A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
I have one more thing to say before my phone is useless for a while: Happy Birthday to the most amazing, astounding, brilliant, caring, darling, elegant, fantastic, gorgeous, handsome, intelligent, joking, killer, loving, manly, nice, old, perfectly patient, quiet, rad, sophisticated, true, understanding, vivacious, wise, x---, young, zippy guy whom I love more than anything! Happy birthday Devin!
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While we're sitting in the airport, I thought it would be good idea to take advantage of the sitting and update. We enjoyed some school time the past few days. Thursday, we went back to the U.S. botanical gardens and finished up our Junior Botanists! The kids were super troopers and we finished up the whole thing in record time with 100% participation! This is exciting to me, as it's sometimes really difficult to get the youngest to be involved. We did leaf rubbings after from leaves that we had collected on our walk. Peter loved that one! He got so excited when the leaf would start to appear! 😆 Friday we spent the day packing and swimming and watching movies. Hey, even in school you have to have a party day, right? Devin and I spent our date night traveling via bus and metro to get to the airport for s rental car. We decided that it would be s good idea to get a car since our flight left really late and we had to check out super early. Today, we checked out of our apartment early (thank goodness!) and headed out to visit Devin's aunt and uncle. We really enjoyed our time with them! I wish we could have stayed longer! They took us out for an early lunch, and we meandered about Trader Joe's in search of good airplane treats. 😇 Claire was in heaven when Aunt Yvonne bought her a special brush! She will forever remember to brush her hair and fondly think of her beautiful great aunt! We then headed down to Manassas to the Manassas Battlefield. Since we're doing some American history this year, we thought it would be neat to go to some battle sites. It's especially fitting, since Andrew LOVES the early American wars (Revolutionary or Civil)--not sure why. The little boys were in heaven with all of the super cool cannons! And, as a special bonus, they did the Jr Ranger program there! The kids were over the moon to get badges that say 'battlefield' on them! We then headed up to visit some of our friends that were with us in Jordan! We enjoyed a few hours of giggling over old times, eating lots of yummy food, and listening to the banging, bashing, and shooting of boys having a great time! Claire got a makeover, so she had a great time, too! It was fun to see them again and spend time with friends while waiting for our time to go... When that time came, we said our goodbyes, and drove off to see what would happen next. We turned in our car, and instead of making us unload our bags and go over on the shuttle, they just let us stay in the car, and someone drove us over! Nice! Check in was SUPER easy, as you go to a kiosk, no line needed, tag your bags, and turn them in. All our bags were between 49.5-50 lbs! Wow!! Security was fast and easy... And here we are! Just one more hour before we head out. I'm so excited to see my new house and country for the next three years. So long, U.S.! Stay tuned for our travel adventures once we reach the other side! Today we met up with some friends at the American History Museum. It's become something of a tradition to meet up together and see all the trains. :) it's so great to meet up with good friends and talk about homeschooling together and get new ideas and inspirations! :) After our quick run through the museum, the kids and I headed up to the National Archives. We've been reading about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, so we got to go see the real thing!! It was so neat! I admit to tearing up a bit when I saw that document in front of me. So inspirational! One of those Proud to be an American moments. Amazing. We then headed back to the American History Museum to see the inventions/innovations stuff on our way back to the metro. Then it was home again--and straight to the pool to cool off! :) We're all looking forward to 'Devika's Special' (aka lentil soup) for dinner tonight. And thus ends our last Tuesday... I'm thoroughly enjoying the use of my phone as a means of constantly updating my blog! Hooray for modern conveniences!! Today we went to the Botanical Gardens and tried to be junior botanists...and then we went over to the Natural History museum and watched a 3D IMAX movie about the oceans. It's been a LONG time since I've watched anything in 3D. I should have brought some Dramamine. Ha! And it didn't help that the kids wanted to sit backwards on all the metro trains we went on today. Oh well. I can still walk, and I can still see. I'm good. I'm good. What better activity is there than bicycling around our Nation's Capital on a Friday?? We went ALL over! The kids were super troopers, with only a couple of good spills (like when Andrew slammed into Devin and Peter...or when he hit a light pole square on...or when Claire missed the curb...) We found the best place--they even rent out kids bikes and trail-a-bikes. Wish we had some more Fridays to ride around the town... "Life IS pain, highness. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something."
This quote often goes through my head during transition time. It's really hard. It's hard for ALL of us. We travel thousands and thousands of miles to see family and friends, and yet it never seems to be enough. We live out of people's basements, spare rooms, back yards...mess up their schedules and lives...eat all their food... We do try to be good house guests and clean up after ourselves and try to make it as pain-free as possible, but it really is hard to be homeless for long periods of time. Don't get me wrong--I'm grateful that we have these long periods of time to visit family and our home country. It's nice to have a few weeks to visit and be with people we love! I'm just sorry that we're in transition mode when we come. We are NOT at our best. We're tired. We're not in our 'natural habitat'. We're infringing on someone else's space, and while it's usually someone we love dearly, it's still not OUR home. *sigh* C'est la vie, I guess. Now, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our homeless time is winding down. Yesterday was the last Sunday in the states. Today is the last Monday. Each day that passes will be the last of its kind. Next week at this time, we'll be flying through the air on the way to our new home! Oh, how nice it will be to have rooms of our own--with no neighbors up- or downstairs! And yet, we're still here, so we're trying to make the best of each day and not look too far ahead and wish our lives away (as my mom always used to tell me). Yesterday, we walked 2 miles to get to church! That was fun. But we made it! There was a lot of howling (especially when we passed the parks), but we made it!! Today, the kids and I walked to the metro and made it downtown all by ourselves! It sounds really silly, since we've lived here in the past AND we've been here MANY times, but I usually have a car. This time, we decided to forego the car and just use metro. I was pretty proud that we found the metro--it's about 1/2 mile away--AND we found our way back! There was minimal crying and complaining (it's not a real field trip without some), and we didn't get lost even once. I feel empowered! Plus, we went to the grocery store all by ourselves and carried it all home! Impressive. Now, it's off to make dinner. I'm grateful that we have a little kitchen. It even has a dishwasher! We haven't had to eat out here at all, and that's been really nice. Tomorrow is the last Tuesday. I wonder what we'll do? For FHE tonight, we went bowling. Today's bowling scores: Devin: 93 Emily: 87 Josh: 73 Claire: 80 Andrew: 66 Peter: 114 Looks like we've found Peter's vocation! Well, it's that time again. Summer vacation has ended, and it's time to dig in to those studies. I love to start off the year with something extraordinary! So, since we'll be doing a lot of early modern (American and otherwise) history, it's time to see some history in action! We put together a history through time puzzle of DC (thanks to my family who pitched in a whole lot)! Pretty cool! And now it's time to see our nation's Capitol once again. This time, we'll see some things we've never seen before, so stay tuned! It should be good! |
Who Am I?
As a Stay At Home Mom of 4 wonderful children, I have the amazing opportunity not only to home school them, but to do so in many different places! I am married to the most amazingly wonderful (and handsome) man in the whole world! Together, we seek out, every day, that Joy in the Journey that makes life exciting! Archives
November 2020
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Emily's books
by Dan Brown
I like that the plot twists and turns a lot...and it makes you think. However, I don't appreciate Dan Brown's endings in his books. I find the endings incongruent with the rest of his stories--why make it a romance for the last chapter...
by Shannon Hale
I loved this book. I'm a sucker for fairy tales/fantasy. This was so well written! I can't wait to read all the rest of her books!
by Shannon Hale
I'm reading this one again. I liked it the first time I read it. I'm still liking it for the second time around. I like all of Shannon Hales' books.
**Still lots of fun the second time around! I do like this book for a comfortable...
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