di some romantic hearts - well it was her wedding a few days later. Once you have finished you leave them to be fired and pick them up the next day, I was very impressed with the final items. They also hace a cafe which is reasonably priced, I think for the three painted items, tea for two and juice it came to about fourteen pounds, not bad really. Mom was working that day and so she missed out, she really wanted to go so I suggested she took BabyEbi another day, they painted something special for DaddyEbi's birthday, can't say what yet.... but here is the penguin

Cookies and Books

Had a bit of R&R with babyEbi today. First we went to check out the local park (small play area, not really big enough to call a park), he made friends with a little boy but then went off him when the boy wouldn't play football with him, oh well! We also sat and read a couple of new books Museum Shapes and Museum ABC. They are lovely books, he especially liked the shapes one and spent a long time studying the pictures. The ABC book is good too my big problem with it is that everything is in upper case and we have only been studying little case using phonics so having it say "A IS FOR APPLE" is a bit annoying, love the concept but I feel a bit more thought should have gone into it. On the positive side there are listing of all the pictures in the back and it includes quite a few Japanese pictures too.
So after that we made some cookies using my mom's super easy cookie recipe....if you like the look of these, read on......


basic mix
6oz butter
10oz caster sugar
1 large egg
tsp vanilla
12oz plain flour

cream butter & sugar
beat egg and essence into butter & sugar mix
fold in flour (add variations-see below)

roll into fat sauage shape, wrap in foil, pop into freezer to chill
slice into thin biscuits.

bake at 190 deg C for 10-12 mins until just golden.
They will be soft when you take them out of the oven, put them on a rack to cool and they will go crunchie.

Variations....
double choc!!
replace 2oz flour with 1oz cocoa
replace vanilla with coffee
add choco chips

tropical bite!!
add mixed dried fruit, pineapple etc

Choco chip!!
just add choco chips to the mix

YUM.

Long Time No See

Blimey, it seems like ages since I got on here. We had a great trip to the UK and I spent very little time on the computer/net hence the lack of posts. I will try and fill in the blank time when I get the chance. My mates wedding was fantastic, very special and she looked gorgeous or in BabyEbi's words "Auntie Di beautiful"
We visited lots of friends and family, BabyEbi tried loads of new foods, I filled my boots on all my favourite foods - and yes came back 3 stone heavier :o(
We got back to Japan on Tuesday and jetlag hit me hard, didn't sleep AT ALL for 3 days then the forth night I managed to drop off only to be awoken by a man eating mozzie chewing on my leg AGHHHHHHH. Mr Ebi was working hard when we were away and almost finished BabyEbi's room so we made a big deal about it when we came back and moved him straight into his new room. He has always slept with us so it was quite a big thing but I figured he was already a bit confused with all this moving around and sleeping in different places so now was a good a time as any, he was a bit upset the first night but he is fine now.
Mr Ebi also recorded all my fav TV shows for the 4 weeks we were away so I have been playing catch up and since he is away for a few days I just sat glued to the TV last night- not very productive really.
I finished BabyEbi's 'cave' for his room today and managed to get curtains and bedding sorted in our room, so we are getting there - slowly. The spare room is still filled with boxes but at least the desks are finished now so I can sort the books and stuff out, I think we will order a shed this week so that will mean we can move some of the crap (you know, the stuff you need to keep but don't really want in the house) can go in there. We also have to decide on the exterior of the house, I want a big deck and Mr Ebi wants a lawn so there might be a battle on the horizon....

Montessori wise we haven't done much, I had an idea of setting up a swapshop blog so I have been trying to do that (it's not like I haven't got enough on my plate at the moment :o) ). I'll put up a special post when I have got it set up - bare with me, I'll get there eventually, that is if I don't get distracted with Amy Karol's book "Bend The Rules Sewing" which I picked up in the UK.

I am also supposed to be coming up with an idea to produce some income (trying to steer clear of teaching English) any ideas are welcome!!

I suppose I should get something done.........