Uncategorized – Page 3 – Monday Morning with Mona

Origami Ornament

I don’t do crafts. Well, I don’t do crafts until I’m supposed to be studying for the GRE, and all of a sudden, I become a crafting queen. I know someone out there can relate. What started out as a great idea a couple of months ago became a “well, I invested money in allContinue reading “Origami Ornament”

Marooned on Yokota

I had a few different writing options for today, but none of them felt quite right. One felt too vulnerable; I may write about it another day. The other one felt too negative; I really try to avoid putting negativity out into the universe. Instead, I will write about an event that happened this timeContinue reading “Marooned on Yokota”

Above and Beyond

Even if you aren’t a fan of American Soccer or “Football”, as the rest of the world calls it, I am pretty sure that you heard about the Japanese cleaning the stadium after their match. After the Japanese defeated Germany, their fans spent hours cleaning up the stadium. I’m pretty sure they left it cleanerContinue reading “Above and Beyond”

Blog Writing Streak Week 1 Recap

Last Monday I began my 30-day-blog-writing-streak. Announcing it was uneventful. It didn’t scare me, and it didn’t intrigue anyone. I decided to try this for a few reasons, and I have a feeling that the “real” reason will emerge over time. I have a few super supporters. My mom, my mother-in-law, my aunt, and aContinue reading “Blog Writing Streak Week 1 Recap”

Three Tigers, One Mountain

Today is day 7 of 30 of my writing-streak, and I am going to share some thoughts on this interesting and insightful book. I feel as if I should preface this post by stating that I don’t know a whole lot about the history of Japan, Korea, and China. I’m not sure why I choseContinue reading “Three Tigers, One Mountain”

Izakaya

If you read my blog yesterday, you know that I was on the struggle bus in determining interesting writing topics. I mentioned this challenge to my husband, and he said, “you should write about our little town.” These few words got me thinking about my favorite things about our little town, which led me toContinue reading “Izakaya”

5 Blog Topics

This is Day 5 of 30 for my blog-writing exercise, and it’s the first day that I don’t have something prepared. As I began planning days and content, I had anticipated that I’d have something positive, fun, or maybe insightful about Thanksgiving so I had expected to be able to use “Thanksgiving on Okinawa” asContinue reading “5 Blog Topics”

Thanksgiving and Gratitude

I hate to admit this, but I don’t remember a lot of Thanksgiving holidays from my childhood. So much of our attention was placed on Christmas that my limited memory space holds Christmas memories and not a lot of Thanksgiving memories. I know we celebrated it, and I know we ate turkey and dressing. IContinue reading “Thanksgiving and Gratitude“

Simple Enchiladas

When I was growing up, my mom would make us enchiladas on special occasions. I remember enjoying them on my birthday, the birthdays of other family members, but never on a random evening. My parents were very busy. They both had full-time jobs, and they had five very active children. My dad spent most ofContinue reading “Simple Enchiladas“

Kyoto in the Fall

This is Day 2 of my 30-day blog writing streak, and it is already feeling hard. I hope that things get a little easier as I progress through the experience. This particular blog post should not feel hard because I have had the idea to write about my trip to Kyoto since I got back.Continue reading “Kyoto in the Fall”