A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
Getting ready to blow out the ‘candle’ (it’s actually a match...)—it’s hard to believe my little Andrew is TWELVE!!! Happy birthday to my sweet, kind, loving little boy! How I love you!!!!❤️💕😘
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Bolivian dancing!! The youth groups of all the wards and branches in our stake (church organization here) put on a huge dance festival! It was so fun to watch—but my favorite was watching my two oldest kiddos dance about dressed up in South American costumes! So awesome!
A full week has now passed here in La Paz. What can I say? Our minds haven't changed. Yes, it's only been a week (and a few days), but we are still loving everything! Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the day checking in at the embassy. We got to meet almost everyone, which was wonderful! The people here are SO nice! Thursday, a lady from church took Claire and myself all around the city. It was SO fun and really helpful. She would drive us around and point out landmarks, then a little while later, she would stop and make me point out where things were in the city in relation with where we were situated. Oh my, it has made such a difference! I know where things are and can find my way around...plus I know what to tell taxi drivers now! :) That's super helpful!
Friday, that same lovely lady took Claire and myself down to the local market nearby our house. It is a lovely open market that is only open on Fridays. Mmm... The fruit and veg and meat here is AMAZING. Everything just tastes SO GOOD! And they have EVERYTHING! They have all the tropical fruits that we were used to in Sri Lanka, plus all the fun fruits we loved in Jordan (such as figs!!!), AND all the other fruit that we just love--like peaches and berries! And it's ALL good--and almost all of it is grown here in Bolivia! Amazing. Almost everything we've bought in the grocery store is made in Bolivia! Pretty self-sustaining. After Claire and I went to the market, Josh, Claire and I went up the teleferico to the embassy for Zumba/weight lifting class. It was SO fun! We met a cute lady on the teleferico and talked to her on the way up. I got a little distracted and we missed our stop, so we ended up being almost 30 minutes late for our Zumba class, but it was ok. We'll get there on time next week. Then we came back home with Devin and all sort of zoned out. Whew. Yesterday we mostly sat around all morning. It was nice not to have a ton of things all scheduled! We went grocery shopping, then played around, then went on a hike up to a really cool nature park that's about 1 1/2 miles away. It's pretty much straight uphill, and Josh and I were huffing and puffing, but we made it! :) It was pretty...but closed by the time we got there. Oh well. It had absolutely gorgeous views...but then, the entire city has gorgeous views! Heck, my ROOM has gorgeous views! I kind of never want to leave it! :D Today, we had a special stake conference at church! Elder Renlund of the Quorum of the 12 came and spoke to our stake! Neat!! All the talks before him were in Spanish, and I did my best to translate for the people next to me (Claire and Andrew), but luckily, Elder Renlund's talk was in English and was translated into Spanish for everyone else. It was a really great conference, though! A lot of good reminders. That's what church/conference/study is for, so it was a success! We came home and made some super yummy food (black bean soup and chicken salad), then had a Monk marathon! Ha! We decided to introduce the kids to Monk, and they REALLY loved it! So, we watched a few episodes. :) We ended the day by calling Devin's family--today is his mom's birthday! Yay! Happy Birthday!! I'm so grateful for technology that allows us to be able to communicate with family in real time--and how funny it is to be only 2 hours' time difference! It totally blows my mind! I'm still wrapping my mind around that fact. We've lived SO far away (well, we're still far away, just not in time zones) for the past 11 years, that it will take me a bit of time to come to grips with the lack of time difference. :) It's been a good first week. Very full, and very busy! Tomorrow we start school 'officially'--time to get ourselves into a schedule! We'll see how that goes... Our first Monday at post!! It was SO FULL!! It started out at 6 am when Dev and I walked Josh and Claire to early morning seminary... While they were enjoying some Spanish immersion, Dev and I walked over to the nearby Teleferico to check it out! We got the rider cards and walked back to pick up Josh and Claire, then made it home in time to make a quick breakfast then head out again—this time with everyone. We caught a taxi...after a few false starts...and made it up to the embassy to meet up with our group to take a walking tour of the city! First, we rode the Teleferico... It is pretty much our new most favorite thing in the history of our world travels. Ever. It’s like riding a ride at Disneyland! SO COOL!!!! Words cannot describe how supremely awesome it is!!!! As soon as we started going, and experienced the first swoop of leaving the platform, the kids all yelled out, “PLEASE can we extend!!???!?” Ha! It is that cool. Next we got to walk around the markets. Sadly, I have no photos, since I was having way too much fun! Ha! We found a shoe rack, headphones for Claire, a new watch band for Peter, cool llama/alpaca hats for most of us, a super cute llama/alpaca sweater for Claire, and an alpaca scarf for me... That picture is sort of cheating, since I just took it...and I’m sitting on the stairs at the church waiting for seminary to end...but isn’t my scarf pretty? Yah, this place has my favorite things...😳 Anyway, we then went to lunch with our group at a super yummy Cuban restaurant... After lunch, we walked back to the Teleferico, and headed back home. We were all exhausted, but it was a good tired! We came home and watched a movie (‘After Earth’), then goofed around for a bit until bedtime. Whew. Altogether, I walked almost 10 miles yesterday...with no altitude problems! It’s been pretty glorious!
Today, we’re gearing up for more fun! Time to check in at the embassy and start getting ourselves involved! Yay! |
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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