I woke up with the heavy rain sound. It has been raining hard since last evening.

After lunch, I received a mass notification call from the school. It announced about the flash flood watch and that all the schools of our county decided to release students early.

I simultaneously received an email notice from the school too. It said the school bus drivers are instructed not to drive any flooded area. It also said “Any student that cannot be delivered to a stop of picked up will be brought back to the school for parent pickup.”

Our local bus stop gets easily flooded. Besides, our bus stop is the first stop. If the bus driver cannot stop at our bus stop, my daughter will need to ride the bus to all the way to the final stop and come back to school. I didn’t want that happen. I quickly got ready and jumped in my ride, and headed to the school. Luckily I made it arrive at school before the bus took off, so that I could pick my daughter up.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In these past few months my husband has studied almost every day. He had a certificate test today.

It was a difficult certificate test, but he successfully passed it.

He reported his success to his immediate supervisor at the workplace. The supervisor was very happy for my husband and congratulated him.

***

Last night we went to the Chinese restaurant. They gave us three fortune cookies. Without thinking, I gave one to my husband and one for my daughter, and kept the last one for me.

My husband’s fortune said like this.

“Soon you will get the recognition you deserve.”

We thought it a good fortune. We thought my husband would pass the test, and we guessed it right.

For your information, my fortune said like this.

“You are inspirational.”

I guess my fortune was right too. Because I am the one who encouraged my husband to take the test. And I am always the one for my husband to keep motivated him in improving. I am indeed inspirational.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning when I went to the kitchen, my husband told me we have a stoker.

He was giggling while saying it, so I knew it was not serious.

I looked at the direction he pointed. There was a grasshopper clinging on a red rose right outside of our kitchen window. The grasshopper was intensely watching us.

The grasshopper gave us the first laugh of the day.

***

Today was a relaxing day.

My husband studied almost all day for his upcoming certificate test. My daughter drew a painting with acrylic paints on a canvas. I could finish reading three books.

Our day ended by going for our routine evening walk in the neighborhood area.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

The other day I happened to read the news about car seat trade-in campaign in Walmart. They will accept a used car seat and offer a $30 gift card in return. They will accept any brands’ ones. The traded-in car seats will be recycled with their partner company. The campaign date was originally set from September 16th to September 30th.

Last night I showed my husband the campaign information on their official website. I noticed they decided to make the campaign end earlier than their planned term, due to the overwhelming response. They set the last day of the campaign as today September 21st. Luckily I made it to participate in this trade-in campaign.

The other store also offered the trade-in campaign, but their deal was not good as that of Walmart. The other store offers only a coupon for 20% off a new car seat, and the coupon is valid to a very short term.

Compared with the other store, Walmart offered a great deal to people.

I appreciate Walmart to have this generous campaign to everybody.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It was a busy day.

I cooked breakfast, ate, and cleaned it up. I did laundry and hung them up in the back yard to dry. I cleaned the house. I cooked a beef kimchee soup and origiri (rice ball), and some vegetable dishes for lunch/dinner. By then I was almost running out of time. I jumped in my car and headed to the local airport to pick my husband up.

Everything went by on time and smoothly.

After we came back home, my husband fully enjoyed my homemade food after his two weeks business trip.

***

In the night after I was done all my to-do-list items for today, I finally got relaxed.

I experienced a light bulb’s blow out twice in a row.

First one was the light bulb in the refrigerator. The light bulb on the top shelf gave out its last and brightest flicker, and it was dead. It never died off on us until tonight after our six years living in this house.

Second one was the light bulb in my computer room. The same thing happened. The light bulb on the ceiling gave out its last and brightest flicker, and it was dead.

If it happened only once, I would not pay attention to it. However, since it happened twice in a row, I thought about the message from the event.

***

Maybe it happened for my husband.

He came back from his business trip through the long airplane flights. Even though the people whom he encountered and dealt with during the work were very nice, he must have accumulated unknown stress from staying in the hotel, constantly eating restaurant foods, and being away from family.

I believe the light bulb’s blow out was helpful for him to discharge his leftover electricity in his body.

Anyways I am glad he is safely back home.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I started making a Halloween dress for my daughter in the morning. I needed to make a mad dash to the local craft store. There I bought some decorative items such as Halloween buttons and orange pompoms, and a pair of snap buttons.

I was surprised that the dress was completed within one day, by the evening.

Making a Halloween dress was one of my to-do-lists since I bought the fabric on September 13th. Now that I could remove it from the list. Now I am feeling relieved.

***

Whenever I mention about my sawing products, many people think that sewing is my hobby. Or they think of me having lots of free time to do so. And that is probably why people casually ask me to sew something like a bag or a dress for them for free of charge. I am still working on saying no to people when they casually ask me a favor.

The truth is this.

First of all, sewing is not my hobby. I do it only for my daughter and myself, and sometimes for my special people such as my family members and close friends. I do it to show my love and appreciation to them. I don’t fully enjoy doing it. It gets stressed me out when it is one of my to-do-lists for a long time.  

Second of all, I am not bored at all. I always have tons of things in my to-do-lists.

I love reading books. I love meditating. I love having a conversation with my family spirits. I love studying through online classes. I love watching Japanese funny comedy shows. I love cooking. I love keeping my house clean and neat.

With these, I am always running out of time.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am always busy on something. And I am enjoying every moment while I am doing my favorite things.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

As I wrote in my previous article, I attended the online lecture about the influence of electromagnetic wave on September 12th. It was an eye-opening lecture. Until then, I didn’t know much about the influence from electromagnetic wave. I didn’t pay attention to block it.

As a matter of fact I used to sleep with my cell phone and ipad right beside of my pillow. I used to use them at the last moment of falling asleep and at the very first thing in the morning. As the consequences, I used to have a hard time to fall asleep right away. I used to wake up with a dull headache almost every morning.

***

Now I learned.

Since the lecture day, I don’t keep my cell phone and ipad in the bedroom. I have started sleeping without any WiFi equipment in the bedroom.

My small efforts make a huge difference. My family and I noticed the difference. We have started sleeping more soundly and waking up more comfortably than ever.

***

As one of the benefits of good sleep, my spiritual gifts got improved. One of my spiritual gifts is to receive messages from spirits in my dream and remember my dreams in details.

In this past one week, almost every night I was with my parents in my dreams. We enjoyed having each other. One day I was visiting them at their house. The other day I was enjoying our vacation in Las Vegas with them. These were one of our actual memories, but in my dreams, we were much more active and happier than the actual experiences.

In my dreams both of my parents were young and healthy. They laughed a lot with their big smiles. We danced and sang songs. My dad was using his cane as his dance tool. It was hilarious movements.

I believe they are true themselves. My parents are originally happy and active souls. I want to keep focusing on seeing them as they truly are.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

While walking in the neighborhood area, I always have fun observing the surrounding nature. I am blessed with the natural environment where we can encounter wild animals such as deer, javelina, and rabbits. We also have rattle snakes. Luckily snakes are shy and scare of humans, so that I don’t run into them often.

Among all the wild animals, I always enjoy observing especially working ants. They are fun to watch. Our neighborhood ants are unique. They carry unusual items to their nest.

One time I witnessed an ant carrying a cigarette butt.

The other time I witnessed an ant carrying a big bird’s fluffy feather.

And today I witnessed the most unusual item that an ant was carrying.

It was a wiggly eye.

I usually walk our neighborhood area in a big circle twice. I saw the wiggly eye ant on my first round. On my second round the wiggly eye ant was gone. I guess the ant successfully brought the wiggly eye back to his ant nest.

I wonder what their queen would think of these unique items in her nest. I wish I could go visit their nest and look at all of their unique items that they have collected so far. They probably already have a cash, a ring, a bracelet, and all kinds of humans’ items. It will be fun to look around them in their cozy nest.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

As a countermeasure to block electromagnetic waves, I bought 10 house plants.

Pachira money tree

Cactus with red flower

Cactus with yellow flower

Green cactus

4 pieces of lucky bamboo plants

Aloe vera

Gardenia

I went to five different stores to find these plants. Luckily enough I encountered nice and kind store workers in all the stores. I believe it was thanks to the gentle energy emitted from plants.

I am happy for our new family members.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I made a new friend unexpectedly.

She is my neighbor. I often saw her jogging in the evening while I was walking with my family.

We always wave or greet each other. She always puts a friendly smile on her face. I wanted to talk to her, but since she was jogging and I was walking with my family, we never had an opportunity to talk.

This evening the opportunity naturally came to us.

She was walking with a small girl. I was walking with my daughter. Both of our little girls had a scooter, and we were just next to the park with a small skating link. We smiled at each other and asked our girls if they wanted to play riding a scooter together. Both girls happily said yes. That was how we ended up sitting on the bench and started chatting.

We were surprised to know that both of us wanted to become a friend each other. We both were hoping to talk. We both were happy for this unexpected opportunity.

We started introducing each other. She was 9 years older than I. The little girl was her granddaughter.

I asked her about her jogging habit.

She shared her story about the reason why she started jogging as her daily evening routine.

She used to be obese. During that time she had aches here and there in her bodies. Her blood test showed the high numbers in the cholesterol related test items. She wanted to live healthy so that she motivated herself to do something good for her health.

She started walking for a short distance. Then she gradually extended the distance. Eventually she switched from walking to jogging. Again, she gradually added more distance. She has been keeping the good habit for ten years or so. With those her daily accumulated efforts, currently she jogs 8 miles (12.8 km) every evening. She successfully lost her 40 lbs (18 kg) and never regained back.

I was in awe. It was a great story.

She said I can join her jogging anytime. She was willing to support me. She said she can jog slowly with me, or she can reduce the distance for me, as a starter.

We exchanged our phone number.

From tomorrow I will start practicing jogging. I will start by myself, little by little. Then, eventually I am going to ask her to let me join her.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪