Ken’s First Annual Turkey Project

Ken’s friend at Manoa gave him the idea of collecting $5 from people before Thanksgiving, then taking advantage of the sales to buy as many turkeys as possible to donate to the Salvation Army, or whoever is cooking and serving free Thanksgiving dinner to the community. For us, it’s the Salvation Army. So goal 1 was community service. Goal 2 was to get our kids together behind this project to do a good turn and socialize outside of school. For our first annual attempt, Ken just emailed our ohana list (the families that camp together) and I emailed some of my colleagues. We ended up giving 40 turkeys this year (almost more than the Salvation Army could handle – but we’ll figure that out next year).

The kids in front of the pantry

Halloween

Ken as the Fruit of the Loom green grape, Pono and me as vampires in hiding (from our book club theme).

Ahi was a caveman, but sorry I don’t have a pic of that.

Here’s one with his friends at their hang out spot.

Pono’s Growing Up

Pono’s in middle school now – and in my advisory. There’s no escape.

First comes a name

My domestic goddess project is totally stalled because I am in need of a name for a project. I think the name is everything. Nothing moves on until I have a name because I need to start another blog, which means that I need a name. The name will then decide on the project. Hereʻs what I came up with so far: The Obsessed with Alan Wong Project, Moody Mama, Daily Dinner Project, Slouching toward Chaos, Skinny Cow Diaries, The Rubber Slippah Contessa.

I tried to get ideas from the alltop mom blogs, but I just got more confused. Some of these moms are obviously moms with small children. I have no small children in the house. I do not have diaper stories, make your own baby food stories (although I did make my own baby food – not for the good of my baby but because the buggah ate so much I was too pake to buy food), or toddler advice. My advice to these young mothers are: observe your toddler carefully – all those irritating traits that exasperate you now will come back to horrify you when they are teenagers, only now you’ll be old and TIRED. You know that feeling when your baby is just born – the weird medicine head feeling from not sleeping well? That’s the same feeling you’ll have in their teen years, just that it lasts longer in their teen years and their antics are not so cute. Guard your car keys, bolt your windows, hide your money, know how to access their myspace, be paranoid and obsessive, and stalk effectively.

One title on alltop looked promising (Slouching Past 40), but this is a 41 year old mother with an 11 and 7 year old. Yes my youngest is 11 and yes, I’m 41, but I have a 21 year old and a 17 year old. I am very near to getting rid of another child as he finishes his senior year, so I want a mommy project, even though I don’t really qualify as a mommy. Is that a conflict?

Stick a pin in it

Ahi, as usual, is overscheduled,over busy, and as he is getting older (or we’re getting older) AND he still can’t drive, we are pretty much just OVER. He’s either got cheer practice or baseball practice and his body has been taking a beating. After the stunt coaches had a 8 hour clinic last Saturday, he’s come home with bruises, a cut lip, a tweaked shoulder and a pulled groin, so today we took time off from practice and went to accupuncture.

He came out relaxed and a little woosie after his hour of massage, accupuncture and herbal medicine.

Domestic Goddess Project

Now thatI I’m done reading Julie & Julia, one woman’s neurotic memoir about the one year she spent cooking all of Julia Childs’ recipes from The Art of Mastering French Cooking,, I just feel like my hidden domestic goddess wants to come out, but any time that happens, I get closer to Mommy Dearest than June Cleaver (actually, I heard that Martha Stewart kind of sucks at being a mother, but hey, what do I know)?
Anyway, life without a challenge, is no life at all, so I am thinking about starting my own year long project, I just haven’t figured out what I want to do. Until then, I’ll just do mini domestic goddess challenges.

Today’s accomplishment: I cooked three meals and washed the dishes. Meal one – breakfast on the griddle – oatmeal/bran pancakes with portuguese sausage. If you put the sausage between the pancakes, the cooking goes faster.
Meal two – since it was Ahi’s first full day back, of course he had a double header for baseball today, so while the griddle was still hot, I started lunch – May’s teriyaki patties from the freezer and rice cooking for musubis. As the family was eating breakfast, I also managed to sweep and clean under the sink until the patties were done. Cut up the teriyaki patties, put it in a ziploc, make musubis with salt and furikake/chiso furikake, pack plates and utensils, then off to the ball field.
Meal three – finish the leftovers plus Hungry Girl tamale pie (Bocca meatless crumbles, Betty Crocker cornbread, and staples from the pantry including taco and picante sauce from Taco Bell and McDonalds.)
Three meals and everything was either in the pantry or in the freezer. That’s a MAJOR accomplishment!
My domestic goddess status is still intact (except for the piles of crap all over the living room).

Green is the color of summer

Star Trek brings out the hidden geek

I didn’t realize I was a geek until we went to the new Star Trek movie and I actually got teary-eyed when Leonard Nimoy started doing the voice over.

Space… the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.

I am all for saving money by waiting for Netflix. I believe that the entertainment industry is bleeding us dry with stupidity (Blades of Glory, Talladega Nights,. . .), but I am glad we paid our $20 matinee price for 2 adults and one child. Even if I brought my own arare and peanut M&Ms in my bag, it still was more than we normally pay, but this movie is a MUST SEE IN THE THEATRE movie.

Our newest Arrow of Light scout

Ken's final cub scout den (until grandkids)

After 13 years involved with the Waiakea elementary cub scout, pack 19, Ken has FINALLY graduated his last WEBELOS den. From left: Kenneth Ikeda (yes, you’re reading that right), Jayke Sakai, Nick Carvalho and Pono Ikeda. Missing: Ian Sanborn. He has been den leader for Ahi and Pono from tiger cubs to webelos II. Unfortunately, after 13 years, he has still never shaped a winning pinewood derby car, but hey, he’s great at the sailboat regatta boats. Anyway, maybe he should practice before the grandkids.

Pono wins an art award

Pono’s art teacher submitted one of his pieces to the MOA art contest. For the 5th grade, KS took first -third place: Pono 3rd, Mykala Tokunaga 2nd, Zoe Azevedo 1st.