Dear Children

August 28, 2010

Dear Kai;

Today, I pushed you and Jaiden on your swings outside, but when it got time to start cooking dinner, I went inside, leaving you two to sit and play in your swings. As I began cooking and looked outside to check on you two, I saw you jump off your swing. As I wondered why you would jump off the swing you were so eager to get on in the first place, I watched you run over to Jaiden who was in a seat-swing. Dangling his legs, he wasn't moving. You ran up behind him and began pushing. Jaiden was ECSTATIC. With the hot Texas heat beating down on you two, you pushed Jaiden's swing so that he would fly higher and higher. You were both laughing hard. My heart felt warm and tingly as I watched you two. You two are best friends indeed. Every time the swing came back to you though, you would be pushed back and fall because you haven't learned the art of pushing a moving swing just yet. You have always been a sweet child to me, and especially to your younger brother and I thank you for that.

With love,

Mama

Dear Jaiden;

Boy, you are a little snot most of the times, but OH how you melt my heart when you are sweet. You know what I love about you most little guy? That you love your big brother so much. Your first word was "Kai," not mommy or daddy. The first person you look for in the mornings is your older brother, not us. I don't quite know what type of a relationship you and Kai had before coming here, but I am certain you two were together and loved each other way before this life time. I love how strong you are. Okay, so I don't always appreciate that fact about you, but you are one piece of fine work. There's a lot of things I love about you, but most of all, you have a sweet and good heart with lots of slobbery kisses and hugs for the world.

With love,

Mama

Obentou Boxes

Obentou boxes=Japanese lunch boxes

These are typical Japanese lunch boxes that mothers/wives/girlfriends/grandmothers/women make for their loved ones/spouse/children/family members for their lunches. Although we do pack sandwiches occasionally, most of the time, a variety of food is packed neatly into stylish boxes. Some women get up before dawn to make these, while these days, it's more practical for women to pack things which come from frozen products, or left overs from the night before. One can even make up a bunch of freezable foods and pack quickly the next day.

I had the opportunity to make up a few extra obentou boxes today for some friends who like Japanese foods. I love cooking!

Here's what was on the menu:

curried Japanese potato salad

spinach rolled up in sweet egg

homemade meat sauce pasta

honey BBQ chicken

Asian Broccoli with roasted sesame dressing

rice with salmon/mayo on top (salmon nigiri)

mandarines

We use a lot of vegetables and most things are very healthy.

We don't tend to pig out and portions are a lot smaller in Japan.

I will gladly share recipes if anyone wants anything!

Hope they will enjoy!

Double Diapers

While I was cooking dinner tonight, Kai had an idea.

This is what I came upstairs to find.

Kai put a diaper on himself (backwards too!) after I left Jaiden in a clean diaper and without his clothes.

I guess Kai misses the good ol' diaper days. lol

I haven't seen the TWO of them in diapers in a very long while...

it was quite cute actually.

Silly boys.

Best Banana Bread

I'm not a fan of banana breads, but Ronny is and I always have some over-ripe bananas ready to be made into something, so I tried this new recipe out today. IT WAS GOOD. Unlike other breads I've tried, this one was moist!! I also added chocolate chips and mmm!

Best Banana Bread

350 degrees, bake 1 hour

3-4 ripe Bananas, mashed

1/3C. melted butter

1 C. sugar (3/4 C. if you want to reduce)

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp. Baking Soda

Pinch of salt

1-1/2 C. Flour

(chocolate chips and walnuts optional)

Directions:

No need for a mixer. Mix by hand for best results.

In Large bowl, mix melted butter into mashed bananas.

Mix in sugar, egg and vanilla.

in separate bowl, mix baking soda, salt and flour

add flour mixture into banana mixture and mix until combined.

add chocolate chips and walnuts if you'd like.

grease bread pan well with butter.

bake 350 degrees for an hour and cool

DELICIOUS

{Thanks Elise at simplyrecipes.com!}

Behold! The power of Coupons

I LOVE COUPONING.

This month I celebrate my ONE WHOLE YEAR since I picked up a book at the library called "Shop Smart, Save More" by Teri Gault. I've always liked being frugal and the idea of it, so I picked the book up out of curiosity.

I just didn't know how much it'd change my life.

I don't believe in free money or receiving money without working for it, but this is honest work, just working SMARTER for your goods.

All this in the picture, I got for $3.33!

There's a little bit of work (maybe 30min. a week) that goes into it, but it's all for such a great cause!! I often get to donate free and dirt cheap things to the sisters in Relief Society, and that also makes me so happy, not to mention having a YEAR'S FOOD AND SANITARY SUPPLY in my home for again, dirt cheap!

I LOVE COUPONING!

Beach Day!

Jill who's due any day now! Looking lovely!

Thank goodness for friends who love babies! I got to sit out on the beach and relax for a bit!

Jaiden's being buried alive! muahaha

My handsome boys

Ronny and Ralfi catching sea creatures

The sunny siders (our friends from the branch) went on a day trip to

crystal beach

this last Saturday and had a great time.

The kids loved the water, husband loved catching creatures to put in his aquarium, and I enjoyed watching everyone while eating a delicious dinner with good friends.

Ah Life.

Walmart's ATM

Today I had to pull out some cash from an ATM.

Since I was at Walmart, I decided to do it there.

But I will never do that again.

"PLEASE INSERT YOUR DEBIT/CASH CARD!"

I looked around me.

"PLEASE SELECT TRANSACTION TYPE"

uhh, can you NOT scream what I'm doing out loud please??

The ATM was stupendously LOUD and I desperately looked around for an "OFF" button. At least a "volume down" button!

"OH, YOU'D LKE TO MAKE A WITHDRAWAL!?"

"THAT'S GREAT! PLEASE INSERT HOW MUCH CASH YOU WANT TO PULL OUT!"

I looked around again. Carrying cash around in large sums already makes me nervous, but with the added aid of this crazy ATM, I was even more nervous.

"WAS $300 THE CORRECT AMOUNT?"

SHHHH!!!!

"THANK YOU, FOR WITHDRAWING $300 AT WALMART!"

Shoot me now. Might as well PROCLAIM and announce to the whole store over the intercom that I, MONIKA SAMPERT had $300 CASH IN MY PURSE!!

If anyone was wondering who to rob, it was ME!!

Seriously, WHO DESIGNED THAT STUPID THING!?

5 things I was grateful for today

1. Friends and laughter

2. crafts-being a woman to enjoy making crafty things

3. having no Homework to do and NO school!

4. We are able to pay our bills each month

5. We're not rich, but we have enough for our means and maybe even a little extra to give to help others.

MOTHERHOOD--OY!

I promise that I love my kids EVERYDAY,

but why is it that they drive me CRAZY EVERYDAY!?

What are you other mothers doing to help keep SANE?!

I only have TWO boys and I am going CRAZY!

Does anyone ever feel like their once intelligent brain is now turning into MUSH?

How many times must I tell them to

"EAT!"

"Wash your hands!"

"Sit!"

"Quiet!"

"Don't climb that!"

"NOOOO!!"

"Stop! Don't! Shush! Be nice! STOP IT!"

The spills, the diapers, the sticky fingers, the broken crayons, dried out markers, non-sense talks, 100 "potty" runs at bedtime, the cries, the falls, the cuts and injuries, the taps on your shoulder (once is cute-twice is ok, but 10 times is NOT alright), the time outs, the parent to child talks, the whines, fights, drawings on the walls, broken things, well, you get the idea!

Most days I'm really fine, I may tease that they are little stinkers, but honest, I love their guts..! It's just been one of those days I guess!

I hope I'm normal.

I don't want to come across that I don't enjoy them. I know my blessings in having them in my life, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a very hard time of my life. FUN, heart-warming, WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR THE WORLRD, but nevertheless, a HARD time.

There are NO breaks from this job. It's AT LEAST a 12-16 hour day, EVERYDAY, 365 DAYS A YEAR. NO sick days, NO vacation days, NO weekends and NO getting away.

I want to know what other mothers do when they're tired, frustrated, or when you have cabin fever!

Here's what I do anyway when I feel frustrated:

give myself a timeout

bake

cook

do things I like to do--while I put the kids upstairs in their rooms or put on a movie

call someone to chat

email

BLOG

:-)

I think life's all about HOW YOU HANDLE challenges you're given. I'm not saying that kids are a pure challenge, but they CAN be and motherhood IS challenging at times. It's what we do when our patience is tried that make us different from those on the news at night, right?! Heck, I don't even judge those parents who are on news anymore. Of course it's so very heart wrenching and evil to hurt these precious spirits in ANY way, but who am I to judge them!?

I realized today that I'm quite the "new" mother...only 4 years of experience in being a mom.

I am okay! I am still learning!

On the flip side, WHAT A BLESSING IT IS to be able to be a stay at home mother!!!

I enjoy being the one to feed them, to read to them, to listen to them (ok, there's more to improve here), to be able to teach them, to laugh with them at breakfast, lunch and dinner time, and play little games. No one else could love these little monkeys more or better than I could, so WHAT A BLESSING it is to be able to be their mother and be home with them!!

(as Kai "tickles" me across my neck with a grape vine...IT HURTS!!)

OH THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD!

Tip of the Day

Tip of the day:

How to keep your house clean all the time.

Have guests over all the time!

^_^

Muddle Puddles

Today, I took the kids to the library.

The boys (and I) LOVE books and we go quite often.

Anyway, we stopped in on a story time session today and the theme was

"Rainy days."

The young lady began to read a book titled;

"Rain makes Apple Sauce"

While the kids all sat with their mouths open, the lady continued to read;

"...and the rain makes apple sauce!"

Suddenly after about 4 or 5 times of "the rain makes apple sauce,"

Kai had had it.

"um, rain DOENS'T make apple sauce!"

he said, in a voice quite grown up.

"...it makes MUDDLE PUDDLES!"

duh.

Here I was thinking he was going to ZING the lady and the book...

muddle puddles? what the heck is that?!

Kids are cute.

Not on Our Time Table

I've been REALLY REALLY excited lately...well okay, as of yesterday.

My biological mother wrote sent me a TM and said that she was thinking of going to Japan in the fall and wanted to know if I wanted to go along.

YES.

The purpose of this trip?

To travel with my mom who I did not have the chance to grow up with, to go home to her parent's, MY grandparent's home where I finally got to go back to just last year, after being separated for over two decades!!

My mom told me that there were boxes and boxes filled with mine and my brother's childhood things and that it would be neat if we could go back and open them up together.

I just feel so blessed. I've been thinking a lot lately about how "time" isn't an issue to our Heavenly Father. We humans are antsy creatures. We want things now, and we want it NOW. Imagine yourself being separated from your blood family for over twenty years. Doesn't that feel like a VERY LONG TIME? I guess to the Lord, it's not really.

I had the opportunity to go home to "meet" or reunite with my biological grandparents just last fall. As most of you know, it was an EXTREMELY touching and beautiful thing that I got to experience. And a year later, my other dream--to someday return to Japan with my mother is now coming true.

I just have to believe that the Lord doesn't work on our time table...all those years I wished and prayed that I could do these things-he knew of a better time, and that was now.

I am so grateful to my wonderful husband who unselfishly encourages me to leave him and the boys for two weeks to go back to my homeland.

He wants me to experience what I never got to.

He wants me to go back with my mother to hear stories about when I was a little girl.

He wants me to go around town and see things and go places that we used to see and go to before the breakup of my parents and the abrupt separation between us all.

I am grateful, that the Lord does indeed listen and hear our prayers. He has us in mind at all times. Whether the answer to our prayers comes instantaneously or 10, 20, or even 50 years later, I guess he just doesn't work on our time table, but the answer will always come, we just need to trust Him.

My heart is full.