Today was a National holiday observing Columbus Day. My in-laws left in the morning for their return trip back to their home.

We were planning to go to the orchard and farm today, which we originally planned to go there with my in-laws yesterday. But when we woke up this morning, we were all feeling tired. It was understandable. For the past two days we were busy with my in-laws.

We decided to relax instead of going to the orchard and farm. They are located in a far distance from our house.

So, my husband and daughter went to the theater to watch movie. I stayed behind and enjoyed my alone time.

***

I am surprised to know it is already in the middle of October.

In this time of the year, the holiday season, days seem to go faster. My daughter has one week long of autumn break this month. Kids will enjoy Halloween at the end of this month. Next month, we have a Veteran’s day and Thanksgiving Day. School has several days off. The following month is already the last month of the year. School has a winter break to celebrate Christmas and upcoming New Year.

I’d better spend each day to the most.

Today was Day-2 of my in-laws’ visit.

We were originally planning to go to the orchard and farm. It was my mom-in-law’s strong request. In October they have some fun events in the farm. They have a hay ride and a corn maze. Also a variety sized and colored of pumpkins are available to pick up. Everything is fun for all aged people; not only for kids but also for adults. My mom-in-law told me yesterday that she was so excited to visit there. It will be her very first visit. She also told me that she was planning to bring pumpkins to her two sisters.

However, we needed to cancel our plan. My mom-in-law woke up this morning with a sore throat. She could barely speak.

So we decided to change our plan into an easy one. We decided to stay locally and take it easy.

In the local community college, they had a gem show in this weekend. It is located just a 5-minute drive away from their hotel.

We visited the gem show. We had a good time there. I purchased a heart shaped stone plate of 7 inch long. It has many different sized and shaped fossils contained. My daughter bought a necklace top with an amber stone and a silver attachment with her own allowance. She gifted it to my mom-in-law. My mom-in-law was so happy for my daughter’s kindness and pure love.  

After the gem show, we came back to the hotel. We cooked out at the grill by the swimming pool. My daughter and I jumped in the swimming pool. The water was icy cold, but we enjoyed swimming. There was also a hot Jacuzzi tub which contained a very hot water. We enjoyed soaking ourselves in both pools; a hot one and a cold one.

After our late lunch, we headed back home so that my in-laws could rest up by themselves.

I am glad that their visit ended peacefully.

My in-laws are visiting our area. They arrived at the local hotel last night. They will stay for 3 nights to spend time with us.

So, today was our Day-1 to spend all day with them.

Our all-day-tour stared from sightseeing the old western town. We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant there. It was fun to see all the workers in the town were in the old Western outfits. Even in the restaurant, all the waitresses were in the old fashioned Western dresses.

Our next stop was sightseeing the mining town. We attended the mine tour. For the tour, after we paid the admission and signed-in the agreement paperwork, we needed to wait for 2.5 hours until the tour started. It was my very first time to attend their tour.

All the tour participants were outfitted with a yellow slicker, a helmet, and a miner’s headlamp. We boarded the mine train and descended into the underground mine. The tour was conducted by the former miners and shared his personal experiences worked as a minor.

It was a fun tour. In my personal opinion though, only one tour is enough. For some reason, my in-laws love this tour. As a matter of fact, today’s tour was their third one.

Our last stop was the local Asian restaurant for dinner.

***

We walked a lot throughout the day.

By the time we came back home, Sun was already set. It was dark and cold.

I was exhausted.

It was not only from walking but also from the nervous feeling being with in-laws. I’ve known them for the past twenty years, but still, I feel nervous being around them for such a long time.

Another reason was due to the crowd of people. Everywhere we went, there were many people around us. Compared with the crowd of people in a big city in Japan, it is definitely nothing in our small town, but still, I don’t like being surrounded by many people. I was born like that.

While I am writing this, I am peaceful at home. I am glad and thankful that our day went well, and I am safely back home.

Today was a regular Friday for everybody, but not for my family.

My husband had a red eye on this week from time to time. It was not from serious disease but from fatigue. So he took a day off from work today. He rested up all day and recovered his good health.

It was irregular to stay at home with my husband in daytime of weekday while my daughter is at school.

Some of my older friends are having this kind of days every day, because their husbands either work at home or they don’t need to work after retired from work.

I am used to stay at home alone while my husband and daughter are out of home during the daytime on weekdays. To be honest, I like being alone at home.

That being said, while I am writing this, I received a block of thoughts from my family spirits. I should be careful what I wish for.

While I was single, I had time and freedom all to myself for many years. I wished for my family to spend time together. Now I am provided my family.

I should appreciate for what I am provided right now. I should cherish the time whenever I stay with my precious family.

Today my friend and I were planning to go to the mountain for hiking. But something urgent came up to her, so we rescheduled our plan.

It was fine with me.

I was looking forward to our get together, but at the same time, I was happy for the reschedule.

We were planning to swing by at the Donut store on the way back home. There we were planning to get some donuts and coffee for lunch. If we had gone, I would have taken too high sugar and calorie.

Since the beginning of this month for 10 days, I have been on the 16/8 fasting method. I haven’t lost weight yet, but I started feeling lighter than before. As for the glucose level, it shows a slight improvement every day.

I want to get used to this new routine, at least in this beginning stage.

***

Today I had another peaceful day.

I took care of my nukadoko, cooked homemade food for my family and myself, cleaned the house, and did a laundry. In my free time, I read some books about the knowledge and recipes of fermented foods.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Recently my daughter’s favorite outfit is an overall skirt. I bought her three different sized and colored ones. She looks good in the overall skirt.

That made me think to buy one for me. I have searched an overall skirt for me in the adult size, but I could not find it anywhere. So I decided to make one for me by myself.

I bought a denim fabric. I usually don’t use a pattern.

What I do is simple.

I create an image of the product what I want to have in my mind. With the image in my mind, I draw a rough sketch in a paper. I ask my family spirits for support. Then, I go ahead and proceed to cut the fabric.

All the process went smoothly. I made my overall skirt. With the leftover fabric, I also made an overall skirt for my daughter.

It was a creative and enjoyable day.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had a get together with my new friend.

She is one of my neighbors. She and her family moved into our area three years ago. From our first impression, we both liked each other. Whenever we saw each other during my walking, we chatted for a while in the street. We exchanged our phone number and mentioned about having a get together some time.

I didn’t call her right away though. I wanted to be cautious to make a new friend in this county.

Here is my reason for being cautious.

In my first several years in this country, I freely made new friends. Soon I realized some of them were Christians with strong personalities. They aggressively tried to convince me into going to their church and changing my belief into theirs. I encountered such people more than 10, or maybe much more than 20 or 30. Dealing with such people was very uncomfortable experiences for me.

I respect everybody’s free will. I honor each person to have their own believe and religion. I have my own belief and religion. It is fine as long as nobody forces theirs to others. I don’t force mine to others, and they should stay away from forcing me to theirs.

Anyways, that is why I am cautious, especially when making a new friend with a Christian.

***  

So, at the very first moment of our get together, I politely told her about my feeling. I knew she is a Christian and goes to church. I requested her to respect each other’s religion and belief. I am not going to force her to believe mine, and I want her to do the same.

I waited for her reaction. If she reacted as the same way as the previous people, I was about to leave her place right away.

She was different from the previous people.

She agreed with me. She has gone through the similar experiences and she didn’t like it. She promised me not to force me to believe her religion.

I got so relieved to hear that.

So, that was how we started our getting to know each other.

I actually enjoyed her company. I arrived at her house at 10:30 a.m., and we were so into our conversation that the next moment I noticed was almost 3 p.m.

I like her a lot. I hope we can build our friendship slowly and sturdy.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I have started the 16/8 fasting for 5 days since October 1st. Skipping breakfast had almost become one of my routines until yesterday.

I made yesterday as an exceptional day. It was Sunday. My family and I were planning to go to town for some chores in the morning. I didn’t want to skip breakfast so that I would not get super hungry during in town. It is dangerous to walk around the grocery store with an empty stomach. I might end up buying a whole bunch of unnecessary foods due to the strong desire from the empty stomach.

So I ate breakfast.

In town, we went to the First Food restaurant for lunch. I ate a hamburger and fries along with an ice cream as a dessert.

Obviously I had too high calorie yesterday.

***

I check my weigh every morning. For these past 5 days I weighed 61.1 kg (134.7 lb).

This morning my weight got raised to 61.8 kg (136.3 lb). I was shocked how easily I gain weight with just for one fun day. It is hard to lose weight and maintain weight as the same.

I will get back to my new routine from today. I will be more careful for eating Fast Food on weekends.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Recently I made a new friend with one of our neighbors. I often see her jogging in the evening. She asked me to join her to her evening routine. I accepted her offer with one condition. I can join her with walking, instead of jogging. She pleasantly accepted my request.

She told me her usual goal. When I looked it up in Google Maps, it showed 9.8 mile (15.8 km) in the round trip from our area. She said it usually takes her about 1.5 hour. I asked her if she stops here and there. She said no. She keeps jogging for the 1.5 hour without stopping. That is amazing. I really respect her for doing the good exercise for more than 10 years.

I usually walk to my daughter’s school. It is 2.4 mile (3.9 km) in the round trip. I get used to this distance, so that I can walk this far without any issue.

For today’s walk, since it was our first get-together walk, she suggested me the alternative goal for us. The goal is located in the middle of her usual goal and my usual goal. We both agreed for her suggestion.

We fast-walked. We jogged from time to time. I left my house at 4:45 p.m. and came back home at 6:00 p.m. Thus, we walked for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After the walk, both of us sweat like a horse. It was actually comfortable sweat. I felt my body cells were happy for this refreshing exercise.

***

After I came back home, I looked up the goal of our walking of this evening. It showed 4.2 mile (6.8 km) in the round trip.

I was amazed at the long distance we walked. No wonder we had a huge amount of sweat. It was a very nice walk with her. I enjoyed her being company.

We wanted to keep this walk every evening. But in the next week, she has to go to work both in the morning and in the night, due to lacking of staff members in her workplace. We might be able to resume our walk in the following next week.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Recently I have sent my mom a text message through LINE app for several times. I never received a reply from her. The good thing about LINE is that I can know if she has read my message or not. I was happy to know at least she had opened and read my message. I have my parents in my mind. I always have a good vision about my parents. In my vision, they are doing fine and healthy.

***

This evening I received a wonderful surprise gift.

It was a phone call from my mom.

My mom’s voice sounded healthy. It was much better than before.

My mom told me she actually has been doing better. She believes it was because she stooped a chemotherapy. I was very happy to hear that. I don’t agree with having a chemotherapy. I feel my mom is recovering through her vital energy.

I talked to my dad too. He also sounded healthy.

They both wanted to send me some gift money, and that was the main reason why they called me.

I was very happy to hear from them.

In the soul level, I always know my parents love me. But in the physical level, I once in a while think hard if my mom hates me or not. When she was in a very bad situation in last August and September, I offered her to go see them in Japan. My mom kept asking me to postpone the trip.  

During this evening’s phone conversation, I again offered my mom that my daughter and I can visit them in next week. My daughter’s school has one week autumn break. Then again, my mom turned my offer down. She asked me to wait until she gets little better than now. We agreed to make a visit plan in next May.

***

It was a very nice to hear from them.

I am happy that they are doing well.

I am happy that they also think of me and love me.

I keep having a good vision in my mind that my daughter and I are visiting my parents in next May, and we all are enjoying our visit.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪