My Russian Blash-up Project

I'd like to blash up my Russian.

I already know how to read and pronounce. I used to know the basic words and grammar, but I don't remember that much.

Here's my challenge.

Goal: Daily conversation, Tweet in Russian, Make Russian friends, Read easy articles

1. Memorize Basic daily conversation 
2. Memorize basic words
3. Start Twitter in  Russian
4. Read one Russian grammar book and pick up essential rules. Memorize the key phrases.
5. Keep up with the work

First, I need to focus on 1&2. I should spare short time on them. Let's just try them in 5 days. 

I need time to prepare the list of the basic daily conversation and words. I know that there're already many useful lists online. But I'd rather make it by myself. I think I'm good at learning foreign languages. So I want to share my methods someday.  

This Russian blash-up project is the very first step for my life work. If I was born for some reason, this is it.

Take a week off from Facebook!

Hi! I'm not bad today.

Do you have your Facebook? Almost all of you have one.So do I. 
How often do you access Facebook?
I think I've been spending too much time on Facebook.
I just watch how my friends are doing.

Sometimes Facebook is kind of annoying. Honestly.
Because all the friends' lives seem extremely fantastic...
And mine? It's just as usual. I'm jealous. 
Lovely dinner party, reunion, wedding......

Do I really have to know all about these?

Yeah, they're my friends. I know them.
But I don't want to watch them everyday (maybe every hour or minute)
I want to see them and have a nice conversation.

So, I decided to stay away from Facebook.
I've already deleted the Facebook app from my iphone.
I won't open Facebook. 
Today is the first day. I'll definitely do this for a week.

How long will it last? I don't know.
I hope this would work well and have a great effect on me.

I happened to find this article on my favorite blog.
This article is about the psychological experiment.
And Here's what happened to the people stopped using SNS.

This is Why You Should Quit Facebook For One Week

After the week, people in the ‘treatment’ group reported all sorts of miraculous improvements:

• A better social life.

• Finding it easier to concentrate.

• Being in a better mood.

• Wasting less time.

Instead of using Facebook, people found better things to do: they talked to each other, they called their family, they felt much calmer.

Now I'm looking forward to my change.
What will happen to me without Facebook?
Oh I really want to feel calmer!!

Shop groceries too often?

Hi! I'm pretty good today.

3 months have passed since I became a housewife. These 3 months I go shopping everyday. I didn't waste money. I just got what my husband and I need. Like vegetables, meat, fish, bread, paper and so on... 

I've been spending much money. And, I don't earn it. I am a big consumer!! I found out that I'm uncomfortable with it. So I'll try to go shopping less often.

Here's my new rule.

Shop only once in 2 days.

It isn't very hard. I just have to figure out what we need in 2 days. 

I don't know if it works. But I'll try. And this is the first week.

I didn't shop anything yesterday. That gave me some free time.

I started this blog yesterday. I could spent time on the things I've wanted to do for long.

This was a breakthrough.

I have a lot of things I want to do. But for some reason, I haven't tried.

Maybe I don't have enough time. Maybe I'm always too sleepy.

However, Life doesn't last forever.

If I have something on my bucket list, I should try right away.

I shouldn't wait for the right time.

I won't be ready for that.

I should just make up my mind and kick start whatever I want.

I love to change.

This shopping rule gives me more time. That's fantastic.

Nothing is more important than time.

Thank you for reading!

Hate cleaning a bathroom!! How do you motivate yourself?

Hello, world! I'm Maki.

Since November I started being a housewife.

I was an English teacher for kids in Japan. But I quit my job because I found out I'm with a baby. Now I have much more time to think about my life, my future. I don't want to let it just go. I realized I need a place to share my thoughts and feelings. This is why I opened up this blog. One day, maybe after some month or years, I'll come back to this article and see my past. What do you feel, future me? Ha ha, it's fun!

Do you like cleaning a bathroom?

Oh please don’t ask. I definitely don’t.

Though there’re a lot to do for housewives, cleaning a bathroom is the most annoying task for me. I want to ask all the housewives. How do you motivate yourself when you clean a bathroom? If you have any good idea, please share that with me!!

Today was the day. I made it a rule to clean a bathroom on Wednesday. Because in Japanese “Wednesday” is called “sui-youbi” and “sui” means “water.” I think it’s better to use water on Wednesday.

This morning I really didn’t want to clean the bath room at all. But I managed to motivate myself. I completed the mission! Here’s what I tried this morning. I want to note this method. It took only 3 minutes.

10:00 am   Accept my feeling

My husband left home. I knew what I have to do today. It’s the cleaning day. But I didn’t feel like doing it. So I sat on the chair and accepted my feeling. “Yeah, it’s okay to hate it, no one likes it.” I took a breath.

10:01 am   Remember Why

Then I asked myself, “Why do you want to clean the bathroom?” I remembered what I saw during taking a bath last night. I found a little stain under the shelf. I didn’t like it. I thought I would wash it off tomorrow.

10:02 am   Imagine the Furure

I’m going to take a bath tonight, too. I imagined how I feel if I left the stain….oh, no. I was pretty sure that I would blame myself. A bad day. No, no, no!! Then I imagined how I feel if I clean it up…..I would be proud of myself! I’d be happier than yesterday! I stood up and started cleaning the bathroom.

Now I’m finished cleaning and writing this article. I feel pretty good!

Looking at these 3-min steps, I see 3 things: the present, the past and the future.

On the first step, I accepted what I felt at the moment. (the present)

Second, I remembered what I had thought last night. (the past)

Last, I imagined what I would feel in the future. (the future)

It’s really hard to control myself. But I found one way to do it.

Next time I’ll try this method again. I’m not sure if it’ll work, though!

But it’s good to control myself. That makes me happier and makes my life nicer.

Now I’m looking forward to enjoy bath time tonight.

Thank you for reading:)