Christmas Carolers

Friends from our local church came to our house to sing Christmas carols. We were so blessed.

Hiroko's watercolor - ballerina

Meena's Birthday last November

Meena celebrated her birthday with two girl friends who came for a sleepover. They enjoyed a lot of fancy teatimes together!

Hiroko's birthday in November

Roger and the children made a beautiful breakfast for Hiroko's birthday: fresh-squeezed orange juice and berry yogurt (from canned blueberry pie filling and fresh strawberries and pomegranates), boiled brown eggs, tofu sausages and multigrain bagels. It was beautiful and filled with love. The pie filling (being imported) and strawberries are only found in a special shop, and the locally-baked bagels only recently came into the market.

Hammock ハンモック

The kids made a hammock connected to the bunk bed using a cotton bed cover.
子供たちがベッドカバーでハンモックを作りました。

They all love lying in it and reading books, such as Toshi is doing here.

３人とも、ハンモックの中で横になるのが大好きです。ハンモックの中で本を読む悟志。

No wonder they love the hammock, because all of them spent a lot of time in one when they were babies! (This is Meena)
子供たちがハンモックが好きなのは、赤ちゃんのときにいつもスリングで抱っこされていたからかしら。（これは、美奈です。）

Hair cut

悟志、ようやく髪の毛、短く切ることにしました。
Satoshi got a haircut. We do not cut his hair that often, so we wanted to do something unusual....

We cut one side short, but decided to leave the other half uncut, just to be funny.

左半分の髪の毛を切った後、ジョークのつもりで右半分、そのままにしてみることにしました。

Below is the overall look. He has kept it like this for a week to see people's reaction. We were very surprised to find out that most people do not notice the difference.!

What do you think?

友人たちが驚くかなあと楽しみにしていましたが、ほとんどの人は気づきませんでした。ちょっとがっかり。創也は、スタイリッシュだと言っています。まだ、右半分は切っていません。どう思いますか？

The day before Diwali

Today is a day before Diwali, the biggest Hindu holiday--the festival of light. Many Hindu homes decorate their houses with lights. We took a walk in our apartment complex to enjoy the early "Christmas" (that's how it feels to us) lights. After coming back home, we carved a pumpkin to remember the fall season that we celebrated in past years in the USA.

Lunch on the roof at church retreat 教会の修養会での昼食

In the bottom left photo above you can see our pastor (light blue T-shirt) and wife (lavender), Sanjiv & Sushila. Top right photo shows Satoshi sitting with other boys. In the photo just to the upper left of Satoshi's head, you can see Sawyer (green shirt) sitting and enjoying his meal.
左下の写真でサラダを受け取っているのは、教会の牧師夫妻です。右上の写真では、悟志が友達と座っているところ、右上の写真に小さく創也（緑のシャツ）が座って食べている姿が、映っています。教会の修養会の間、ビルの屋上でともに食事をしました。

During a 3-day church retreat this past weekend, we ate our meals on the rooftop, where caters cooked tasty Indian and Chinese food using some of the equipment shown here!

屋上で料理をした後。

Saturday Morning relaxing on the parents' bed

土曜日の朝、親のベッドの上でくつろいでいる子供たち。

Store on Wheels

We passed this man on his motorbike the other day while driving to our church retreat.
What do you think he's delivering?
オートバイで、何をこんなに運んでいるのかなあ？

Colorful India カラフルな国

Medieval Feast ヨーロッパ中世の夕食会

Our out-of-town friends who also homeschool recently visted us. They have been studying Medieval history, so we decided to have a Medieval feast together. We had a bishop, a knight, two princesses, two jesters a minstrel and a baby. After a dinner of roast chicken with pita bread & baguettes (ordered especially from a bakery owned by a Canadian couple), grapes & golden apples, each kid shared something from what they have been doing in homeschool. There were creative writings, poems, history reports, research papers, dance, music, and art. It was a very fun night!

ホームスクールをしている友人と共に、ヨーロッパ中世時代を装った夕食会を持ちました。夕食後、子供たちはそれぞれ、ホームスクールで学んでいることを分かち合いました。詩の朗読、歴史について書いた作文、音楽などなど。

Twinkies

Sawyer loves Twinkies...

...though he has never even tasted one! He loves the sound of it. In his creative writing, almost always Twinkies are there, as the name of a person, the name of a weapon, or the name of a village, etc. He is obsessed with them. Twinkies somehow even appear in his history or science reports--and then I have to make him write all over again.

In English class, he had to write a research paper. He couldn't think anything to write about except Twinkies. His report is below.

Next year we will go to the USA for 3 months or so. There he will have his first bite of Twinkies. I wonder what will happen to his Twinkies fever after that......

Twinkies

by Sawyer Seth

Twinkies are one of the favorite snacks in America. James A. Dewar invented the Twinkie in 1930 during the beginning of the Great Depression. James Dewar worked for the Continental Baking Company. He was afraid that the company would go bankrupt because they had a lot of expensive equipment for making Little Short Cake Fingers. They could only make Little Short Cake Fingers six weeks a year during strawberry season. So he decided to make a new product using the same equipment. First, he injected a banana kind of filling inside a little cake with a syringe- like tool. But because of the war, they had to switch to vanilla flavor. It was so good that even when the war was over they kept using vanilla cream.

There are over 17 Hostess factories scattered around the USA. Together these produce around 500 million Twinkies a year,1,000 a minute ,16 a second, and using at least 40,000 miles of wrap a year. Twinkie production is quite amazing!

Did you know that Twinkies might actually be healthy? Lewis Browning (said to be the “Twinkie king”) ate at least 22,000 Twinkies in his lifetime, and he lived to the nice old age of 89 years. Also, James A Dewar (creator of the Twinkie) lived to be 88 years old. He said that the key to his long life was “to eat a twinkie a day and to smoke a pack of cigarettes.”

There are some very interesting facts about Twinkies. Here are a few: Some people make “Twinkiemisu” (instead of tiramisu), Twinkie sushi and even Twinkie wedding cakes. There is a guy who hung a Twinkie on a black board for thirty years; when he took it down he said, “It was a little brittle but probably still edible.” Another very interesting thing is that the White House put a Twinkie in their time capsule for the new millennium as “an object of enduring American symbolism.”

Before he died James Dewar said that “Twinkies were the best darn tootin' idea” he ever had. I agree. (Well, at least I agree to the name being the best idea he ever had). Perhaps Twinkies should be the American symbol (not the bald eagle), as well as the national fruit!

Nice Weather

After the hottest summer in 50 years followed by the wettest monsoon (with widespread flooding) in 32 years, the weather is finally getting nice! We can go outside without fighting the heat, humidity or waterlogged roads.

今年の夏は５０年ぶりの猛暑。モンスーンは３２年ぶりの豪雨。最近、ようやく天気がよくなってきて、公園へ遊びに行きました。

Prayer retreat

Every so often Roger and I take turns to go on a prayer retreat at the Catholic nunnery just around the corner from our house. These are Carmelite nuns who have taken a lifetime vow to be "married" to Jesus. Once they have completed their vows, they stay in the same compound for the rest of their lives. Since they can not go out, they have 2 small guest rooms in an outer section of the nunnery for their families to stay overnight if they come visit them. Those rooms are open--and often available--for outsiders to stay in for personal prayer retreats. The cost: $8 a night, including three simple meals and two teatimes!

ロジャーと私は時々、（代わりばんこに）一人で祈りのリトリートへ出かけます。近所にある、カトリックの施設に止まります。そこには、修道女たちが、祈りに人生をささげ、外に出ることもなく生活をしています。修道女たちは外に出ないので、家族たちが時々会いにきます。そのためのゲストルームが開いていると、外の人も泊まれるのです。一晩３食付で、１０００円以下です。

Sister Hilda lives with the nuns, though not under their same vow, so she herself can go outside. She takes care of us, when we stay there.

私たちの面倒を見てくれる、ヒルダさんです。

The rooms are simple, but peaceful and quiet. I always come back refreshed & grounded in Jesus.

部屋や、ベッドは質素ですが、静かで穏やかな場所です。イエス様だけと共に時間をすごし、元気になって帰ってきます。

Hiroko's Acrylic -- A replication of Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

Art!

Among the 8 homeschool children who are all friends, I organized an art class led by an American educational consultant who has an art degree. The first week, we learned about "lines" and studied the art by Piet Mondrian, such as this painting: ホームスクールをしている友人たちの間で、子供のために美術のクラスをはじめました。美術課を卒業したアメリカ人の友人が先生です。今日はラインについて学びました。また、ラインをいっぱい使って絵を描いたピート　モンドリアンについて学びました。






They all created art inspired by the works of Mondrian. Even though we saw the same sample painting and heard the same lesson, everybody made very unique art all using only straight lines. Top left is Satoshi. Top middle is Minna. and bottom left is Sawyer. このピートモンドリアンの真似をして、まっすぐなラインを使って、それぞれが絵を描いてみました。上の左は悟志、真ん中の上は美奈。下の左端は創也の絵です。

Then a few days later, some of us adults who love art (mostly from our local church and our neighborhood) got together and just had an community painting day. We sat in our living room and painted whatever we wanted using the medium of our choice....while enjoying many cups of teas and yummy food. I am so excited that our lives are filled with creativity. 数日後の土曜日、アートが好きな友人が、絵を描く集まりを持ちました。教会の方、近所の方々などです。それぞれが、好きな絵を好きなミディアムで描くのです、、、あまいチャイを飲みながら。

Indian Clothes

This is NOT how much Satoshi lost weight from dengue! (Though he did lose some weight, it wasn't anything near this much.) This is how Indian traditional pants are always made--one size fits all. When I was pregnant, I did not need special pants! --Hiroko


Our children dressed up in Indian clothes to visit our friends to celebrate their special holiday!

Monsoon Lake

The park in front of our house floods every time it rains. The kids cannot play there if it's flooded. But I think it is rather beautiful.
近くの公園は雨が降るたびに、水溜りでいっぱいになります。モンスーンの湖です。

How a would-be hospital stay turned into a happy day

The doctor ordered Satoshi to be admitted to hospital after a blood test in the morning showed that his platelet count had gone down. But in one of the city's biggest, newest hostpitals, there was no empty bed. (Right now Delhi has an outbreak of both dengue fever and swine flue.) We were told to wait nearby until a bed came open. So we went to our pastor's house, only 5 min away from the hospital. They graciously gave us a bed to rest, and a DVD player for Satoshi to use. He watched Mr. Bean, and started laughing. Though he was still sick, his smile and laugh gave me such joy and hope.

A few hours later, we got the report that his blood platelet count had risen back to a safe level, and though a hospital bed had finally come available, we were free to go home. Toshi is recovering well ever since. Thank you to all who are praying. This picture was taken when Satoshi was in the pastor's house, watching the DVD.

昨日、悟志の血小板が減少し、入院です。と言われました。とはいえ、病院へ行ってもベッドは満杯。今はデング熱がはやっているので病院はいっぱいなのです。「少し待てばたぶんあくでしょう」と言われ、近くにある牧師の家で待つことにしました。待っている間に、牧師が入院しなくてよいくらい、すぐよくなるように、祈ってくれました。ベッドが空いたと知らせを受けるとともに、２回目の血液検査の結果が返ってきていて、血小板の数値が元に戻っていました。結局、家に帰ってもよいとの許可が下りたのです。感謝！今は、順調に回復中です。
これは、牧師の家で、よこになって映画を見て笑っている悟志の写真です。しばらく何日かぐったりしていたので、笑顔を見れてうれしかったです。
お祈りしてくださった方々ありがとうございました。

Dengue fever

デング熱にかかった悟志。休んでいるところ。癒されるようお祈りください。

Satoshi sleeping in the living room. Pray for fast recovery from dengue fever.

I saw the sky!

Delhi is listed as one of the ""Top 10 World Cities with Poor Air Quality." In the past, whenever I looked up, it seemed like there was no blue sky, no shape of any color of cloud, but only gray sky. I always felt like Delhi didn't have sky. Then the last few days there was an outpouring of monsoon rain. The rain must have been washing away the pollution in the air. When I looked up at the sky today, it took my breath away! I saw blue sky, a white cloud building up, and light shining from behind the cloud. I took this picture from our car today. You might think this is normal where you live. but to me, today I saw a beautiful miracle--I saw the sky! (Hiroko)

デリーは世界で空気の汚れているワースト１０に入っています。見上げても、青い空も、雲の形も見えません。公害のため、空はグレー一色です。
デリーに空はないのだと思っていました。でも、ここ数日モンスーンで雨が続いています。雨が公害を洗い流したのでしょうか。今日、上を見上げると、息ができないほどの美しい空が広がっていました。青い空、黙々とした白い雲。そしてその後ろから輝く光。こんな空は、多くの人にとっては、毎日見る何気のない風景かもしれません。でも、私にとっては奇跡でした。デリーの空を見たのです！

Freedom

Last Sunday the pastor preached about the freedom that we have in Jesus. He wanted us to think about this freedom, which is the different from the freedom this world talks about and come to church this Sunday with something to share. Today there were many poems, songs, a skit, reflections, and paintings about freedom. It was very inspiring!
This is what our family did.....
先週の礼拝でメッセージは、キリストにある自由についてでした。牧師は「来週の日曜日は、メッセージはありません。それぞれがキリストにある自由について考え祈り、そのこと互いに分かち合いましょう。絵を描いたり、作曲したり、詩を読んだり、いろいろな形でキリストにある自由を表現してください。」といいました。

Sawyer's drawing on freedom:
創也が書いた絵。「他の人に仕える中に自由があるとおもう。」（創也）
Freedom is found in serving others. (Sawyer)

Satoshi's acrylic painting.
This is a picture of a hard-shelled weed, which has been trying to choke the tree on the right.
The weed is almost round, which represents thinking you have to be perfect. But the weed is cracked.
And the blue swirl is God’s Spirit, which is washing away the weed.

On the right side of the picture is the old world,And on the left is the new world that God is making (Satoshi)

悟志の書いた絵。

「完全主義であるという種が、右側にある木の成長を妨げいる。水色の波は、神様の霊がその種を洗い流していることを表している。右の上、古い世界を描き、左の下の海は神様の新しい御国を表している」（悟志）

This is Hiroko's watercolor:

By abiding, we may find freedom.
博子の水彩画。イエス様につながることが自由であるということ。

Roger sang a song that he wrote. These are the words:
ロジャーが作曲した曲の詩。


The shame and condemnation…removed by You
The guilt and accusation…answered by You
The cords of sin and Satan…broken by You
Our freedom, liberation…secured by You
Yeshu, Yeshu

Our fears and hesitation…challenged by You
Hidden lies, interpretations...exposed by You
For truth, illumination, we look to You
The path of transformation, through life in You
Yeshu, Yeshu

Deliverer--From the lies, the fears, the sin
Redeemer--From the darkness we were in
Restorer--Making us whole throughout, within
Our bonds You understand—
The Lion is the Lamb
Yeshu, Yeshu

Groans from all creation…rise up to You
Longing for the revelation…of Your own sons
A freed-up generation, we cry to You
On earth as it is in heaven, Your will be done.
Yeshu, Yeshu

Fish! 金魚

We got a used aquarium set! It came with 6 fish, but 4 died in the first two days. So we got more fish. We set it next to our dining table, so we can gaze at the peacful fish as we eat.

古い水槽と金魚を友人から買いました。ダイニングテーブルの横に水槽を置き、食事を食べながら眺めています。

The kids picked names for the fish like, Eiki, Kouki (Names of their Japanese friends), Sushi, Yoshi, Yoyo, Hoho, Charles, Frances, Bubbles and Googles and the Stripey Twins.

子供たちは一匹一匹、魚たちに名前をつけました。えいき、こうき、すし、よし、ヨーヨー、ホーホー、チャールズ、フランシス、バブル、グーゴルなどです。

But then we found that two of the fish (Bubbles and Googles) were agressive--chasing other fish and nibbling on their fins. So we expelled them from the tank into a bucket overnight, and gave them to a pet store the next day.
Even though that saved the other fish, Meena still cried for the lost of Bubbles and Googles.
けれども、バブルとグーゴルは、他の魚を突き、乱暴です。他の魚たちの平和のために、ペットショップに返すことにしました。

Bubbles (right, pinkish) and Googles (gray, above Bubbles' head) in the Disciplinary Bucket

バケツに入れられた、バブルとグーゴルです。

Surprise

Surprise!!

びっくり！

Hiroko's Watercolor--bamboo