I made my homemade miso again. Today I used a chickpea. I never made miso from chickpea. It is my first trial.

The other day my friend gave me her homemade miso. She has made three different flavored miso; mugi miso (used barley koji), mame miso (used mame koji), and chickpea miso.

I liked them all and wanted to make them all. I cannot make the first two miso, because I cannot purchase barley koji or mame koji in this area. Luckily though I can purchase a chickpea.  

So, today’s ingredient is as follows.

– Chickpea 1.5kg

– Kome kouji 1.5 kg

– Sea salt 750 g

I am looking forward to tasting it. I hope it will turn out great.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I woke up at 3:30 am and left for the airport at 4 am to give my husband a ride to the airport.

I started enjoying the night drive. Because I can manipulate my prayer instantly.

I always ask my family spirits and angels to send a freeway angel before my car. My request goes to the details. I want the freeway angel to drive at the just-right speed for me and to have a steady drive, instead of changing the lane here and there.

So, as usual, when I entered the freeway, I sent my detailed request. Soon enough, I saw in my rear mirror one car coming closer to me. I grinned. I knew he was the one. I let him pass me and started following him.

The freeway angel guided me to the airport exit. It was really helpful to follow him all the freeway trip.

***

While I am writing this, all of a sudden one vision came into my mind. It was a vision of the cabinet in the living room at my parents’ house.

When I was a small child, one of my parents’ friend kept gifting them a ceramic angel. The height was about 4 inch (10 cm). Every time the friend visited us, he or she always brought a gift box for us, and the content was always the ceramic angel. I don’t remember if the person was a woman or a man. I believe the number of the angel dolls reached more than 10. They were all different with their own unique face expression and posing. Last time when I visited my parents in this March, all the ceramic angels were still in their cabinet.  

Now I know the ceramic angels are not just an ornament. They are actually helping my parents. I am happy to know that.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I made my homemade miso from soy beans.

This is my second year for making homemade miso. My first one turned out very good. My family and I love it, but unfortunately it is almost out. It will last for another one more month. For several months until my second batch is well fermented, we will have to eat a store bought miso.

Once you get used to your own homemade miso, a store bought miso does not taste great as your homemade one.

Today’s ingredient is as follows.

– Soy beans 2kg

– Kome kouji 2 kg

– Sea salt 1 kg

I am excited to taste it. I need to wait at least nine months or so.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Right before I fall asleep last night, I received a text message from my mom.

As usual, I felt scared of opening her message. Nowadays her text messages are full of negative news.

She decided not to have a chemotherapy treatment anymore. My dad was not happy for my mom’s decision. He keeps blaming my mom for not having a chemotherapy treatment. My dad even threatens my mom that she has shorten her life without a chemotherapy.

First, I felt sad for my mom that she doesn’t get support of her decision from my dad.

She has had a chemotherapy treatment twice. As far as I know from her text messages and phone call conversation, the chemotherapy has taken away both of her physical strength and her willpower to live. The side effect of the chemotherapy has drained my mom’s energy out. She has been deeply depressed and exhausted. Considering these facts into consideration, I support my mom’s decision for stopping a chemotherapy treatment.

Second, I felt overwhelmed by negative feeling. It was as if my mom’s negative energy sucked up my energy even we were physically far away.

I really regretted about reading her text message before going to sleep.

I could not fall asleep. I tossed and turned for all night long. I could not rest at all.

***

After I got out from bed in the morning, I checked my fasting glucose level as usual. This morning’s number was extremely high. Heavy stress affects my health.

I spent all day exhausted and tired.

***

I understand I am not the only one who is suffering in this situation. Everybody loses their parents someday. It is a matter of when and how. Some people lose their parents in their younger age, and others lose around my age. It is tough for everybody.

I am feeling sad to face to my parents’ dying situation. I cannot support them physically as I live far away. All I can support them is through my good prayer.

I really hope both my parents will have peaceful days in their remainder days. I hope they will cherish every day without having pains or negative feelings. And I hope they will be able to go back to their spirit world on their preferable timing and in their preferable way. They deserve to receive a great amount of love and support from many people and their angels and spirits.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had a parent conference for my daughter.

In my daughter’s school, a new teacher is assigned every year. I enjoy getting to know about the new teacher during our parent conference, especially for the first one in September.

I have heard lots of good things about her new teacher from my daughter along with other former students and their parents.

The new teacher shared her impression about my daughter. My daughter is always nice and kind. Not to mention, she is very polite and well-behave. She is good at reading and comprehension, but not very good at math. The teachers’ feedback about my daughter always stays the same. All the previous teachers have given me the same feedback and impression about my daughter.

***

After the same old procedure was done, the teacher asked me if I had any concerns or questions.

I asked her about the combination class. Before the new school year started, the school principal told me they would not have a combination class for my daughter’s grade this year. However, three weeks after the new school session started in August, the principal decided to make a combination class.

To say at the least, the school principal is not good at communicating. Only he told me was three students would be added to my daughter’s class. He didn’t tell me more specific explanation about the reason of their decision.

Contrary with the principal, the new teacher was good at sharing the information with me.

The more detailed reason was this.

Once the school year started, the school noticed there were 35 students in the fifth grade. The maximum number of students in one classroom is set to 30 students. The teacher who has assigned to the fifth grade was newly hired. The teacher is young and does not have many teaching experiences yet. The teacher felt overwhelmed in teaching that many students in one class.

In order to help out the fifth grader’s teacher, the school decided to make a small arrangement. The fourth graders have two classrooms, and these two classrooms were not outnumbered in students. So the school decided to move five fifth graders to one of the fourth grader’s classrooms. Then, three fourth graders were moved to the other forth grader’s classroom.

After the small arrangement, now the fifth grader has 30 students. They created one combination class of the fourth grader and the fifth grader; 5 fifth graders and 20 fourth graders. The other fourth grader classroom has 24 fourth graders.

***

After I heard this, I was happy to have the new teacher. Now I know the reason of their decision of the combination class, I am willing to support for the school’s decision. At the same time, I feel sad about the principal’s lacking of communication. I wish the principal had told me this when I inquired about the combination class and the reason. Because he didn’t tell me the reason, I was not happy for their decision.

***

This event reminded me of the importance of communication.

When I started working at the company, my supervisor often told me the importance of communication. I appreciate him to have taught me this.

If you communicate well and let the other party know what is going on, the other party will work with you and support you. Thus they will become your ally.

However, if you lack in communicating, the other party does not know what is going on. Lacking of information will create a chaos, and the other party will create a big wall between you and them. Thus they will become your enemy.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Back in last autumn, October of 2018, I made my homemade pickled plum. I cannot buy Japanese ume in my living area, so I used plum instead. My homemade pickled plum is a foreign countries’ version of umeboshi. I have checked the condition from time to time. I never saw any mold or anything bad in my pickled plum. Since it has been almost one year, it should be ready to eat by now.

Today I enjoyed tasting my very first homemade pickled plum. I was excited and happy.

Even though I added some citric acid for sourness, it does not taste sour as the real Japanese umeboshi. According to my friend, if I could find an apricot, it would have turned out with some sourness just like a Japanese umeboshi. I will keep an eye to find an apricot in the local grocery store in next spring. If I can find it, I will try my homemade pickled apricot next year.

***

As for the nukaduke, I started my nukadoko at the end of July this year. Since then I have taken care of it by stirring the entire nukadoko every day. Only for three days during my trip to Navajoland, I could not take care of it, so I kept the nukadoko container in the refrigerator. It is like having a pet to take care, as I have to take care of it every day. It is fun to take care of something and observe its growth every day.

For the first three weeks, the pickled vegetables tasted very salty. After I added more nuka and some other dried foods such as a kiriboshi daikon, a dried shiitake mushroom, and a dried konbu, the pickled vegetables have start tasting just right.

I have pickled a whole onion, a carrot, a celery, a turnip, a cucumber, and a daikon. My favorite so far is a whole onion.    

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

While my friend was visiting us, I heard about our common acquaintances. I met my friend at the Lakota tour. I was there as an interpreter, and she was attending as a tour customer. I participated the tour three times. Twice in 2006 and once in 2007. Since my last tour, I haven’t contacted with the tour people. My friend on the other hand, still keeps in touch with the tour organizer; my former employer.  

I was surprised to hear their age. The tour organizer is 60 years old, and the tour host is 75 years old. Their age stopped in me at the time of the last tour.

It has been 12 years passed. On my second thought, no wonder everybody has aged. I have aged too.

I received a phone number of the Lakota tour host and called him on the phone.

His voice sounded exactly same as the last time when we talked. We chatted for 10 minutes or so. He updated me of his 12 years, and so did I. We both were surprised of our updated news.

It was very nice talking with him after such a long year absence. I hope one of these days I will be able to visit him in Lakota land again and introduce my family to him.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Last month I didn’t have my monthly period. It was supposed to come on August 14th. Today it finally came back with a 3-weeks delay.

My first period came when I was 14 years old. Since then, I had my monthly period come regularly except for 3.5 years of my pregnancy and lactation. I kind of liked it, because of its cleansing process. After the monthly period, I would feel lighter physically and mentally.

Starting from early of this year though, my period had started its irregularity. One month it came one week early. The other month it came one week late. This time it came at three week’s delay.

I understand I am in the menopause process and it is a natural process for my age. I also understand my monthly period will eventually disappear from my body function.

I want to write about my honest feeling about it.

I feel sad and scared about the transition. It is natural to feel that way for any kinds of changes, right?

Simultaneously, I feel relieved and happy about the transition.

Here is the reason.

I am becoming back to the same condition as a child, who is not influenced by male/female hormone. It is beyond the gender difference of male or female. It is “it” rather and “he or she.” To think back my childhood days, I fully enjoyed being “it.” I had many friends of boys and girls. I was free from gender.

I am happy about the menopause process because I am in the process of getting back to the “it” condition again.

All in all, I guess I am happy and excited about this transition. I should enjoy this process.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today was a national holiday celebrating Labor Day. My family and I spent a day resting without doing anything specific.

We are still feeling tired. Maybe it is from the long drive. Another reason is the elevation difference.

We just came back from Navajoland where the elevation is 6,836 feet (2,084 meter). The place where we currently live is 4,400 feet (1341 meter). The oxygen rate is thinner in Navajoland than our current home base.

From curiosity, I looked up the elevation of my hometown in Japan. It was very close to 0 feet (0 meter) because it was at the sea level. I had lived almost 40 years at the place within 10 minutes walking distance to the beach. Contrary with the environment, I am living in the mountain area in America, where the elevation is much higher than my birth town. No wonder my body took many years to adjust to the current environment.

While I am writing this, I realized how my body had suffered from the drastic environmental change. Such drastic changes include the water nature (soft water vs hard water), the air nature (humid air vs dry air), the land energy (yang vs yin), the geology (ocean vs mountain), the ambient temperature (mild vs extreme), the language (Japanese vs English), the cultural difference (closed community vs open community), and not to mention, the people’s way of thinking (there are lots of differences).

My body has been doing its best to adjust to these drastic changes. I bet it is very, very hard. I feel sorry for my body to deal with these changes. From now on, I am going to stop being harsh to my body. Instead, I will be gentle with my body and always thankful to my body.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My family and I woke up with a slightly sick feeling. Even though we kept the swamp cooler and the ceiling fan ON all night, we still felt hot inside the bedroom.

We were planning to stay one more night in Navajoland, but thinking about the fact we are feeling sick, we wanted to go back home as soon as possible.

After breakfast, we decided to leave for back home.

***

After the long drive, we were finally back home. It was around 6 pm in the evening.

I enjoyed being back home. I enjoyed a nice hot bath and slept tight in my own bed. Not to mention, I enjoyed the cool air in my own house.

***

Even though it was a very short visit and I got sick, I still love visiting my in-laws and Navajoland.

One of these days we will live on our property in Navajoland. By then I will need to get used to their extreme high temperature in summer and low temperature in winter.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪