Mama's Brood

At least I have been in my head! Lots of thinking and planning going on:

• I’ve been studying Japanese pretty diligently. I have consulted my handy dandy online J-E dictionary at least 10x today.  I also completed the process of enabling Ubuntu (Jaunty Jackalope) to type in Japanese.  It’s quite satisfying, even if I can only say things like とうふすきです。(I like tofu.) and べんとうとてもすきです。(I really like Bento.) so far…. it’s something, and I know I’m learning a lot along the way. While having a ball, even. ^_^
• Also related to learning Japanese is learning about Japanese culture…tonight it was specifically the culture of otaku (おたく).  Even more specifically, I read up on ‘moe’.  I’m not quite understanding it, but I was just told by my good Otaku friend that I am well on my way to becoming an Otaku myself.  This is probably both good and bad.
• I am moving soon, from no room, to LOTS of room (woohoo!) and a porch.  I am really excited about this for a lot of reasons, but tonight especially excited because I was planning my porch garden!  I need to research all the plants still, but if they all work in pots, I would like to do tomatoes, cucumbers and/or cabbage. I also have plans for the start of an herb garden.  For that I want to do garlic, chives, sprouts and cilantro. I have pots for the herbs already. I have a couple of bigger pots too, but I’m not sure if they’re quite big enough or not. I will update when I find out whether any of that will work or not.  I also did a bit of looking around on the site You Grow Girl. The pictures are very inspiring to me! They’re so pretty, and not in the ground! Very inspiring for a wannabe porch garden grower.
• My gmail inbox got a good scrubbing tonight; I wanted to do my bookmarks too, but it’s late, and the task is daunting. Maybe tomorrow (<–    あした; I gotta practice what I know, right?).

My lids are getting heavy, my brain fuzzy. Will update some more another time.  Good night!  Jaa ne!  じゃあね！

Well… maybe not *really*, but today, as I was reading friend E’s blog, I noticed that this blog is on her ‘interesting reads’ list. Very cool and nice to know that she thinks what I have to say may be interesting! But at the same time, I realized that YIKES! I haven’t updated since I promised I would in that first post! Oops!

To remedy this, I’ll give a quick update on recent & soon-to-be happenings w/ me & the fam.

• I have once again taken up trying to learn Japanese. This is primarily with the help of my friend Mac. I can now say good morning (おはよう！*), introduce myself (わたしはアナです。*), and say that I’m cold (わたしはさむいです。*). I also know how to politely reply when meeting someone, say thank you, and ask a question. That’s about it so far, but I’m hopeful that I will be able to progress if I keep it up at the rate I am currently studying. (If you see ???? or blank boxes in the parenthesis, please click here to figure out how to see the Japanese writing
• J2 stated for the first time this weekend: “He [J1] hit me!” And so it begins… ^_^ Well it began a while ago, ever since Jae started protesting about having a toy taken out of her hands, but this is the first time we’ve heard it verbalized.
• We’re moving in 2 weeks. In town, don’t worry! All I can say is thank you LORD! I am so ready.
• My husband is still job hunting. He plans on subbing in the fall and has some other things in the works, but if you know anyone who wants to hire a worship minister, please keep him in mind!
• I have been working fervently (most nights) on various fiber crafts: dying and fiber preparation, spinning, and knitting. I’m having a grand ol’ time doing it, and have created items I am very proud of thus far!

I think that’s about it for now, but I will update as I think of new stuff, or as it comes up. I have big plans to make it look slick around here, but I’m experimenting and doing all of my tweaking before I put the theme up this time (unlike on my yarn blog, TGLY; it’s still a work in progress over there!).

TTFN!

Yay, another blog! This one I will use for personal updates, and yes I will promise to update this one at least semi-frequently.