A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
Oh, What do you do during quarantine? When all the world is closed! Do you grow taller than mom? Or sing like a bomb? Or read 'till you can't feel your toes? Is that what you do? We do, too! Oh, What do you do during quarantine? When all the world is closed! Do you play on the Wii? Have church on TV? Or bake 'till you can't see straight? Is that what you do? We do, too! Oh, What do you do during quarantine? When all the world is closed? Do you sleep in a chair? Drink soda without a care? Or do math so you don't get hosed? Is that what you do? We do, too! Oh, What do you do during quarantine? When all the world is closed? Do you float boats in a tub? Play cello in a club? Or shop where your wagon goes? Is that what you do? We do, too! Oh, What do you do during quarantine? When all the world is closed? Do you pull out the the big screen? Do puzzles that're mean? Or eat gummi bears by the pound? Is that what you do? We do, too! Oh, What do you do during quarantine? When all the world is closed? Do you play air guitar? Or relax by the hour? Or set up your dominoes? Is that what you do? We do, too! Eight weeks down. No idea how many to go. The first 6 weeks were kind of novel. I'm now done. I'd like to go for a walk. I'm worried that by the time this is over I'm going to forget how.
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Weekend two of our deliberate family fun: A formal ball! The night before, we had a big 'date night', where we rented 'Onward' from Amazon and set up our projector and big screen. For our Ball Day, we had a special lunch (steak and potatoes), then we spent some time making lovely refreshments like cucumber sandwiches, fruit salad, cupcakes, punch (berry lemonade), homemade applesauce, and deviled eggs. Yum! After our refreshments were made, we all dressed up in our fancy ball clothes, took the absolutely necessary pre-dance photos, then danced to Claire's SUPER AWESOME lineup of songs! It was SO MUCH FUN! We danced and sang and were crazy! I'll never forget it. I think it was the best ball I've ever been to. It was so cute--the Relief Society here asked me to teach a cooking class via Zoom, so I taught them how to make my bread. :) One of the things that I really like about doing cooking activities via Zoom is the fact that first, I don't have to clean up a HUGE mess after everyone leaves, but everyone is in their own house with all of their ingredients, so they can follow along in real time and make their own creation at the same time! So we're all making bread for our own houses--which I think is super cool. It's especially nice for introverts like myself who, while I LOVE to be around people, I get really exhausted from it. I don't feel nearly as exhausted after an hour on Zoom with everyone. I can just turn it off and I got my 'people fix' in a very un-exhausting way. :) I think it's a great way to have activities, even when we aren't all in quarantine. :) Besides, I also don't have to super-mega-deep clean my house...and my oven is really dirty. I should probably see to that.
Just a few of my favorite Memes from the quarantine time... We needed to spice things up. A month at home with every single day melding into the other is seriously unhealthy. Besides, we should be taking advantage of all the 'extra time' we have (side-note--I NEVER have extra time. Ever. Never. Ever. Period.) by doing fun things! So, we decided we were going to have a camp out! Well, actually, the boys were going to have a camp out, and Claire and I would stay inside and have a girls' night! So the boys set up the tent in the front yard and made it cozy; they decided what they were going to eat and popped it all into the cooler and took it out by the BBQ. Then, when they were ready, they 'hiked' to their campsite (walked around the tent a bunch of times), and the girls closed the door. They weren't allowed inside, and we weren't allowed outside! It was SO much fun! Claire and I had a jacuzzi bubble-bath party and stayed up until 3am watching Downton Abbey and eating candy. The next day, the boys enjoyed themselves so much, they decided to tack on another day! We were ok with that! So the next day the boys did lots of stuff (I have no idea what), and Claire and I watched more Downton Abbey and watched YouTube videos on how to put on makeup and made ourselves really pretty! It REALLY made a difference and gave us all something to look forward to and something to work toward. We've decided that we need to do this EVERY weekend--even after quarantine ends. Doing something different makes a difference! Hooray for family time! Just a few days before we went on full lock-down: An outing to see live music! It was called 'Broadway Sinfonica'--and it was a live pit orchestra with live singers singing popular Broadway musical songs. It was actually REALLY well done! I teared up often and Claire and I were over the moon! Seeing things live is just so wonderful. I can't wait to go do it again! This was a fun day trip arranged by some friends. We hopped on a bus early in the morning and spent a few hours traveling to Tiwanaku--ancient ruins that have 3 different temples (a high one, one below-ground, and one at ground level) along with some cool statues and the famous Sun Gate. It was really interesting and nice to get out of the house for the day! A few more interesting pictures of the protests and things leading up to our eventual evacuation. I love the poster in the picture to the left. The yellow sign says, "We apologize for the inconvenience; we're repairing our country. Thank you!" So great! This also shows the things we saw on our walks home from church...the messages telling us to stay home and be careful...and even where all the major road blocks and protests were happening! (That would be all the places marked in red on the screen shots.) It was certainly an interesting time! What a lovely Sunday! And also a turning point in our stay in Bolivia. Our bishop was celebrating his birthday, and his wife is my good friend, so she invited us over to celebrate! So much fun! All of my bestest buddies together to laugh and eat! We enjoyed chatting together and just being together. While we were in the middle of our celebration, Luchy (the bishop's wife) yells out, "The President is stepping down!! It's on TV!!" We all ran into their TV room and watched live as the president Evo Morales read a statement that he was stepping down as president! What an incredible moment! Everyone was cheering and crying. Most of our friends ran out to jump and yell and celebrate with everyone in the streets. Out in the streets all the cars were honking non-stop and people were shooting off fireworks! It was crazy!! We spent a few more minutes with our friends, then Luchy drove us home. This is when everything went crazy. Luchy barely made it home--as angry mobs started to roam the streets, attacking the celebrating people and throwing rocks at cars. Our friends who ran out to celebrate ended up sheltering in Luchy's house! These angry mobs roamed the streets all night and terrorized people. They vandalized cars, broke into stores and stole things, dragged people into the streets, and burned city busses! We were told to turn off all of our lights and stay far away from our windows. Claire and I sat at my window (on the third story of our house) where we had a view of the main road. We watched angry mobs roam the streets and shoot fireworks into people's houses. We watched as another group confronted the angry mob to stop them from entering the major grocery store across the street. We were terrified that they would come down our street. The police were overwhelmed, so we knew there would be no response. It was so frightening! This happened for 3 nights in a row. The local neighborhoods set up MAJOR road blocks (not just ropes with a few stones this time--we're talking the French Resistance from Les Miserables), called themselves "The Neighbors" ('Los Vecinos'), and rotated with each other in order to stay up all night to protect the women and children and their homes!! It was incredible. But Monday night, we got the news: Ordered Departure. We were forced to leave our home and my hubby...we sort of thought it might be coming, so we decorated for Christmas and had Christmas morning the day before we left... Definitely the most memorable Christmas yet. |
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
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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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