Week of Pictures Six-- And then Spring Came

Howdy! I'm here with my long overdo week of pictures. :) 

I'm feeling pretty excited with summer coming on! We actually broke records here in Shibetsu for hottest April-- it got to 77F here this week, which is crazy! Our summers are always mild compared to many places, so it came as a surprise to us all. :P 

A couple weeks back our family drove south to meet up for supper and fellowship with a missionary couple an hour away. Zeb announced as we pulled out of our road that he was going to take a nap. I just can say one thing-- this little guy pretty much always does what he says he will. :P Moments later and he was OUT. :D

Josiah enjoying the ride. :) And also trying to duck out of the picture. He's shy in pictures but a complete shutterbug when he has a camera. ;) 

Spring has come, as you can see behind Gideon!

Malachi getting into photography a little. :P 

It was lovely weather all the way down. We always enjoy driving/traveling especially through Japan, though we don't as often (no furlough here, sadly, hehe). But it's so beautiful! 

See what I mean? It was grayish out, but the sun was still managing to tint things golden warm. 

It's really strange to see so much color in spring-- usually it takes longer for the snow to melt and so we instantly have green everywhere, lol. This time, the snow melted in a hurry and we are left with brownish grass and fall-looking landscapes. (Which is fine by me, since I love fall, but still a bit weird. hehe) 

Look at that sun! 

I was working on the present I made for Josiah for his birthday. ;) 

About a week ago, we bombed our house for bugs (mainly stinkbugs and ladybugs. Rather harmless. But annoying.) And so we had to stay outside. We were going to go out, and Daddy stay at our picnic table outside so he could keep an eye on the house, but it was storming and the wind was SO strong that we had a picnic in the car with Daddy so he wouldn't get all wet or blown to Nayoro, the town north of us 30 minutes. :D 

We gave Merry some food after she gave us this adorable, sorrowful, how-could-you-leave-me-sitting-in-the-rain-without-picnic-food puppy-dog look. ;) 

Zeb and I, sitting in the back of the van! :) 

The trees were blowing quite a bit, and our van shuddered in the wind too. I thought it was quite an adventure. :D 

I seem to have been intrigued by branches that day. :P 

So the next day, I saw these cute little sparrows on the grass right outside our church's windows. I grabbed my camera and tried to take some pictures of it... but you know what happened. lol! Hence the fact that the bird is either cut off or looking the other direction.... :P 

This is me writing... speaking of which, I finished another book. :P I began it on April 2nd and completed it a couple days ago. For the first time in the history of Victoria-Writes, I believe, I actually don't think the first draft is completely horrible. :D Normally by "The End" I am wondering how I'll ever salvage it... but this time, it turned out pretty understandable and didn't do anything totally quirky halfway through or something. :D For which I'm thankful. ;) 

So now that I have my books, from here on out I will be focusing even more on other stages of publishing. ;) 

Below: I tried my hand at arm knitting. Sorry, pun not intended (for once, hehe). Hold on, got to stop to laugh at that for a second. *Hahahaha*.... Ok I am back. :P Excuse the interruption. 

Anyways I just did a small blanket first, kind of like a small throw. It was so much fun! I definitely enjoy arm knitting better than regular knitting... the results are so much quicker. :) It only took about an hour for me to learn how to do it and then make the blanket. 

The only problem is when your mum calls you to clear off the kitchen island and you're kind of .... attached. :D I put all my working yarn in a bag and made sure all my stitches were on one arm and went up to clean it off. :P Mama got suspicious though when I kept my arm below the island the whole time. :D 

 This is my "Saving for Publishing" container. Don't ask why there's little British soldiers and a London Bus on it. It has nothing to do with publishing. :D I just liked those stickers. Oh, wee secret. Rabbit trail coming up. The container used to hold nori, which is dried seaweed. We all like it with our rice. It sounds kind of... unusual in English, but we think its just kind of like "ocean kale" or something. You can put it in soup, or eat it dry with rice, or just dry and plain, or on rice crackers... mm. 

Oh, P.S. When I mean "saving for publishing" I do not mean paying to print my books. I am going through a self-publishing company that prints on demand, therefore I don't have to spend a bunch of money to get a book printed. I am saving money for the cost of getting the book ready to publish. ;) 

 I decorated my art case the other day. I just kept it simple. 

 I drew this on a whim the other day. 

 MK moments.... language study. Funny thing is there's not much Japanese on this page. I was talking with my teacher and my parents about some details and found myself doodling. lol. 

Oh, and the German at the top.... no. I don't know that language. Hardly a smidgen. :P I was trying to show my Japanese friend how Japanese really is easy (optimistic viewpoint) because they don't capitalize anything while writing, while in English you capitalize proper nouns and in German you capitalize all nouns! So... I told her, we can be glad that Japanese is easy in that respect. Then Abigail pipes up being the realist she is, "I don't think remembering to capitalize all nouns would be hard." Thank you Abigail for being so rational. :^

I am continuing to enjoy the same app I used in the last post of pictures. :)

 Can you believe that April is already over!! Time flies so fast! (cliche, but true). 

 And I'll leave you with a little thing I put together... Sorry the text might be hard to read in some places? But this is definitely what I'd like to do someday! :) 

  Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Psalms 32:11 

Before I leave, I'd like to ask you all to pray for me with these next steps in the process of publishing. :) Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom in decision makings, for things to fall into place if its the Lord's will, and for as little complications as possible. ;) 

You all have a lovely day!

<3

Victoria