Tag: Unalaska

The real Kendama!

Well, he did it!  He remembered to take care of the kitty litter and he earned himself a real Kendama.  I was so afraid he was going to forget on the last day and be relegated to playing with his grandpa-made kendama  forever!  As he was leaving the house the  other night, I told his mom not to let him take the homemade kendama to school in his backpack.  Can you imagine what might have happened if all of his friends saw it?  While adults might think of it as an ingenious solution, I don’t think most kids would be so impressed!

While I could sometimes do the tricks on the big homemade Kendama, I sure couldn’t even get close with the small aspects and shorter string of the real one.  Not so with SP.  As soon as it was handed to him by the sales clerk, he was extremely good.

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Now he just has to keep practicing….I hear that Dutch Harbor Asia is going to have a Kendama contest during Spring Break!

Waiting for the Kendama.

Wikipedia defines a kendama as a traditional Japanese toy which consists of a wooden, hammer-like object with a ball connected to it with a string.  SP has been promised a kendama (by his mamma) if he successfully cleans the kitty litter box every day for a week.  He was not feeling up to par today so he spent the day with us.

I returned home from a noon meeting to find that his grandpa, Caleb, had done it again.  He is famous for making SP toys out of cardboard, wood, plastic, 500 mile an hour tape…whatever he can get his hands on.  SP’s cousins, at one time, were mighty jealous of a grumman goose made out of cardboard that SP could get in.  It was complete with wings, floats, and a propeller.  It actually graced our house for about 2 1/2 years before we relegated it to the landfill.  Today he made a kendama so that SP could practice before getting the real thing.

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Total concentration.

In the air!
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Action.

I hope he remembers to clean the kitty litter every day, so that this can be replaced!

No resolutions made.

I did not make New Year resolutions this year.  I have decided they don’t really work for me.  I guess I do not have a very resolute personality!  Instead I have decided to take a close look at those things in my life that may need resolution to try to find solutions.  So they are not resolutions.  Just perhaps solutions.

I have rheumatoid arthritis.   I was diagnosed about a year and a half ago.  It took me about 4 months to get an appointment with a specialist.  I gave the prescribed drug a try….over one year’s worth, mind you.  I felt worse on it than I remembered when I wasn’t taking it.  So my solution, at this point, has been to discontinue the program and find something more holistic for myself.  Which is what I am all about anyway, and I can’t believe I let myself be talked into a prescription medication.

My solution:  cleansing my body of toxins.  I feel so much better.  And it has only been about 2 1/2 weeks.  My pain level has decreased.  My activity level has increased.  Oh, and I have lost a few pounds, too, which is a bonus!

I live in a very small house.  I did not do a very good job at  weeding out possessions when moving from large to small to smaller.  And every time I get resolute about making more room for us humans in the house, I come across things like this: 

Really, how can I not have my favorite picture of my first grandson and I.  And the Russian Orthodox triptych…given to me by my godsons.  The shell tree – made by my youngest daughter.  The whalebone ptarmigan and the ivory sea otter.  Good grief, those, perhaps unlike the others, will never go….made by my mother Gert Svarny.

I believe I will try some small, unobtrusive storage boxes.  You know, either baskets, or linen covered boxes with lids.  And put stuff away, put the boxes in the closet, and recycle things once in a while.  Hmmmm….I’ll let you know if it works!