Recently

It's really important to me that I document our time in Tokyo.  I have a hard time keeping up on this blog though.  I am sure if I had any of the kids, or Mike even, write on here instead, the experience here would be described differently.  We are here together, but all experiencing this city differently.  

I don't know that I can even remember much of what happened last month.  Our happenings of recent days:

School ending.

Temple Open house.

Primary President.

Book Publishing. 

Now for the fleshy parts.  School ended last week.  Eli had his 8th grade graduation on the 7th.  This was our first Middle School graduation and I think they are somewhat silly.  Perhaps that's my homeschool brain speaking or maybe I just don't put enough weight into ceremonies.  Regardless, Mike and I attended and it was fun to watch Eli walk across the stage and get his certificate.  They had to bow, receive the certificate, and bow again.  I liked the little Japanese touch.  They had about 20 different countries represented in the 8th grade and that was pretty fun to see as well.  The ceremony was well-done and while I think unneeded, it was fun to have an excuse to celebrate Eli.  I sure like him.  A lot.  They all had to wear suits and dresses and none of Eli's friends owned suits and Eli told us that in the locker room he ended up teaching all the other 8th grade boys to tie a tie and helped them get their collars situated.  That seems like a very Eli-thing to to do.  Eli has a little swagger (he insists he doesn't) and I loved to see his confident swagger as he walked across the stage.  While not the tallest in his class, he is definitely the most mature looking, looking so handsome in his suit, and as tall as the teachers.  I just couldn't believe my little spicy Eli was looking so big and grown up.  He was voted "most funny" for the yearbook and got all A's in his classes.  He also was asked by his App Lab teacher to submit a game he made for a contest.  It's has been so rewarding to see Eli blossom, make such good friends, and turn into such a leader this year.  Now I have three boys in highschool!

The other kids did well this year as well.  Will, Isaac, and Piper all got straight A's.  Of course, we are proud of them for whatever grades they get as long as they put in their full effort, but A's are nice.  They all work so hard and I want to believe that homeschool gave them a solid foundation on how to study and how to be in charge of their own learning.  They go to a school where a large portion of the kids have a full day of school and then come home to hours of tutoring.  It could be intimidating and easy to compare themselves in a school of such high achieving students.  I am happy with their current level of effort and success and I hope they are proud of themselves.  It was especially hard for Isaac to miss so much school from getting Covid and he had so many tests and assignments to make up.  The last few weeks were pretty stressful for him but he did it!  Piper made huge improvements this year in reading.  I'm so proud of her.  Her teacher gave her the award for being so positive and I think that is a really good award for her this year.  She hasn't gotten discouraged and has just kept going even though reading has not been an easy skill for her.  Will and Isaac both got jobs being bus monitors and are already making money from monitoring.  They love having money come in and go to the conbini (7/11) to get their money.  

We have been serving at the Temple for the Temple Open house.  I have done two shifts as a tour guide.  It causes me a little anxiety but mostly, it's been a wonderful experience.  The temple has a lot of stairs and I keep getting confused about what floor we are on but they have cute little Japanese ladies posted in the hallways to help the guides remember where to go.  The boys will serve on Saturday, placing shoe coverings on shoes.  We also cleaned the temple one night and the temple Annex (where we go to church).  I feel grateful to be so close to a temple and that we can participate in so many different service opportunities.  

I was just called as the Primary President.  Because you already know me and my personality, it shouldn't be hard to determine that I'm not super excited about it.  I love Primary.  I've spent a good decade off an on in the Primary and while I sometimes feel burnt out, I usually don't mind being in the Primary.  I've done this calling about 15 years ago and my situation is different.  I think I did fine as a Primary President and I think I will do fine this time as well.  I am not jumping up and down at this change though.  I know what my strengths are and where I'm lacking and I don't feel bad saying that my strengths don't lie in being the boss.  I don't care much about being "the heart beat of the ward" or having my finger in everything.  I don't relish being in charge and making all the decisions.  I don't like being responsible for budgets, finding subs, planning activities, going to ward counsel.  All the details make my head spin.  I have thoroughly enjoyed showing up each Sunday with a fun activity and my testimony and singing songs with the kids.  I've enjoyed talking to them and having fun with them and I feel like my talents have been better spent in that capacity.  I am sure there are reasons for the change and I am also sure I will be blessed for saying yes.  I just don't want to do it.  Also, I'm selfish.  I like my time and don't want the added responsibility of more meetings.  I do feel thankful that I won't have to worry about sharing time anymore since that is mostly the responsibility of the music leader now.  

To make things more frustrating, I expected to have to put in some effort to figure out who my counselors should be but I hadn't expected it to take so much of my brain power these last two weeks.  I had hoped that once I finally submitted names, I'd feel a weight lifted off my shoulders and I can't say that is the case but maybe that will come later.  I won't go into details but it's been a frustrating week and I feel like I've done all the things I should have to get inspiration and instead I just feel like maybe I've gotten all my lines crossed.  Hopefully I'll have counselors soon and then eventually, a music leader, so that I can hand that job off to someone else.  There will be some growing pains for a few months but I hope it won't take long to get settled in the new calling.  

Finally, Mike is getting his first book published.  I am so proud of him.  He started writing this book about a decade ago.  Laila died and he took a little break from writing.  He started writing again in TN but through moves, a deployment, job changes, etc, writing has been interrupted many times.  He has written this first story about three times, taking parts out, editing, fine-tuning.  He has written a second book, that he didn't really like, and is half-way through his third book.  His goal was to submit to 50 publishers and expected 50 rejections, at which point he would self publish, continue writing books, and hopefully by his 10th book, get a book published.  His book was on its 49 publisher.  That's 48 rejections.  I think I'd honestly quit after the second rejection.  He is such a good example to me.  The 49th publisher accepted his book and it is in the process of being published.  He is supposed to do all kinds of marketing, none of which either of us are good at, but we are trying.  His book should be out for purchasing in the Spring.  I think it is so cool and I'm really happy for him.  

So, a mouthful.