Winding up June

June is winding up and I'm thinking that July may be a busy/wild month for me...  I need to get things done now before I'm housebound for a month or two following hip surgery next month.

I THOUGHT that I'd prepare some hand sewing that I'll be able to do in the comfort of the air-conditioning downstairs next month and I decided to tackle a Mola project that I've always looked at longingly.  Hah!  I should have known better than to think I could just leave a new project sitting in the corner waiting for me to get to it.  Once it was set up (layers added, basted, additional applique prepped) I just had to see if it was going to be doable and I've started doing the reverse applique.  I really should put this down and leave it for August but I don't really have a hand project for myself now either so that's why I'm spending time on it...

I'm not supposed to bring needles and scissors etc. to the hospital (aren't I the positive thinker assuming that I will be up to handwork while in the hospital for two weeks) so I have to think of something to do while there.  Before, my go-to activities last year when I was hospitalized for a week were, reading... (I'll need to download some books on my Kindle before leaving home), painting and sketching (but there wasn't much interesting to draw in the hospital) and tatting (no need for needles or scissors).  Do I really need to make anything tatted?  More crosses?  A coaster or two?  But tatting is an easy to carry form of handwork.  I need to give this more thought.

Also in anticipation for next month's surgery, I've renewed my annual membership at the pool and even changed up my swimming routine some.  Tony had asked what sort of exercises I was doing pre-op and I'd said that I hadn't been given ANY advice on exercises yet but pointed out that I was a fairly consistent swimmer.  Tony suggested that I add some water walking in the pool, (which I'd previously pooh-poohed) to gain more leg muscles rather than what I was usually doing with just pulling with my arms.

"Swimming is great for cardio-vascular health but it doesn't focus on muscle building."  

So now I'm swimming 20 laps and then walking laps around the pool...  Big steps, deep bends, backwards, crablike, leg-ups etc.  I'm hoping that practically ANY exercise I get in will be beneficial in the long run.

This week I realized that my passport had expired and since I insist that my kids always have a valid passport for emergencies I needed to get an application for myself.  I'm glad that this comes around only once every 10 years because I dread doing these things online.  Of course back 20 years ago (not the last time I renewed my passport) I had to travel to Tokyo to do it in person at the US embassy so I'm actually thrilled that the process is so easy these days.  Still, it took me all morning to fill in and print out the forms, pay the online fee, go get a photo taken, and send off an official envelope and return envelope at the post office.  I'm holding my breath hoping that I didn't forget anything and that in a couple of weeks I'll be set for another 10 years.  I'll keep you posted.

We are missing Mi-chan and it is a wonder that such a small life could mark us so deeply.  I miss her trilling at the door or when we called her, I even miss giving her her medicine which she would join me for when I got out my own medications.  One less cat means that feeding is less complicated as we used to have to watch that Toi or worse, John, didn't eat all of Mi-chan's food.  Our consumption of milk has decreased considerably since Mi-chan passed on.  A heart wrench came this week when Luka wanted to see all the cats and John on Facetime and asked for Mi-chan.

"Mi-chan left Grandma's house, remember what I told you." said Leiya.

"Then Grandma should go look for her." was the reply...

The day after Mi-chan passed, a grandmother who comes to the crosswalk with her grandchild handed me this pretty bouquet of roses from her garden.  That was a nice addition next to Mi-chan's photo in our sunroom...

On to cheerier things...  Takumi's farming family friend brought us some onions this week!  They are as big as a head of cabbage!  I made onion steak for dinner that night which was a great success...  

Cut onion in half, brown slightly in oil, simmer on low in a covered fry pan for 20 minutes, remove lid and let liquid boil down, add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sake, 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine) and 1/2 tablespoon sugar.  (That makes sort of a teriyaki type sauce).  Cook until liquid is gone and done.  It was delicious!

I continue with different sketching projects on Skillshare.

This was from a class on drawing people in scenes.  It was a lot of fun!  (That's supposed to be Leiya's family in Shibuya at night.)

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Family photos.

Luka had a cavity free dental check-up.  I love the sunglasses!

And he participated in a race with his cousin but Leiya said he got off track and went looking for her so he finished last in his group... He still got a medal though!

Luka and Jah-jah!

Takumi and Julieta and the doggies out hiking in Idyllwild...

And happy doggies!

Quilts and school and painting

After the whirlwind month with Leiya and Luka and Tony, things have settled down considerably around here.  Tetsu does a lot of yard work...  I worked on another quilt...  and we both organized all the photos that we had taken.

This quilt doesn't really have a name as I had a pile of leftover half square triangles from the Hidden Shoofly quilt Leiya had been making as a baby quilt and that I wanted to use up.  I also had another pile of colorful half square triangles from the second Hidden Shoofly quilt and I asked M-san which pile she wanted to work on and she chose the colorful pile.  We then got to work making Flying Geese blocks and from there I have finished this quilt off into another baby quilt for Takumi's friend's baby.  I don't know what M-san is going to do with the quilt she gets made but she is working on it now.

The quilting was fairly simple and though I had planned to quilt a flower motif in the rectangles, I decided I wanted to keep the puffiness and ripped all the stitching out (that I'd done in one rectangle).  No quilting in the border either so this was all quickly done.

Yesterday I had to go to the elementary school for a meeting and I took advantage of the visit to take some more photos, and later sketch a scene or two.  Many blog friends had mentioned being surprised about the unicycles.  Yes, it does seem like almost all the elementary school kids can ride a unicycle.  They were laughing at me when I asked as if it was a very odd question.  I remember years ago Leiya's kindergarten teacher who was pregnant, was demonstrating her unicycle skills and I was absolutely horrified!  She didn't even seem to have any balance problems with the extra weight!

Most of the children were busy with the daily clean-up time and they all wore these cute kerchiefs to get them into the clean-up mood.  Here is a girl hanging out rags to dry after they've been used.  All the potted plants are the first graders' morning glory pots which they will take home during summer vacation to care for.

There were a couple children sweeping the entryway...

And a couple more children sweeping out each and every cubby hole that held shoes.

And here is this week's school ikebana and I noticed that there was a small white board above it describing the scene the ikebana teacher was depicting.  And there were also comments from some of the children telling what the liked or noticed about the flowers.

I'm so happy to be part of such a cozy, little elementary school.

Nothing too much more going on.  I am doing another Skillshare class with daily prompts and this day the prompt was MICE.  I often sang the Hickory Dickory Dock song with Luka and so I'm happy to have this in my bullet journal.

Leiya had sent such a wonderful photo of Luka and Mi-chan (which I showed in my last blog post) and I wanted to paint it too.

Quilts!

Thank you for all the well wishes about Mi-chan yesterday.  Let's brighten up the mood with some quilty stuff.

I'm not so sure I'm bright and happy about this quilt though...  I've made it before and because I loved it so much I decided to make it again, but I'm not thrilled with my fabric choices this time...  There's not enough contrast between the two colors and it is a rather garish cotton-candy pink.  Why I chose this pink, I don't know but there it is...  I'm hoping I'll find some little girl who likes cats and pink to give this to...  Sigh...

While the previous quilt might not have been successful, look at this one!!!  

This was made by M-san over the last month and as Leiya had been visiting, M-san and I hadn't had a chance to do any sewing together nor could I give advice etc.  I had a box of half-square triangles that had been sitting around my sewing room for ages and when I asked M-san if she wanted them she leapt at the offer.  She had said she needed to make a baby quilt for her brother and we were actually going to start thinking about that AFTER Leiya went back to the States but instead M-san turned the box of half-square triangles into a baby quilt!

She texted me once about quilting designs and I'd said I'd think about it and get back to her but within a day or so she texted again that she had decided on a clover and flower design.  Will you look at that gorgeous quilting job she did!!!

The back is just as lovely as the front!!!  M-san has sure become an expert at machine quilting!

As her quilting teacher, I'm just as proud as can be!  She has become a quilter under her own efforts and skill and I'm pretty sure she can handle just about anything without much help from me.  To think!  I've mentored someone new to patchwork and quilting and in three or four years she can do such awesome work now!  She is going to be one of the young quilters who will pass on the art to others!

M-san and I are back to meeting up regularly and we both have new quilts in the making!  Stay tuned!

Sad news

After all my exciting posts about family visiting, I'm sorry to report some sad news.  Our dear, sweet  kitty, Mi-chan, passed away two days ago...

We knew that Mi-chan was holding on to life tentatively throughout the month and a half that Leiya was here.  Every morning and evening I was giving Mi-chan thyroid medication (and a treat afterwards) but she continued to get thinner and thinner.  I was concerned that she would pass while Luka was here and how he'd understand that.  I didn't want our precious days with family darkened by grief and many tears.

Mi-chan came to us 14 years ago and Tetsu decided she was ours after she'd been sitting on our porch and looking in the windows for a day or two.  I had hoped that after she'd been spayed (I took her to the vet the next day) that a neighbor who had been feeding her, would adopt her.  We already had four or five cats at the time...  But when Mi-chan was tested and diagnosed with Feline AIDS, the neighbor didn't want to put her children through pet loss within a couple of months or years and so Mi-chan became ours.  I can remember sobbing that this sweet kitty had no place to go and wondering how we were going to incorporate her into our already complicated pet family.  Though the vet suggested keeping her separate from the other cats because of the Feline AIDS diagnosis, we decided that all our animals had come to us with one problem or another and whatever we did we would probably give them a happier and longer life, so Mi-chan joined the throng and she got along with all the other animals.

The afternoon of Mi-chan's spay operation, the vet called me and said that in the middle of surgery he had discovered that Mi-chan was hermaphrodite!  I wrote a post about that discovery and the different names we tossed back and forth before naming her.  (And we decided she was a "she".)

Mi-chan loved people in general and was the friendliest kitty of all of ours and she'd happily trill at visitors and make herself at home on their laps.  I've had a couple of people say that they didn't much like cats until they met Mi-chan.  She made a sweet impression on everyone and got so much love from so many people... neighbors, students, friends, all the other cats (well maybe I can't include Chip) and even John.  While Luka was here, he and Mi bonded tightly.

Luka with Cleo, Mi and Toi.

I'm not sure if they were gazing at each other or had fallen asleep together.

Luka helped me give Mi-chan her medicine.

He talked to her and of her a lot.

And Mi-chan always wanted to be in the midst of things.

Her favorite spot to nap.

"Who's in my spot?"

Snuggling with Tony.

Don't you think Mi-chan lived a very happy last few weeks of her life?  She was still coming up on the bed to sleep with me until the day before she passed so I'm grateful the end came easily for her, and I'm so glad Luka got to meet her!

Such a wonderful kitty who made all our lives better.

And the end of a wonderful month and a half

In the final couple of days with Leiya and family, Leiya spent most of her day trying to pack things into three suitcases and a backpack.  Packing, rearranging, packing again.  She didn't buy much in clothes or souvenirs but she did seem to have an awful lot of snacky things to take back to friends and Tony's collegues.  In the end she passed on some jeans and a shirt to me that she wasn't interested in keeping so I lucked out too.

We did remember Takumi's birthday on the 3rd and sent him a family photo.

Let's see...  Some random photos that Leiya either sent me later or I have forgotten that I wanted to include in previous posts...  

Playing with Tetsu from the end of a long slide.

I loved the yellow orbs!

Leiya actually saw quite a few of her elementary school and middle school friends and many, many neighbors stopped by or we went and visited with some of my English classes with people who have known her since she was little.  Speaking of little, we even stopped in at her kindergarten and got to see Leiya's kindergarten teacher and the kindergarten principal.  They've known Leiya since before she was born!  Leiya's already asked if she can put Luka into a couple of weeks of kindergarten there if she gets back to Japan in the next two years... 

Marlene kindly invited us to her house on the last day of Leiya's family's stay as I can't get my act together to host dinner with friends at my house.  Our good friends the Sugas also came as I had wanted these two couples close to us to have a chance to meet Tony.

Marlene actually had toys for Luka to play with at her house which she's kept in hopes that there will be grandchildren visiting HER house someday.  For now Kohei's keeping friend's children and grandchildren entertained with his children's toys.

With the Yamadas...

And the Sugas...

And with Tetsu and me.

And finally the day for Leiya's family to return to the States arrived.

We saw them off at the train station.  A few tears...

Some very nice strangers who took notice of our teary good-bye, offered to take photos of us all.

And off they go with a last look from Leiya...

We had a wonderful month and a half with Leiya and Luka and then Tony.  I hope they'll find a way to come back again before not too long...