I actually have managed to cross a couple things during the last month from my list- although I know there will be things left over at the end of the time I am at peace with that but still determined to cross off as many things as I can before the deadline this December.
2. Read a Japanese newspaper or magazine and understand it.
Well I read “おはよう奥さん” a magazine with recipes and things for wives in Japan- still can`t quite believe a magazine like this exists. Now I skipped all the ads in it and I read through the rest. I have to admit after the first couple of pages of looking up every second kanji I gave up looking the rest up so technically I only understood about 50% of it. But, I did do a couple pages each day and read through reasonably slowly trying to get the meaning etc. I doubt I would buy the magazine again but I did like the recipes and have marked a couple to try. I also bought a cook book at the same time with Japanese recipes and have flicked through that a couple times and tried a couple of things from it- so I can read them well enough to do them without help!
33. Maintain the weight loss for at least six months (2/6)
Maintained my original weight loss for another month and bonus here, I lost another 2kg since Jan 19th! WOOT! Was a nice surprise when I hopped on the scales at the end of Feb! So 2 months down here!
50. Learn how to use photoshop.
I am still working on this but I don`t think I could comfortably cross it off but I do know most of the basics now! Will continue to work through it and hopefully be able to cross it off soon!
66. (Buy) a Polaroid camera
Well technically I didn`t *buy* it but when Shun`s parents asked him what I wanted for my birthday last month he said he knew I wanted a Polaroid camera and that is what they got me! Yay! Along with 5 things of the film stuff so I have snapped quite a few cute pictures of Noah which are now stuck to our pinboard! I look forward to playing with it more!
100. Make a budget and stick to it for six months (6/6)
It feels so good to cross this off my list as it has been a long time coming! Shun & I successfully stuck to our budget for six whole months!!!! We are continuing with a similar system but I would and am working towards trying to save more each month- this will probably happen by me taking on a few more private lessons perhaps as well as getting better at cooking Japanese food since it is so much cheaper to cook that here!
I still have 17 things to cross off my list before December!
************************************************************
Oh and continuing on from January these are the books I read in February- not much but hey, I still tried to read a little each day. Plus I am not putting down the kids books I read with Noah but I read one or two a day too him!
Grasshopper by Barbara Vine (I didn`t like it- I have passed it onto Nay though so will be interesting to see if she likes it as she read the back cover a couple of months ago and requested I pass it onto her when I was done)
Twenties Girl- Sophie Kinsella (Good book! Usually like her work and it is so easy to pick and put down which is great considering I dont have so much time to read anymore)
Baby Signing (Teach yourself)- Jane Jarvis (Enjoyed it and have referred back to it several times. Noah and I are going to our first baby sign class in April but I already do about 3 signs with him on a regular basis)
I also read cookbooks, many kids books and the “ohayou okusan” magazine mentioned earlier!
**********************************************************
I seem to have lost my blogging mojo of late too- so if you find it please let me know! I guess I feel like most of the things I want to blog are about Noah but that it could get a tad boring for those who read after awhile. I love looking at his cute pictures but I am not sure whether everyone else wants to see picture after picture! hehe
Popularity: 4% [?]
I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
It is sad that I used to read おはよう奥さんreligiously when I lived in Japan. I LOVED it and it really did help with my language development (believe it or not) I never really followed many of the tips but it was still an interesting magazine. I loved the special recipe books they used to do where they would give you lots of recipes organised according to ingredient and I also had one where they put things together so if you had an egg, chicken thighs, negi etc.. you could look that up and there would be a recipe for something using those three ingredients. Very handy, especially when you are hopeless at working out new recipes like I am!!
Well done on maintaining your weight loss. I seem to have hit a plateau so I actually stopped paying for WW (as I haven’t been recently anyway) and am trying to cut down on things in my own way. Am very skint after all the fun we had in Paris so I suspect it will be easier than I think it is due to lack of extra cash to spend on lunches out and chocolate!!
Congrats on the weightloss Lulu!! Seems like the magic breastfeeding is working for you. Good job on completing the budget as well
Like I said before – keep posting, especially about Noah! I love hearing his latest developments
Congratulations on keeping to your budget for 6 months!! I really do believe that writing everything that you spend down on paper makes such a difference to what you end up spending. Here’s to 6 more months of budgeting!!
Oh and congrats on the weightloss as well
It must be such a wonderful feeling to know that you are not only back to your pre-pregnancy weight but less than that!! If only I will be able to say the same thing 4 months from now…
I loved the ‘twenties girl’ btw, it was a nice and easy read!! Thanks! Will let you know what I think of ‘Grasshopper’ after I get around to reading it…
PS – I would love more post on Noah!! Considering how often I get to see him I would die without continuous updates on him via your blog
Congrats on the weight loss and keeping the budget! Those are not easy things. I have to agree, I love the Noah updates. It’s amazing to see just by the pictures how big he’s getting and how active he is