It's Better to Burn Out...

I'm writing this while I wait for the Friday Five to be posted. If they don't post today, I guess I will snag an older one from archives.

So this is from March 26, 2021 -

1) What spring holiday(s) do you celebrate?
On February 2, we have Setsubun, a "holiday" (not a national rest day, just a special day) to cleanse the home of bad luck/demons and bring good luck in by throwing dried beans. The designated food for this holiday is the long, uncut sushi roll - which you are supposed to eat without cutting... not like in this picture. We used to celebrate this day when the kids were smaller but now, not so much.

(Picture left to right of thick sushi roll (looks like raw salmon and tuna and egg rolls inside), a two horned demon mask worn by a grown-up to be the brunt of bean throwers or the perpetrator of screaming children, and little dried soy beans in a traditional box type snack bowl.)

On March 3, we have Girl's Day, celebrated by decorating the house with some special dolls, eating mixed sushi and Sakura-mochi. I bought some sakuramochi and made sushi for dinner this year for my daughter. Unfortunately, we don't have a doll set. I really want one though.

(Picture of a four step array of the imperial household dolls, starting at the top with the prince and princes, three women attendants in the middle with two sets of round celebratory rice cakes between them, five men musicians below them with drum and lute, and at the bottom two guards with bow and arrows on each side and two sets of bowls for celebratory food for the prince and princes, and some more colorful diamond shaped rice cakes in the middle. And, a picture of Sakuramochi. There are two kinds, traditionally of Western and Eastern Japan, left to right respectively. The Western Japan type is pink sticky rice with bean paste inside, wrapped with a pickled cherry leaf. The Eastern Japan type is a pink rice pancake with bean paste inside, also wrapped with a cherry leaf. These leaves are edible. The saltiness compliments the sweet snack.)

On May 5 is Boy's Day, renamed Children's Day because for some reason if you have Girl's Day it's fine, but Boy's Day is sexist. March 3rd is not a national "rest" day, but Children's Day is. It is part of a three day holiday called Golden Week, which, combined with April 29th, can make a nice long holiday for company workers who can take time off.

We celebrate it by putting up carp flags on a pole outside of the house. Usually at least three carp. One big blue one as the father, One a little smaller red one as the mother, and another color for the child(ren). People often also have a warrior's helmet as a decoration inside the house if they have boy children (as opposed to the dolls for Girl's Day). I used to have one of those helmets when I was small. I think my parents got it as a gift for some unknown reason, me being a girl (an only child) and all.

(Pictures of the cylindrical cloth carp "flags" lifting horizontally in the spring breeze and a traditional warrior helmet decoration.)
The snack designated for this day is Kashiwamochi.


(Picture of kashiwamochi - a white rice cake folded over bean paste, wrapped in a big leaf. This leaf is just so the rice cake can be transported without sticking or drying out.)

Also, as part of my own heritage, we celebrate Easter - more as a Spring celebration and business event than as the Christian holiday. It is used as an excuse to enjoy the cherry blossoms - also called Hanami. When I was a child, my mother would make Easter bread called Paska every year. This is a bread with lots of eggs in it, baked in a round tin. It is my dad's heritage, since his grandparents came to Canada through the Ukraine. They were Mennonite Brethren (sort of similar in beliefs to Amish), one of the founding fathers in Holland, who were forced to move to Germany and then to the Ukraine and finally to North America due to their believe in non-violence. The Mennonites took with them the Ukrainian Paska recipe with them and it became part of their Easter tradition.

Anyway, I carried on this tradition and actually made Paska for the event participants for many years until hubby told me it was too time consuming and costly. I sometimes still make it for my family.

2) How do you celebrate it?
Answered that above.

3) How was your celebration different in 2020 and/or 2021?
No difference since it is a private celebration without need of partying.  I think we cancelled the Easter Picnic in 2020 but resumed in 2021.

4) What special foods do you make or acquire for your spring holiday?
Also answered above.

5) Is there special music for your spring holiday?
There is a famous children's song for Setsubun, Girl's Day, and Children's Day

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I had to write today, not only because it is Friday, but because everything is going well but I am not feeling it. I think it's because I am worried about the Easter Picnic. It's not like I have to prepare much for it, and I've done it for so many years it is not worth any worry but I just don't really enjoy the thought of "an event." Especially one I am leading. I have this nervous feeling in my stomach all the time. It will be fine once I get into it - it's just the waiting that's killing me.

What we usually do for our Easter picnic is hide Easter eggs around the park for the kids to find, go through some preposition and nature vocab like "under the tree" or "in the grass", then after they find the eggs and tell me where, we separate into families and eat the lunches we brought individually. Then, as the kids finish their lunches, we go on a nature search to recognize Spring, and do some activities on a checklist individually with their parents, like kite flying, playing with a ball, grass sledding etc. At the end we get together for some group games like egg racing and What time is it Mr. Wolf depending on the age of the kids. It is the same every time, and it would be nice to have something different to do... any ideas?!

Today went to a party wholesale warehouse to get some stuffings for the (plastic) Easter Eggs. I was going to just put little chocolate eggs inside, but realized that some of the smaller kids maybe are not allowed chocolate. I'm thinking maybe puzzle erasers might be something they'd enjoy.

Yesterday the weather was nice and the cherry trees at the park were full of blossoms so I got a lot of pictures. Hana usually doesn't sit and pose for me, but I had a few plastic bags I rustled which tricked her into thinking I had snacks and I got a few good pics :D

Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit last night and I am afraid many of the blossoms fell. I hope we have some left for Sunday!

On to books - I read the first Dune book. It was interesting enough that I finished it, but it was not as good as I remembered it to be. Specifically, the description was seriously lacking so that not only could I not see it in my mind, the situation was very hard to grasp. Also, the main character being a super human (smarter than a computer, the strongest fighter, having the power to read the future) with few relatable qualities - it is ok for the first book, but I don't know if I want to keep reading the second, the beginning of which has turned me off considerably. Reading about a revolution leader against tyranny is fun, but reading about a hero turned emperor being cruel, making errors and accumulating enemies, not so much. Not in my present frame of mind anyway.

I started reading Dune because I was getting tired of watching TV - more specifically rewatching shows I'd already watched like Agents of SHIELD. I did finish watching the second season of Bridgerton and enjoyed that. I like that they are setting the stage for other romances to give them more focus in future seasons. Yay the Bold Type is back! I've started watching that now and it's looking interesting :)

Also, I suddenly felt like going to my old diaries from high school and over and reading them over.  They are all quite interesting and reminding me of events I had totally forgotten.  I might introduce some anecdotes that could be entertaining.

Now to Hana and cherry blossom pictures from the park -

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1. What does the outside of your house look like?
The house I live in now is a two story house.  Looking at it from the front, there are two parking spots, the back of which is a short length of concrete stairs going up from the left of the building.  The wall to the left of the stairs is covered in ivy, above which is our school sign, red background with a yellow cartoon bird on the right of the words "Mockingbird English School" in white.  Above the stairs, on the landing is a small deck with flowers on the right and a stand with a screen/phone on the left behind a side advertising flag for "English Classes Here."  Behind these are two white doors, matching the color of the building.  The entrance facing the street on the left is for our school, the entrance on the right is for the landowner's piano school.

Back down the stairs and across the parking spaces, the right side of the building, is a small gate that opens on to another set of concrete stairs with a small garden around it on the top level.  On the left is an orange tree, which bears the most sour of oranges - so sour, I really don't know when they are actually deemed ripe.  The oranges stayed on the tree for at least 3 months before hubby cut them off.  Next to it further inside is a blueberry tree that is starting to blossom.  On the right is a scattered bunch of plants and trees, none in bloom at the moment except for a single yellow daffodil in the middle of the patch of soil.  To the right at the top of the stairs is our heavy wooden front door, protected from the rain by an archway.

2. Which room do you spend the least time in?
Julian's room.  I go in there to find clothes in his closets, and pop in to tell him dinner is ready, but that's about it.
Next is Alex's room, where I follow Hana into every other day.  It is part of her little routine to go to the toilet to jump on and off Alex's bed and it goes better if I chase her :D
Next is Audrey's room, where I sometimes climb into her bed if I can't sleep.
I guess the bathroom goes here somewhere :P
Next is my own bedroom, where I only go at night, usually, since hubby is usually in there doing his own thing.

3. Which room do you spend the most time in?
The living/dining/kitchen area.  I do everything there during the day.

4. Is your home in a convenient location?
It is.  I used to live up the hill and it was quite inconvenient without a car because of the hill.  Now I live only a few minutes from the station, and even closer to the supermarket.  I am at the bottom of the hill so I can lug my shopping home on foot, and there are parks close by in 3 directions.

5. What is the color of your front door?
We have a medium brown wooden door.

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