Friday evening brought the first great wind from the South. According to the Japanese, this means that Winter is over and Spring is on her way! It was such a neat little fact, for as much as I do enjoy the colder months, I'm ready to step back into dresses and skirts without heavier accoutrement on top.
However, I too, have a neat little trick for telling when the colder seasons are making way for the warmer ones. Just call me the human barometer. Sunday morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and a sore throat. Allergies, my friends, are always a sure sign that Spring is preparing to make her grand debut.
In honor of said warmer days, I thought I'd debut this scrumptious, flavor-infused chocolate chip banana bread!
Banana's always make me think of warmer days, tropical locations, little fruity drinks...
Chocolate simply makes it that much better.
I hope y'all will agree!
Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter (softened) 1/4 block cream cheese (softened) 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas 1/2 bag chocolate chips/chunks
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking dish.
2.In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Add chocolate chips, folding gently. Stir chocolate-chip banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared baking dish.
3.Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let bread cool in dish for 10 minutes, then serve.
Goodness was this easy and delicious.
I have to thank my friend Cayce. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have felt motivated to crank this recipe out~and it had been sitting in my "to cook" pile for quite a while.
I have a few other meals in that pile that I'm about to prepare, and I'll be sure to share those with you as well.
While y'all are waiting, go ahead and give this baby a whirl then tell me what you think!
This morning we're preparing to head out a little earlier than we usually do.
The scallywag has his first Kindermusik class at Eaton House and we're both excited to attend! As much as he loves music, this will be a wonderful experience for him.
But before we go, we need to enjoy breakfast: leftover banana chocolate chip bread.
Obviously this picture was taken before we began enjoying this delightful little dish. Stay tuned for a recipe!
A lovely Friday to you all and be sure to check in at Monograms & Margaritas~my guest blog post will be up in a few hours and I'm thrilled to have been invited to contribute.
Good evening from Tokyo! I'm about to slip into bed and dive between the pages of a book...an awful way to end the day, right?
Goodness am I excited! Many things are going on, so I thought it may be time for another round of "A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That".
Enjoy!
~Last week I received my monthly package. That's not a euphemism, so please continue reading. Each month my parents are kind enough to send all of my magazine subscriptions to our apartment in Tokyo. There's an extra thrill to see my "Southern Living", "Martha", and "Garden&Gun" and read them in Tokyo. I really appreciate these little bits of home. My mother often throws in a "Southern Lady" or "Mississippi" magazine, perhaps slipping a newsletter from Ole Miss or Sacred Heart inbetween, adding gifts for the children as well. It's something we all look forward to!
~Last week our envelope was filled to the brim with Valentine and Birthday cards. Eldest and I poured over each one, smiling and reading them aloud to the Scallywag. Written on the inside of one particular card was my birthday gift...
High Tea at the Peninsula with my two favorite ladies?
Oh my yes!! April cannot come soon enough. Thank you, Mom!
~This sweet girl has been branching out with her fashion choices lately. School days call for more casual, refined ensembles, though on Saturday and Sunday she sometimes surprises me.
On a whim she pulled out her trench coat and asked what else would look good. Searching through a pile of scarves we selected this gorgeous navy floral from a Harajuku boutique. Et voila!
My friends, I think we're starting to round that corner.
~Young Scallywag finally turned his own corner this past weekend...
and has a new do! Doesn't he look completely scrumptious? You'll completely understand if I take a break now to nibble on those chubby cheeks. So kawaii!!
~Last week I went to the 100 Yen store and purchased these light pink dishes~for 50 Yen!
Playful and oh-so-pretty, they're perfect for little things like tea, cookies, and celebrating the blossom festivals in Tokyo.
They so closely resemble cherry blossoms, I believe they'll need to make daily appearances while in bloom this Spring.
~The Scallywag woke from his nap today and I could see just how-and what-his sweet little cheeks had been resting on. Can you?
I couldn't believe his fingernails and the folds of skin from his knuckles left imprints on his cheek! How wild. I've never seen such a thing...
~I'll be guest blogging at Monograms and Margaritas this Friday! I am so excited as it's my first time and Paige's blog is a most delightful read. Y'all need to check it out, then check it back out at the end of the week!
For several years now I've been keeping a secret. I've been harboring an intense love for a Jazz musician I'm pretty sure most of you have never even heard of.
Her name?
Jane Monheit.
She's who I'm loving on "What I'm Loving Wednesday".
I've been listening to her dulcet, velvety voice since we first moved to Charlotte, North Carolina almost six years ago. Between her sultry beauty and her golden pipes, she's a gem~not only in the Jazz world, but the music one in general.
I'm still not sure how I came upon her. Perhaps it was a moment of serendipity due to Pandora and my taste in music. Either way, the moment she began to croon "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", my heart lept for joy! It has been years since someone moved me with a performance, and on every level, Jane delivers.
Funnily enough, even though I know she's an obscure artist within my circle of friends, the first week of our new lives in Tokyo gave me such a surprise: Jane was performing in the city that week! Unfortunately I didn't make it. Exhaustion and managing a new time table made it impossible.
But I did consider it a good omen for our new home across the Pacific.
Give this dazzling gal a listen and enjoy! Your ears will thank you for such an enchanting treat!
On a more random, and somber note, my heart goes out to two families this morning...
Shelby Leonard, an 8th grader at Sacred Heart, my New Orleans Alma Mater, passed away after a tragically sudden and brief fight with cancer. While I pray for God's tender mercies to be with her family and friends during their time of loss, I am filled with awe in how the New Orleans community rallied together to donate blood on Shelby's behalf, hoping someone would have the rare blood-type that could save her life. If you are in the New Orleans area, please join our Sacred Heart family on February 28th for a blood drive in Shelby's honor.
My prayers are also with the Auburn family this morning. While I'm an Ole Miss gal through and through, any enmity I have towards the school ends at the football field and is truthfully all done in good sport. It didn't matter that our Rebels had an awful season this year. I was thrilled to bits when Auburn brought the SEC the ultimate victory in 2010. That was something to be proud of. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed. Recently someone laced Auburn's entire grove of trees, also known as Toomer's Corner, with a lethal amount of herbicides. Chances are the entire grove will be lost. Not only is it tragic because of the loss of something so natural and beautiful, but because someone was so filled with anger they felt this was the only way they could express themselves. I applaud the school for calling alumni and friends to uphold its reputation for class, and not allow anger to be expressed inappropriately or undeservedly.
I know that if such a thing happened to the Grove, which all Ole Miss alums and students adore, I would hope the same request would be made, as well as prayers offered for the person who did this. Truly, this individual is an unhappy soul.
I wish you all the best this week! It's been filled with ups and downs for us all, so I encourage you all to focus on those "up" moments. They are too precious to ignore.
Southern or not, most gals I know love these two things: silver and flowers. As Valentine's is fast approaching, I'm sure many will be receiving a beautiful arrangement. But what about making one?
Inspired by the multitude of roses lined up outside the street markets, I decided to make a bowl of everlasting roses for my sweetest girl.
What are everlasting roses? Simply put, they're handcrafted buds formed out of paper. You can use felt if you want more realistic looking roses, but using card stock or even construction paper will do in a pinch!
Mothers out there~this is a wonderful project for you and your children to do together and make excellent gifts for teachers or other loved ones. They'll always look back at this gift with a happy heart.
Here's what you do!
Start with your bowl of choice. For Eldest I pulled one of my Revere bowls down, then polished it until it gleamed.
I then went to work deciding upon a color for her everlasting roses. Eldest isn't fond of pink, and red seemed a little "done", so I chose a happy, vibrant color: yellow.
At this point I almost changed my mind and exchanged the Revere bowl for a blue and white. It would have looked stunning! Silver has such a timeless look, though, and secretly I knew the shiny quality of the bowl would thrill my daughter.
Then I began crafting the flowers. For the first two I used a pen to draw a spiral. It made it much easier to see how the form of the rose would be formed.
Then I cut along the line until it was at the center.
Not seeing a rose yet, are we?
I didn't think so! I began rolling the paper all the way towards the center of the spiral and once it was almost there, I gently squeezed the paper until it had the delicate, crinkly shape of a rose.
I taped the bottom (use a few drops of fabric glue if you use felt or a heavier material), then stood back to examine my first rose. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't what I envisioned either. I went back to work, happier with my next results.
Aren't they lovely?
Eight roses later I was ready to place them in Eldest's first Revere bowl...
and the end result made me so happy I did a jump for joy!
I hope my sweet girl enjoys her bowl of everlasting flowers and jumps for joy as well. She's been kindly asked to not check the blog for the next few days so her surprise isn't spoiled, and I think she'll be good about it. She has plenty of other things to keep her busy!
Math projects, closet cleaning, reading, and playing...who knows what else we'll find ourselves participating in this weekend?
It has been a very long week at Chez Quon. Ever since last Wednesday the scallywag has been waking up at the ungodly hour of 3 AM and declaring it his new wake up time. It didn't matter that he was consistently walked back to bed, he would not stay in his bed and it would take a good while for him to go back to sleep.
We experienced something like this last summer. It lasted about a month before he went back to sleeping through the night. Many pediatricians believe these moments of wakefulness occur when a child is going through significant areas of development. Their little brains are so full of new activity and the new things they're learning/absorbing that they just have a very difficult time shutting down when it's time to rest.
We're blessed that the scallywag takes a good nap, sleeps well in those other nighttime hours, and has a pretty cheerful disposition even with interrupted sleep. His attention span is shorter, but I'll take that over a grumpy child any day!
With it being day 7 of the Scallywag Sleep Shenanigans and the rain just changing to snow, it looks like our day will be spent primarily indoors. The little guy is happy enough to play with his Little People Farm and watch a few "Little Bear" episodes, so this should be fine.
We'll miss getting out for a few hours of fresh air, and any run to the market will have us covered in icy raindrops, but it should be a fairly quiet day.
This is nice, still...this Mama would love a day off (or at least a few hours) to recoup from the past week. My birthday falls during an unfortunate time of year, however, as Husband is smack in the middle of his busy season. I feel guilty wishing for "time off" when I know my husband is running on little to no sleep during these months, but I'm sure he has his own wish list for a recovery day as well.
So we'll both be free to dream, right?
On my day off, I'd head towards Chiyoda and the Royal Palace. Located off of a cobblestone street is the grand Peninsula Hotel.
A home away from home for many of the rich and famous, the Peninsula brings luxury to a new level. From the moment you walk through their elegantly appointed lobby, you'll feel an immediate sense of calm.
Photo courtesy of Scott Dunn
I would head beyond the quiet bustle of the Lobby and towards my waiting masseuse the hotel Spa.
With its Zen-like decor, tranquility settles upon the most wearied of shoulders once crossing its threshold. After a lovely massage, facial, and mani-pedi, I'd change into a lovely wool dress, heels, and pearls. Fully at ease, I would now be able to return to the Lobby and take part in what the Peninsula is most famous for: their High Tea.
Considering all Peninsula Hotel's were built by the British, the art of High Tea is a perfected practice by those in their employment.
I would sit back with a cup of tea, and sip my champagne while enjoying tea sandwiches and scones with clotted cream. Perhaps one of the many books I've been meaning to read would be in hand, and as the hours passed I could loose myself in their pages.
Afterwards, I would head down to the Peninsula Boutique & Cafe to grab some of their fabulous macaroons for Eldest and for the scallywag...
their signature Page Bear. Because as much as I do love time to myself, the children are always in my thoughts and I miss them even when I'm away for only a few hours.
I would return home refreshed, enlightened, and rejuvenated from a day of polished pampering and decadent delights. It would be a day I'd appreciate, and would hope to repeat with Eldest in the future~at least the High Tea portion.
I know I'd miss not having her with me to enjoy it!
Just thinking of a day like this has calmed my tired mind, friends.
Do you all take little mental breaks or make little wishes when you're tired or stressed? Does it help you to unwind? What sort of things help you to rejuvenate at the end of a day?
When we first moved to Tokyo our apartment was Man Zone Central. Understandably so, as Husband had been living by himself at the time, making most of the decisions for furniture and such. Our apartment already limited us a bit as it was carpeted and had grass cloth on the walls.
When we finally joined him in Japan I made a vow to add some charm, Southern accents if you will, and add a dash of femininity to the Man Zone. It all started with this lovely blue and white porcelain vase I'd purchased after our first month had passed.
I began collecting more blue and white Japanese china here and there,
none of it terribly pricey, yet still elegant and playful.
As it's now a month that cascades with pink, and Spring isn't too terribly far behind, I wanted to use this vase in a flower arrangement.
Small hiccup...Flowers in Tokyo are pricey, and they don't last long. After a spending a ridiculous amount on two small bouquets for our Halloween gathering, I vowed never to make such a frivolous purchase again.
Hiccup. Hiccup.
Enter...the 100 Yen Store~also known to many abroad as "Everything's a Dollar!". They have brilliant and super inexpensive items for Valentines (more on that later). Some of what's included are faux flowers.
Before you start, I don't like them either, but I have to be practical. And besides, there are faux flowers and there are faux flowers. These cherry blossoms fall into the category of pretty, delicate, and very, very realistic.
The fact that they'll last forever made this purchase a no-brainer.
And the end result? Minimal and stunning! Of course, that's just my opinion.
Please, tell me what you think.
I may need to get a few more stems so it looks a bit fuller, but other than that, I'm happy as can be.
Did you know that in Japan, February 14th~otherwise known as Valentine's Day~is a day for the women to celebrate the men? I was tickled, then perturbed, then back to being tickled about this fact since we tend to celebrate everyone, and not single out just the girls for Valentines.
Don't get riled up, y'all, we gals have our day.
February 14th is the day when the Japanese women (or girls) give chocolates and flowers out of love, courtesy, or social obligation. Ouch!
When are we ladies celebrated, you may ask?
March 14th.
Known as White Day, one month after the men have their day and have received their honmei-choco (chocolate of love), the ladies are treated as Queens for a Day. The gifts for White Day are typically more expensive as it's the mans way of recognizing that the woman has chosen him as her "only one". The usual gifts include cookies, jewelry, white chocolate, and marshmallows.
The general rule for these gifts is often thought of as such: sanbai gaeshi (or "thrice the return") is used to describe the generally recited rule that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift.
This sounds kind of fun. Maybe we'll switch things up and do as the Japanese this year.
Tomo-choco (chocolate for the woman's female friends) has recently become very popular. Giri-choco (obligatory chocolate) is very inexpensive given by women to their superiors at work as well as to other male co-workers. It is not unusual for a woman to buy 20 to 30 boxes of this type of chocolate for distribution around the office as well as to men that she has regular contact with. This differs from the honmei-choco as this type is far more superior, and why it is reserved for their prospective other.
Does this mean I can expect Husband to return with a bounty of giri-choco this month? I'll let y'all know!
So many interesting cultural differences surround St. Valentine's Day and each have raised questions for me. I cannot wait to see how the answers mysteriously unfold over the next week~and yes, you can be certain that I'll keep you up to date!
If you want your own taste of celebrating like the Japanese, here's a delicious and fun recipe to celebrate anyone in your life. It's even fun for children!
Courtesy of The Anime Blog, it offers many insights into the culture we're immersed in and some tips you might not otherwise find. Be sure to hop on over for some fun reading.
Enjoy!
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Daifuku
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups mochiko (sweet rice flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp corn syrup
1 tsp. almond extract
red food coloring
potato, corn or wheat starch for dusting
10 maraschino cherries, rinsed and patted dry
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, minced
Directions
1. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate on high in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir the mixture and return to microwave for an additional 30 seconds. Mix again. Repeat the steps until the chocolate is melted.
2. Dip the cherries in the melted chocolate and coat them well. Drop them onto a plate lined with wax paper and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes.
3. After the cherries have been in the freezer for 15 minutes, make the mochi by whisking together the mochiko, sugar, water, 1 Tbsp. corn syrup and extract. Remove 1/2 cup of the mochiko mixture and tint it a desired shade of red or pink with the food coloring. Set aside.
4. Dust a clean work surface liberally with starch. Keep a bowl filled with starch handy for dusting your hands and any utensils used. Place the tsp. of corn syrup in a small bowl and keep it nearby.
5. In a medium saucepan, cook the uncolored mochiko mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Spoon some of the cooked mochi onto the dusted work surface. With either a well dusted rolling pin or with well dusted hands, carefully roll or pat the hot mochi to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness, depending on your preference. Cut out circles two and half times as big as the chocolate cherries.
6. Place a well chilled chocolate cherry in the center of each of the mochi circles. Quickly wrap the mochi circle around the cherry, pinching the bottom to seal it. If you’ve having problems smoothing or sealing the bottom, use a tiny bit of warm water to seal up the mochi. Place the finished mochi on plate dusted with starch. If the mochi cools too much when you’re working with it, heat it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
7. For the hearts, repeat Step 5 with the pink mochi, but cut out hearts instead of circles.
8. To decorate the mochi, you can:
~Attach the hearts to the finished mochi with a dab of corn syrup.
~Coat the finished mochi in the leftover chocolate.
~Wrap some cherries in pink mochi and make white hearts for contrast.
~Drizzle some chocolate over the finished mochi.
~Sprinkle colored sugar onto the warm mochi then form the balls.
I don't know about y'all, but this sounds very similar to my mother's recipe for chocolate covered cherries. A little different, but the same idea. Is anyone else suddenly craving a delicious morsel of chocolate?
I know I am...and speaking of delicious morsel...two more items from the birthday wish list!
I am still not sure how it happened, but my fun go-to read~"What Would Jackie Do?"~did not make the sea voyage to Tokyo. Seriously...how did that happen? All of my favorite books made it safe and sound, but this one seems to have vanished into thin air.
Maybe one of our packers wanted a little enlightenment from the former Ms. Bouvier? I don't know, but I do miss turning those well-worn pages. It was always a delight!
Also a visual delight?
I'm still loving Anthropologie's Latte Bowls in green. It's not a vivid green, but a mossy one and reminds me of the tall oaks from home and all the creeping moss along the trunks and branches. So very beautiful and practical!
Friends, I hope you all enjoy your Superbowl Sunday. I'm off to figure out what's brought the Uyoku dantai out in full force! The police have set up barricades all along the main dori and it's eerily quiet despite their set-up.
Good evening all! I bet you're all preparing for the Superbowl in one way or another. May you all have a wonderful time!
Our weekend is almost over, but it's been nicely filled. I've been working on the "The Joy of Love" project through Willette Photography, and since I joined a few days in, I'm working in both a forwards and backwards direction.
I'll have Days 1-3 this week. For now I'd love to share Days 4 & 5.
Day Four What They Wear
One of the great things about this challenge is that you don't need to have the same subject for your pictures. This makes sense to me, simply because you don't have only one person in your heart. For this first day I had both of the children as my subjects and as I soon discovered, the pictures that I wanted to take didn't want to be taken.
What I mean is this: I had a vision and I wanted to photograph that vision. However...what was in my minds' eye did not translate well into pictures. Oh the ever loving frustration. I had to think a little outside the box and away from what I was used to.
So I snapped away, until I started feeling more inspired, and the eyes behind the camera started to look in another direction.
I think it worked out nicely!
Eldest is not a girly-girl. Comfort always comes before style, and though always well-dressed, there is definitely a casual feel to her look.
This perfectly represents my daughter's tastes: a stylish cardigan over a soft, well-worn shit from J. Crew, and her favorite pair of jeans. It is not even remotely surprising that a football is in her hands!
The scallywag, on the other hand, surprises us by what he loves to wear daily. His latest love? Wearing everyone else's shoes!
His sister's slippers are by far his favorite go-to pair while wandering the halls of our home.
Day Five
Love To Hate
Hate is a really strong word and it's used far too casually for what it really implies. I constantly encourage my daughter to find a better way to describe how she feels if she doesn't like something, because as long as I've been on this Earth, I have known despising, I have encountered those feelings of loathing and disgust. But hate? I don't know if I've ever truly felt that deep, dark feeling.
Day Five's challenge obviously doesn't expect us to go there. It's just asking us to photograph something that drives us crazy about the people we love.
I'm sure we all have little mental lists concerning our loved ones. But it's because we love them that we can often gloss over those little quirks and foibles. In fact, maybe they make us smile at times.
In recent months the scallywag has taken to sneaking out of bed during his naps...
and during the night. He usually goes right back to sleep once we gently place him back under the covers~and truly, who can get upset with that mischievous little smile? Still...le sigh...it does drive me up the wall.
It's right up there with eldest's preoccupation with her iPhone. She has it for safety reasons (we're in earthquake country and her school is over an hour away from home), but there are times I wished there weren't games available to her. Ok. I'll confess. I'm also a little unnerved by how tech savvy she is. Ok. I'll confess again. Being tech savvy does have its upside!
I'm not concerned about her choices, just that sometimes she's a bit too preoccupied by things such as her "Words with Friends" games. I'm comforted by the fact that the iPhone not always in her hand and she can bear to be separated from it. That said, I still feel this is only a sign of things to come~she is almost a teenager, after all!
Frightening and wonderful...just like this project. Forcing myself to look through the lens in a different way and try to capture something that can sometimes be elusive is tricky.
But it's so much fun and I'm glad to be in the company of so many during this great Challenge.
A lovely Sunday to you all! I'll be back with a little more Valentine's and a bit more of the Birthday wish list.
As some of you know, I like to share pictures on this little blog of mine. I'm quite the amateur, and haven't had any classes, but when I learn of a chance to better a skill, I jump on it.
Willette Designs has put together a free online photography class during this month of February. Appropriately enough it's entitled "The Joy of Love". It works very simply: every morning she'll send you an email with a theme on what to capture for the day. She'll also provide many tips and tutorials.
What I find most exciting is that at the end, she'll provide each of us with a template to create a book out of our photographs. Isn't that the best?
There is still time left, and even I have four days to catch up on, so if any of you want to brush up your skills or push yourself to think a little differently as a photographer, click here to sign up.
With February in an upswing, pink and red are in abundance everywhere. I thought I'd share a few of the pink and red things that have been catching my fancy!
One thing the Japanese have that I wish we had more of in America is an enormous selection of juices. I love fruit juice~as does this little guy with shaggy hair!
You will find every kind and combination in cafes and in the markets. What I'm loving most these days?
Gokuri's Pink Grapefruit and Kirin's Peach Juice. Anything by these two companies is guaranteed deliciousness~they're huge in Japan. The grapefruit is probably a big no-no due to my stomach, so I've been drinking only a very little. The peach, on the other hand, I've been enjoying quite often!
These peppermint frappes from December's Southern Living are high on my "To Make" list!
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Davick and Buffy Hargett
Can you think of anything more scrumptious to delight in this February? I intend to make ours family friendly so the children can enjoy as well, and if you want to try one of these minty libations, you can find them here.
I'm a pajama kind of gal, and love my Brooks Brother's to death. They also seem to have been worn to death~or at least two of them have. Pine Cone Hill is a wonderful online site that has tons of neat items for you and your home.
They even have gorgeous pajama sets, both in regular length and capri for the warmer months. This blue apple blossom set caught my eye right away. Feel free to file this under "My Birthday Wish List"! Considering all the Blossom festivals Japan celebrates, these night clothes aren't only pretty as can be, but fitting as well!
The children and I have been enjoying the sweet treats our maid, Siriya, brought us on her return from Sri Lanka.
From talking to her while she was with us yesterday, she had a nice enough holiday at home, but there were some rough spots. I won't go into details, but prayers for her and her family would be nice. She's such a wonderful woman, and has the biggest heart. Every year she hosts what she calls "a tea" for all the children who are poor and homeless and this year she said the numbers were so great. Something doesn't seem right when the people who give and give seem to have the most taken.
It's just the reminder the children and I needed. Because as much as we want for things, it is really important to give.
I've recently joined Tokyo Mothers Group and as they have many purposes~besides getting me out of the apartment for play dates twice a month~they also have volunteer opportunities. I hope to find one that I can contribute to. There are two I may be able to bring the scallywag to, but further investigating is necessary. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
A lovely Friday to you all and a happy weekend! Are your days filled with lots of pink and red?
