ALL AT ONCE

We've been involved in small groups at church for many years together.  Late last year, hubby returned to meeting with guys he had known for years who met weekly 20 years ago.  He was invited and chose to go.  I was feeling a little left out and it occurred to me that I should find a group of women that I could engage with, laugh, share, pray.  I was already leading a sewing group with monthly meetings, projects, instructions to prepare, teaching how to make this or that.  I NEEDED a place where I did not have to lead, be in charge of, just be one of the girls.

Each year our church has a church-wide Fast.  This may be our 6th year and it began on the first Sunday of January for three weeks.  The Daniel Fast is recommended (which we did the first year for two weeks), but we are given the option to choose what we feel God wants us to abstain from for that time.  I chose to give up meat, sweets, Tuesday Senior Citizen shopping at Ross & Savers, facebook, Candy Crush Soda (only one set of 5 per day).  We are to focus on God and what he wants to say to us during that time.  I had been journaling more frequently in November & December of last year and written down many good goals that I wanted to set for myself with affirmative words. 11/18/15 entry:
When the news around me is awful and hopeless, stop and ask God for peace, clarity and direction.  Seek Balance=limit:Korean, games, sitting around.
Find peace & comfort in His Word
Call, text, write words of encouragement, thanks, peace as people are brought to mind.

12/11/15
10:52 am  Watched youtube video Daily Diary/(bullet journaling) or what helps me stay sane, organized and happy by Becky Roode.
Liked the way she organized her life-interests-important things
Will start today.  Love the Washi tape.
Need to make a Key Symbols chart  Woo Hoo!
Devotional read:Psalm 143:7-12
Daily Bread PARADOGS
Let me see your kindness to me in the morning for I am trusting you... Show me where to walk, for my prayer is sincere.
10  Help me to do your will, for you are my God.  Lead me in good paths, for your Spirit is good.
We may not be instinctively generous or forgiving or patient with those who annoy us.  Yet Jesus commands us to trust Him enough to do things that may be difficult but that will advance His Kingdom.
My prayer--Thank you Lord for giving me this new beginning to journal & keep my many thoughts together.  Help me to eliminate the unnecessary & clutter of my mind and space.  I seek order & clarity and purposefulness.
Then I made my check boxes and the tasks for the day and added pretty washi tape at the end :)

Got my new prayer/praise/scripture/sermon notes book put together in a composition book with a stretchy cover for the new year.  Decided to attend Joy Shackles Connect group.  First meeting of the season was January 7.  Of course I was a little anxious about meeting new ladies though I knew two.  It was great and I loved them all right away.  There was a confirmation that I had done the right thing, yay!  This is where I belong.  A lovely mix of ages and situations.  I could see the bonds that they had made before and jumped right in.  They were welcoming, I was home.  

February was the Arise Conference month with Lisa Bevere, Janine Kubala, Dawn Chere Wilkerson & my Pastor Lisa Kai.  At the Servants meeting, Lynnette Garces told us that there would be something extraordinary taking place at this conference, that we should empty ourselves completely to prepare for that.  It was a visual that has stayed with me.  I had been to all the Arise Conferences which began in 2011.  Expectation, anticipation... every moment was filled with God confirmations, illumination, words from the speakers, sisters that I hadn't seen, daughters at my side.  I savored each conversation, and was saturated by the presence of God.  Emmanuel God is with us.

All at once--but not really.  I learned that my little step of obedience--joining the group brought many of my scattered fragments of my life like puzzle pieces together.  Things are slowly fitting together in a way that I can only credit to God and his patience with me.  I've loved him for a long time and he is showing me that He knows the way, I have nothing to fear and I have a lot of work to do--all with his help.  Empowered.  NOW!

Catching Up

Journaling--something I've needed to do and tried many, many times, watched how others have done it, read books, and found myself lacking and so very unsure of myself.  That feeling of needing to do has not gone away and as I prayed for the "Ah ha moment" to come--when I would be able to say, 'that's how it should look like, there you go this is it!', it came to me (from God I'm sure) that I've been doing it already for a long time.  Here and there, writing notes to myself about what a good day it's been, making facebook observations, even instagram counts, right?  Just documenting where I am, what I am doing.  What an exciting revelation!!!

Discovered bullet journaling in December 2015 and began making the boxes and tasks, watched youtubes galore and decided that everyone does it differently and I need to make it my OWN!  It's for ME and will not and should not look the same as anyone else's.  Goodness, that is so freeing.  Now I don't have to be down on myself for failure to measure up to someone else.

Shared on New Year's Day with my daughters & daughter in laws about bullet journaling and on Super Bowl Sunday & granddaughter Ayva's 9th birthday celebration, daughter in law Ashley decorated a bag tag & journal cover with Ayva's name done in a calligraphy using a water brush and crayola water colors leftover from one of her son's school supplies.  It was beautiful!!!!!  We were able to practice on watercolor paper & it was delightful.  Ashley's mom Gin did calligraphy 20 plus years ago professionally and beautifully lettered their wedding invitation in 2002.  Ashley wed Keoki on 2-2-2 with a medieval theme. Practice, practice.

It's about doing something instead of thinking about it.  It's not going to look the same every day!  Something new--stretch.  What is God trying to say to me today?  Who else needs some freedom?  How can I share?

Long Time No Post

Oh my, I can't believe that it is nearly a year since I've posted, but it's okay or has to be okay since that's what happened.  It's November 30 already and December starts tomorrow.

This Thanksgiving weekend turned out to be not what I had expected but oh well.  Learned that the grandkids are getting older and not having the same level of interest in the same things anymore so it is harder to do planned things with them all at the same time.  I need to spend more individual time with each one to find out what's going on with them.

Working on my plan for Christmas and what I want to do.  Also need to plan for the Dec 10 Threads meeting, send out an e-mail, decide what to teach:make another size of kimono jacket; make patterns to copy; jpg of the one I already did for e-mail; sew a simple bag and a pocket pouch with instructions. (jpg to post on Threads of Hope page.

It's nice that it has stopped raining and am able to go out.

Need to download and design the Thanksgiving group picture to add text for Christmas Card & also design the 5x7 card.

Praying I can get myself together.  At least a little.

Happy New Year! 2015--What will you bring?

The fireworks this year had been going off now and then all day yesterday.  We decided a long time ago not to waste any money on fireworks, even when the kids were younger, others would give them to us.  As homebodies, we stay in on most holidays except for Christmas Eve where we served at church for the Candlelight service (11 pm to 1 am).  We even tried to go to bed at 10 pm.  About 11:30 pm it started getting louder & louder, from more homes in the neighborhood and up the streets.  You really couldn't tell that there was a fireworks ban or permit only useage.  Hah!  At 11:50 pm it was like the old days & it went on at the loudest for a half an hour.  The cat was howling and didn't know what to do with herself.  She became ours exactly a year ago on New Year's Day 2014.  What a sweetie she is, not doing much but lazing around, eating, using her litter box, napping, and just making us happy.

Got up this morning to make my Mandarin Orange Cream Cheese Jello, a recipe that was first made by my sister Margot about 28-30 years ago.  I can't believe that this year will mark 25 years since her passing.  She was a recipe collector & helped to make a cookbook at the school she worked at.  It's one of my treasures & something I've done several times as well.  I miss her still.  What a blessing to see how well her four children have turned out.  Missing her husband Roy too, he's been gone twelve years.  Here's the recipe:

She made it for New Year's a long time ago and it's one of the traditional things I make for New Year's Day eating.  When we were young, we always went to Grandmother Higa's house in Waimanalo.  She and Aunty Toshiko & Aunty Judy would make Okinawan Shoyu Pork, potato macaroni salad with peas, fried noodles, nishime, namasu, vegetable tempura (I'm making shrimp/vegetable combo), and we'd have canned soda (bottled before).  What a treat!

This year with the kids I decided to have a 'no rules' open day, come when you can, bring what you want to eat.  We'll play games: the new ping pong table is fun, (I'm getting better but need to decide which hand I will use=equally crummy), brought out Mom's old Scrabble game with the built in turntable that I got for her many years ago & the tile drawstring bag she made.  Phyllis called from Las Vegas yesterday to ask me the rules for Russian Rummy since the whole Jerviss/Liu Clan, Higa Clan & Kalani had joined them for their annual festivities.  We'll play that too.

Need to finish sewing the tabs on the twelve rainbow bags that Alisa will take to Thailand when she leaves on Tuesday.  Her first mission trip, being away from her family.  Immanuel God is With Us.  So many hopes and dreams.  Praying for the team that God will use them to Bless many & Be Blessed.  While I'm at it I should include my Christmas letter...

Looks like I'll have to convert my Christmas letter to jpg.

Got to roll my lumpia, vacuum the house, make my tempura.  It's 65 degrees at 9:35 am and I don't want to change out of my pajamas!

Have a great day, everyone!

A Thought for Every Day

This is what I found while reading my Our Daily Bread for November 26, 2014.

A good guideline for what I want God to do through me.  Think I'll rewrite & create a jpg in my own handwriting.

It's the First Day of December!

So after all the Thanksgiving activity, it is now December 1st.  I've watched a bunch of youtube videos about documenting each day in this month with journaling and at least one picture.  Some even make albums and call it December Daily & add the year # do it every year.  Reluctant to commit to that since I am so disorganized & have a habit of starting projects...

So this is what I decided to do: Write down one thing that I learned each day.  Simple, short or long, with or without pictures, no rules.

I will also stick this little note somewhere.

2.  I also learned how to put a picture into the blog...

It is a slightly damp day today, cool & pleasant.  Recovering from the weekend.  Finding God so faithful in every moment.

50 Years

It was 50 years ago today, July 29, 2014 that my daddy, James Yoshio Higa passed away in a heavy equipment accident in the earliest days of Makakilo's development.  He was 46, I was 13 and mom was 42.  We (the 3 of us) had just returned from our first trip to the mainland where we visited with sister Phyllis, Neill, Noe & Kalani in Northern California.  It would be their 25th anniversary on July 5.  What an adventure we had, riding a Grey Hound bus from to San Francisco and then to LA to visit Uncle Bill, Uncle Mitsu & Uncle Larry & Disneyland.  What fun to be in the Big City.  He was intrigued by the many opportunities of the mainland and possibly considered moving there one day.  HIs unexpected passing was obviously a devastating blow to all of us and we survived it with God's help.

My three older sisters were already married and had families of their own so it was just my brother Jr. and me at home.  Jr had graduated in 1963 and was planning to return to Pasadena College.  Rev. Glen Van Dyne, then pastor of the Wahiawa Church of the Nazarene lovingly ministered to us at this time and mom found her faith in Jesus and sought to live for Him.  We were active in church & were surrounded with prayer & our church family.

Here is an excerpt from some writings from Uncle Roy Higa who in 1977 wrote down many stories from his/their childhood in Makawao.  Daddy was the second oldest and Uncle Roy the third child.

Thanksgiving Orgy and the Indian Chief
Uncle James was in the 7th grade and also a star performer in the Thanksgiving program.  The program was an ambitious production, a re-creation of the first Thanksgiving party when the grateful Pilgrims invited the friendly Indians to a feast.  The Indian Chief, you guessed it, was Uncle James.  He had fashioned an elaborate costume from old burlap bags and  strings of turkey and chicken feathers on his headdress & red, yellow and blue paint on his face made a believable Indian Chief.  I was proud that he was my brother.  The entire student body of about 700 students, teachers and some parents gathered on the grassy lawn fronting the teachers cottages.  It was a perfect sun shiny day in November.  

A cluster of burlap and canvas teepees and cardboard log cabins were set up on the lawn with a long dining table in the middle.  About 15 Pilgrims and 20 Indians were in the show.  An assortment of fruits and vegetables brought by students were scattered on the table as symbolic of the bountiful feast to come.  While the Pilgrims and Indians sat at the table and pretended to eat the raw vegetables, green bananas, avocados, guavas, lemons, mangoes and other unripe fruits, the Indians led by the Chief Uncle James were supposed to entertain by dancing and hooting around the table.  Then the Chief was to climax with a speech thanking the Pilgrims for the invitation and pledging undying friendship, etc.  The Chief had two beautiful squaws in attendance.  They stood discreetly by his side smiling with baskets of fruits and vegetables.  They were visions in brown with feathers and flowers in their hair.  The girls were Marjorie Iaea and Hoohila Morton.  They were also good friends of Uncle James in school and they affectionately called him Jimmy.  Later the friendship blossomed and Hoohila was to refer to him as my "Sweet Sweet Jimmy".

The program was well planned and rehearsed.  However, the unexpected was to happen.  It started innocently enough.  The Komoda Store in town had completed a new store and added a bakery to their operations and decided that the school program would be a good place to publicize their bakery products.  As the program was to commence, the bakery truck rolled up and unloaded an assortment of sugar and glaze doughnuts, unpuns with the ono black bean filling, snails, sweet rolls and other baked goodies.  And this largesse' was spread on the table.  This added exciting realism and delicious dimension to the program.  The onlookers were awed and envious, the participants were awed and delighted.  Chief Uncle James was undoubtedly the happiest of them all.  He was thrilled and dizzy with anticipation.  The overpowering aroma of the still warm pastries was knocking on his senses.  

The program started, the dancing and whooping around the table was spirited, full of uninhibited joy and it was all genuine.  Now they settled around the table, everyone including  the envious onlookers, among them your 9 year old father to be (stories written to his daughter, cousin Ann), was by now drooling rivulets of saliva from his gaping mouth, and their eyes glued in fascination at the real goodies on the table.  

As Chief James got up to speak, it was the signal for the feasting to begin.  He was horrified to see all the darting fingers grabbing at the pastries.  Table etiquette was ignore.  It was every man for himself.  His speech was scheduled to be about 5 minutes long, to be spoken in a loud authoritative voice with very slow deliberate cadence like some one who had important things to say in an unfamiliar language.  But nobody was paying attention to his speech because for one thing they all heart the speech many times as he loudly rehearsed all over the campus in the last three weeks.  Everybody was watching in fascination the orgy that was going on at the table.  As he droned on, it became alarmingly apparent to him that the pastries might all vanish by the time he finished.  I can think of some negative things about Uncle James, but that stupid, he wasn't.  Of course he didn't finish the speech.  

He sat right down and none to soon, and started to make up for lost time.  His hands were like spears flashing in a school of menpachi fish.  Joe Louis had fast hands but I'd bet on Uncle James that day.  He was magnificent.  In two seconds, he had snared a half dozen bruised pastries and like a pineapple cannery ginaca peel shredding machine,  his two hands were cramming pastries left and right.  One after the other.  It was an incredible performance.  Six pastries were in his mouth at one time even before he started to chew.  Not an easy feat even for Martha Raye.  His cheeks were distended like two balloon fishes mating, eyes protruding like frying eggs sunnyside up, and the red, yellow and blue paint on his elastic face accentuated a real live Jack O Lantern.  It was superbly grotesque.  Alas, while his mouth was only too willing, his throat would tolerate none of that foolishness, one digested pastry at a time or else.  He suddenly stood up and went into a frenzied Indian war dance, his face fiercely contorted, it was totally unrehearsed and spontaneous, it was spectacular.  I was impressed and joined the applause of approval  There seemed no limit to Uncle James' s talent. 

Then just as suddenly, he flipped to the ground, rolled over and started to groan, grasp, vomit and palpitate into nauseous convulsion.  His teacher, Mr. Dick Shigemi rushed to his side, worked his fingers in the Chief's mouth and induced a huge glob of regurgitated mess.  Then artificial respiration was applied.  It was all rather deflating and undignified.  When the other Indians and Pilgrims were assured that the Chief was going to survive, they rushed back and this time carefully ingested only two pastries at a time.  Everybody in my class new that the rapacious Chief who almost choked to death was my brother.  I went home and complained to my mother.  She quietly said one doughnut should have been plenty.  Mother's simple logic.  Anyway this fiasco ended all such ambitious productions at our school.  Komoda Store never donated free pastries after that, not even doughnut holes. ~

Just one of the many stories but this one is my favorite.  Uncle Roy is 92, Aunty Judy Watanabe is around 86 & Uncle Mitsu just went to his class reunion in Las Vegas from Benjamin Parker School Class of '50 (the year I was born.)

I know Daddy would be proud of how we all turned out, would have loved our spouses, his grandkids & great grandkids (keeds).  Love you, Daddy.