Cold weather, cost of living and Luka!

January went by so quickly which was maybe good because the cold didn't make it particularly pleasant.  We are thankful for stoves and heaters and layers of clothing!  So far we haven't had any major expenses due to the cold (knock on wood) but a storm last week knocked part of our neighbor's roof off and another neighbor's fence fell down and another neighbor had his pipes freeze.  I wonder if the winters are becoming harder or if the extreme cold and wind is because the forest behind our house and neighborhood is now gone and thus the damages.  Of course, if the forest had still been there, I might be writing about damage from fallen trees so I keep in mind to be grateful.  

We have been feeling the influence of the economic system this winter whether because of residue pandemic consequences or because of the war in Ukraine... but the prices in the grocery stores keep on climbing and our electric bill is nearly twice what it was last year.  It makes me think I should purchase more mindfully and also conserve our heat but we don't want to succumb to colds and sniffles and life has to be enjoyable too!  

Okay, enough griping.  Here is my monthly Luka update.

I think Luka got a tricycle for Christmas and so he has been practicing riding it on Leiya's driveway and in a park.  The last I heard he was still pushing himself along by his feet and hadn't mastered the art of pedaling.

This was a fun set of photos of Luka wearing a reversible vest and Marlene had sent him when he was a baby.  Now the vest is worn by his teddy bear but he wanted to try it on one more time.

Same boy when he was only a couple months old.

And here he is at 2 years old.  Love those big eyes!

And I must include a picture of Takumi and Julieta and their doggies, Hazy and Pollo.  

Hoping for days full of hearts and chocolate in February!

Coping with winter

We are in deep winter around here though we haven't yet had a real heavy snow.  

We've had snow but not so much that we need to dig ourselves out of it.  Still, -11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Farhenheit) is winter enough for me!  At night I've taken to making up a hot water bottle and putting it at the foot of our beds.  

Someone asked why we don't have heat on at night and the main reason is that we heat our rooms with small kerosene heaters that we watch closely even when we are awake (turning them off if we leave the room for any length of time) and we certainly wouldn't want them to be burning while we are asleep...  There is always the fear of earthquakes where we have to jump to turn the stoves off.  We do have air-conditioners (heaters) but besides the fact that we don't like the heat blowing on us, electricity costs are exhorbitant and so we use that as little as possible...  Maybe a half an hour before going to bed I'll turn it on to heat the room and then turn it off as soon as I get into bed.

The cold weather is conducive to something sweet and warm to eat and so this week we enjoyed a mid-morning snack of omochi and sweet bean "soup".  Oshiruko.  We still have a lot of omochi left over from New Year's that I froze and so with packaged oshiruko that comes in heatable pouches, I served this easy snack.  This is a favorite of Tetsu's.  

On another day our comfort food was straight from Betty Crocker's recipe book and I made Apple crisp.  

And because the oven was heating up anyway, I also baked up some sweet potatoes that M-san had given me.  Both eastern and western sweets were thoroughly enjoyed.

For the past couple of days, Tetsu has been staying at the crosswalk for the whole hour that I'm there.  The snow had been enough that he spent the first couple days spreading sand for me and sweeping a path to the school ground.  

He loves this twig broom that he uses and he goes through many of them during the year...  They are inexpensive and sturdy and he will use them for leaves and snow and even to clean out road gutters.  Today, though the snow was gone, he was sweeping a far off sidewalk for the children who come from outer areas of the district.  Tetsu is always working!

I'm still quilting daily on my Plaidish quilt.  I've decided to stitch-in-the-ditch so this is a project that will continue awhile.  I wondered why Tetsu took this photo but look closely and you will find an interloper...

Chip has found a nice, warm hiding place.  I didn't want to disturb her so I let her have my quilt and I did some more drawing.

A farmhouse along the road.

Marlene and I were comparing our recent doctor's visits and bemoaning the fact that we have reached the age when there is something that needs fixing or medication.  I found this cute poem online and have recorded it in my bullet journal for posterity.

And finally...  Do you remember from a couple of weeks ago the photo I'd taken of the vest that my friend Mrs. I had made from left over yarn I'd given her?  Well, the vest fit our mutual friend better than it fit me but two weeks later Mrs. I has made another vest JUST FOR ME!!!  She is amazing!  Mrs. I put in all the work and my friend and I reaped the blessings!

 

Slow days in January

Wow!  Already a week has passed by!  It seemed like a busy week but not filled with too many memorable moments... which says a lot about how one lives one's life...  I apologize that most of my blog posts are filled with my drawings, but I haven't been out taking pictures and they are really the only way that I record my days recently...

I got to the dentist and have my new crown...

I got together with some friends for English despite Tetsu thinking that I should just lay low for a couple more weeks.  It is a balance of how much I can do and the benefits of chatting and being with friends.  Tetsu is still driving me around so he gets pulled into any activities that I may have planned.

I also am back at the crosswalk but here again, Tetsu drives me there (15 minute walk usually) opens up the front gate for me so I don't have to do any unnecessary walking, and then picks me up an hour later.

And during the day, Tetsu does the brunt of the housekeeping while I sit and quilt or draw.

Speaking of quilting, (and this was at one time a blog about quilting), I am still hand-quilting the Plaidish quilt.  Probably this is the way most people mark their quilts but this is the way I do it if I haven't drawn in lines with a pencil before basting.

I have a ruler and I decided to mark my quilting lines 1 3/4 inch from the pieced seamline on all the pieces.  I used a very fine line chalk marker and it draws lines for me with one stroke across the fabric.  I will mark two or three lines just the width of my quilting hoop, quilt with two or three on-going needles and then move the hoop and mark again.  

You can't really tell in the photo but I'm quilting with three colors of thread and not making any decisions about when to use what color.  I thought it went well with the multi-colored quilt.  I am nearly finished with all this marking and quilting and now I'm thinking about quilting in the ditch at all those seams... which means this is still only half done...  Does it need more quilting?  This was not supposed to be a grand project but it does make the sitting time (of which I have a lot) more pleasant.

The swimming pool is closed this week (they take a week off every year after the New Year's holiday) and so we have been using the time that we'd usually spend there to go to various hot spas again.  Yesterday I had the whole outdoor bath to myself (though I didn't actually sketch while I was in it...)  Maybe I shouldn't have included my weird looking feet but they are proof that I was there.

And the biggest news is that I was referred to and saw an orthopedist at the university hospital this week and after looking at my x-rays the doctor said that a hip replacement would be the only option for relieving pain and getting back to normal life...  That diagnosis wasn't a surprise as my rheumatologist has basically said the same thing.  I will talk to the school and the City Hall about taking time off from work and probably surgery will be scheduled for sometime this summer.  I am feeling very good about the direction things are taking and I've talked with Tony and even sent him my x-rays.  Now to get through the next few months with as few problems as possible.

So that's my week.  From all the weather forecasts on TV, Japan is heading into deep cold next week so I'll stay bundled up and close to the space heaters that we use!

Living with changes

Oh dear...  10 days between posts.  I'm sorry about that but I guess I have my reasons.

I think the last time I posted was right after New Year's and we had gone off to the movies.  I'm sorry to say that that was my last good day and since then I've been laid out flat!  Thus nothing positive to post about, and no energy if there had been, so no posts...  I do try to keep my blog on a positive curve...

So anyway, I still don't know if rheumatism or something else got to me since the beginning of January.  Since starting this journey with RA, I have a whole new vocabulary.  RA which stands for Rheumatoid Arthritis, is an autoimmune disease (as compared to Osteoarthritis which is the wear and tear on joints.)  Flares (a burst of symptoms). Triggers (possible causes of flares) and the whole glossary of medications.  

After two months of normal living, January arrived and I suddenly couldn't walk again.  I thought, "Aha.  This is a flare..." and took to complete bed rest for four days because we were in the holidays and knowing that I had a doctor's appointment on the 11th.  But I saw my rheumatologist this week and she actually thinks I'm doing really well and that all the blood tests point to an improvement...  Therefore she has now referred me to an orthopedic doctor at the University hospital.  That appointment is scheduled for next week...

I was able to go to my crosswalk guard job at the beginning of the semester from January 10 but even four days of that was exhausting...  I wonder if I can, or even should continue with this job, and if I'm not, I need to let the city know pretty soon.  But my doctor says not to make any decisions based on how I'm feeling at this low point and maybe wait until my mind gets out of the dumps.  So that is where I stand (or in my case, sit).

I tried to keep up with drawing, however simple and messy from a prone position.  And I did see a couple of friends who actually can give me advice on rheumatism as they or someone in their family battles it.  That was very uplifting.  I also had an appointment to keep with my dentist and Tetsu took me to that, so not all has been lost!

So let's start with the dentist.  Tetsu actually thought I LIKED going to the dentist because I religiously make an appointment every six months.  No!  I just don't want to have to have anything major done but my strategy didn't work this time...  I guess I'll be going a couple of more times this month.

My friend, Mrs. I is a magician with yarn!!!  Sometime in December she showed me a sweater she had been making of left-over yarn and I said 

"I have some left-over yarn!  Please look at it and tell me if I should just toss it or give me an idea of what it can be used for."   I took the bag of cream colored yarn to her at the end of December.

(Mrs. I on the left)

This was yarn that Marcy had given me like 10 years ago and was from her mother's closet who passed away before that.  It is shiny and looks like it's supposed to be for a baby blanket or something.  I tried knitting it up TWICE and it sagged and pulled so much when the cardigan was done that I ripped it all out again.  I was really considering trashing it!  This week I saw Mrs. I and she had finished the left-over sweater yarn and then pulled out this beautiful vest!  

She said she used an afgan stitch and more of her left-over yarn to create this beauty!  Mrs. I had made the vest with me in mind but it actually fit my friend Mrs. O better than it did me so she lucked out on this.  Mrs. I said that there was still some of the cream yarn left so she'd try to make something a little larger for me.  Pretty amazing work!

And this week was the Coming of Age Day for Japanese who become twenty though the laws recently are changing and some cities hold a celebration for 18 year olds.  I'm not really sure what goes on in these celebrations as neither of my children was in Japan when they were twenty, but it is great fun for the girls to rent a fancy kimono for the big day.  

Here I am ready for bed in the evening.  The room is icy so I have my fleece pajamas, a neck warmer, a down shoulder shawl and a knitted hat.  

And four cats who warm all sides of me!

   

A few days into January

We are heading into the end of our winter holidays though I have more than most.  I think businesses are back to normal routine since yesterday but school is off until the 10th for me.

This is good because I seem to have had a "flare" which is a new word for me since starting life with rheumatism.  And I was going along so well these past two months!  I had thought/hoped that if I took medications regularly and followed a slightly restricted diet that I wouldn't get caught in one of these actively painful periods but here I am laid up again.  It is rather discouraging but I've got a doctor's appointment anyway next week and there is still time for me to laze around in bed with books and knitting at my side...  So it goes.

New Year's Day had us enjoying the myriad of New Year's cards that get delivered on January 1st.  The post office holds back all New Year's cards so that they can be delivered on New Year's Day and it is nice to hear from friends far and wide and even those whom we only have contact this one time a year.  It is interesting to me that if there has been a death in the family the previous year, New Year's cards won't be sent out but rather around November families will send out somber notices of the loss of the loved one explaining why the happy messages of the New Year WON'T be sent out later.  To recipricate, friends will not send cards to the family in mourning... which seems to the American in me, odd because they are the ones who need cheering the most in this festive time of year...

Most Japanese will enjoy a feast of beautifully prepared and colorful New Year's food but for Tetsu and me we keep our meals limited to pounded rice cakes with different sweet toppings.  Sweet beans, sweet bean paste, sweet soy bean powder...  

We got tired of that the third day into New Year's and I made vegetable miso soup...

Since I've been moving around normally for weeks now we went for a longish walk on January 1st which was lovely.  

We took photos of ourselves to send to our kids and the next day spent time at the pool to get some exercise and relax in the hot baths.  Somewhere along the line in those two days I must have over exerted myself because I've been limping around since then...

I think Tetsu is most worried that I will become discouraged and closed in and so he suggested a day out at the movie theater yesterday.  He could drop me off at the entrance, I didn't have far to walk and then we enjoyed a few hours of distraction and popcorn!  

It was evening by the time we came home and the connecting mall was lit up beautifully!

During the holidays I took some time off from my endless quilting to do some knitting and even crochet!  Marlene asked me to make her a towel topper for her kitchen and that was a quick and easy project.

This is now written up in my bullet journal so that I can do it all again at a later date.

The green pom-pom that I showed a few weeks ago on my blog came from the hat that I knitted up for M-san.  

It was her birthday yesterday and so I gave her the hat... wrapped in a pretty piece of fabric!  I figure if she can't use the hat at least she'll find uses for the fabric!

I also made a neck-warmer for Tetstu (I forgot to photograph that and he's wearing it today) and I'm working on a simple hat for him too...  Using up fabric stash and yarn stash feels good!

And so that's how week one of 2023 has been going for us.  

Happy New Year!

The last of December and 2022

There are only a few hours left of 2022 here in Japan.  Tetsu and I have eaten our End-of-the-Year soba noodles (I think long noodles are supposed to bring long life) and he is settled in front of the TV watching boxing so you know that's not where you are going to find me!

So...  what were my arty endeavors this month?   

I painted up the shadows on our yard table one afternoon...

This was a try at the misty morning scenery near the school.

I took a class with Shari Blaukopf on snow scenery and I think I really learned a lot.  

Here was another challenge photo...

And one more.  This is the second online class I've taken with Shari and if I can only remember what she teaches I could probably get to enjoy this watercolor painting!

There is a famous mouth artist in Japan and I pulled out one of his postcards that I had and attempted to reproduce it with watercolor and ink.  

The sunrise was just beautiful one morning and so I tried painting that.

The real thing was better.

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Family (mostly Luka) updates.

Luka is transitioning from the baby stage to toddler stage.

He got to the dentist.  I don't know if he's been there before or not but at least he wasn't screaming.

Headed somewhere with Teddy bear and Santa.

The family got to California for a surprise trip Leiya had planned for Tony.

A tree-dweller!

I got one picture from Julieta of Takumi taking the dogs out for a walk one night...  Wait a minute!  They live in Southern California!!!  What's with the hat and scarf and jackets that all three of them are wearing?!  If they think their town is cold they should spend a evening with us these days!

And that's about that for this year.  As I wrote in my bullet journal tonight.

"The year was filled with joys... (meeting Luka, seeing Takumi's house and Leiya's house, getting together for Kiana's wedding) and surprises... (my rheumatism diagnosis and hospitalization) and tears... (the passing of Patora).'' 

What will next year bring?