A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
Devin is FINALLY home. Hooray! Yesterday, the President came through Jordan, said hello, flew down to Petra, said hello, and flew back to the US. So, I took advantage of the fact that Devin was still down in a hotel room in Petra with not much to do, and my housekeeper was free, and I took off and drove down to Petra! Yes, I went all by myself. I have now driven to Petra by myself. I drove by myself with four kids, too, this week. It's a pretty long drive--and the Desert Highway can get a little monotonous--but I didn't mind! I enjoyed passing all those big trucks. On the way down yesterday, the wind was blowing like CRAZY! Whew! It was very exciting. But, I made it down to Devin in time for dinner (a lovely buffet at the hotel) and a visit to the sauna (oh, man, how I've missed the sauna!!).
This morning, a few of Devin's colleagues wanted to go to Little Petra. Devin had already visited, but I hadn't, so we all went to see it! So fun!!! :) If anyone out there who reads this ever makes a trip to Petra, make SURE you don't miss Little Petra! It's not well marked, but if you know about it, you can ask the guards at the entrance to the regular Petra. You get to drive a ways around Petra on the other side and see all kinds of amazing things! It's a beautiful drive. Then, you get to the Little Petra and aside from it being free (hooray!), it's pretty cool. The rocks are pretty, and there are LOTS of little caves and rooms and stairways to explore. Yes, it's small (hence the name 'Little'), but I still felt it was worth it. If you have kids and you're thinking of a visit to Petra, I think this would be their highlight. I wish I would have taken mine when we went down! I'm sure, though, that we'll have plenty of more opportunities to visit that site. We enjoyed some fun exploring and climbing. On our way out, we stopped by the vendors (hey, sometimes you just gotta help 'em out and buy a scarf! Ha!) and Devin got a local headcovering thing, and I got a couple of scarves. They even all took turns showing me how to put it on in different ways! :) They all laugBy the time they finished with me, I looked like a Bedouin woman! :) They offered Devin 200 camels for me, but thankfully he didn't take it. :D The drive home was much happier this time, as I got to take Devin home with me! :) We stopped off at a little shop outside the ruins of a big castle (Ash Shubak) and got lunch: oranges, bananas, dates, and some YUMMY cookie things (sesame seeds, coconut, nuts, all held together by honey--divine!) and munched all the way home while listening first to a Twilight Zone radio drama (ha ha ha) and then Sting. Lovely. We dressed ourselves up as Bedouins and knocked on our door when we got home. It was fun to see the kids' faces! :) Good times. It's nice to be home again--and even better to have Devin home with us! Next up: Jerusalem. Luckily, though, we get to go with him on this adventure. We're already looking up activities and things to do while we're there--I'm sure we won't be bored! Time to get myself into a good habit of updating, as I'm thinking we're going to have LOTS and LOTS to share in the next month and a half!!!! :) (Hopefully I'll get some pictures off of Devin's phone and his co-worker's camera--I'll post them later if I do. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring mine. Ooops.)
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In one of the Frog and Toad books, there's a little story about Frog hearing his father say that spring was right around the corner. He tells Toad all about how he went searching around corners to see if he could find Spring. So, today, we went on a search for Spring. Did we find it?? Did we ever!! Trees in blossom; Flowers in bloom; Green, green grass; A light rain; A lovely breeze... Spring!! We had such a nice time! It was the best of both worlds: Devin loves to drive around and get lost in order to explore. I like to explore, but I like to know where I'm going. So, we used the gps most of the time just for reference and just drove around and found what we could. We tried to find some parks, but they were locked up, so we had a picnic on the side of a mountain! It was so pretty! Some of the kids and I climbed down the embankment to pick some wild flowers. We ate our lunch in the car--our lunch consisted of fruits and veggies that we had bought while driving around! We had fresh strawberries, huge, sweet oranges, ripe, red apples, and tiny, sweet bananas! It was SO yummy! And I need to learn some more Arabic so I can communicate better with the side-of-the-road fruit and veggie guys. They don't speak ANY English. At all! Ha! After we traveled around and looked at all the flowering trees (it was like looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve!), we started to head home. We went to see if the largest Christmas tree in the middle East was still up, and it was!! So, we got to see it in daylight...and it still looked just as totally awesome as ever! The star was even still up on the top...and looked like it was bound to topple off at any second! After we saw the Christmas tree (and played tag all around it), we continued on our meandering way home. The GPS took us on some seriously cool backroads to get around and we really loved it! We ended up in the city of Al Fuhais (we initially were headed to the city of As Salt), and stopped off at a couple of fruit stands with a bakery in between! The bakery was so fun! They had the guys in the back making the dough and the bread and a HUGE brick oven that they cooked everything in! They let the kids go back and watch them cook, and handed out big chunks of bread to them to eat while they watched. So fun! :) As we were heading home, everyone started screaming that they had to go to the bathroom. I suppose this was to be expected since we'd eaten a TON of fruit all day long! As we were heading out of Al Fuhais, I saw the big mosque that's right next to the Children's Museum, so we went there to use the bathrooms...and to play some more, of course! Peter always has to fix the car! :) All in all, it was a wonderfully marvelous day. We left the Children's museum and went to sweifieh to find some yummy food at a Shawerma stand and enjoyed that on a picnic blanket in our living room while we watched a movie on the big screen! This was the perfect day, really. We enjoyed some very happy family time, and enjoyed one last day with Devin before he had to leave for training. Thankfully, the training is short, but still....I'm glad we got in a really good day. :) Beautiful sky on our drive through the Desert Highway Well, hopefully it's not OUR last crusade... Of course, that movie wasn't Indiana's last crusade, either, really, as he had a run-in with some aliens later. Regardless, it seemed like a good place to go and experience something awesome! Indiana Jones Gift Shop! Time to watch the movie! Devin and I have started a tradition of doing seriously outdoorsy activities for our anniversaries. We both really enjoy hiking/biking/running/exercising, so why not do something somewhat physically grueling together since we can't really be so...intense...with the kids... Last year, we went on a 110 mile bike ride through the archipelago sea between Sweden and Finland. This year, we decided to go to Petra and do some serious hiking! We started out at sunrise and hiked until sunset and saw EVERYTHING that we could possibly see! I have no idea how much we walked, but we're both in pretty good shape and by the time we got to our hotel that evening we were pretty beat! It was SO AWESOME! It is even cooler than all the guide books will tell you. The pictures look pretty cool, but the real thing...well, it's beyond words. Hiking through the Siq to get to the entrance of Petra--the Treasury! Honestly, I didn't know there was SO MUCH to Petra! The Treasury was just the beginning. We hiked along and saw TONS of tombs, carvings, donkeys, camels, churches, temples... Wow. Another highlight of our trip was hiking up to the Monastery. Wow. It's quite the hike. It's like 800 steps (large stairs carved into the rock) up to this really high point. Once you reach the end of the stairs, you turn right and look out...and Oh. My. Goodness. You think the Treasury is impressive? It's got nothin' on the Monastery! It's HUGE and seriously impressive. As we were on our way back to the hotel after our hiking, I couldn't give up the chance to take a short camel ride! Good thing it was short--those things are NOT comfortable! But it sure looks cool!! :) After the camel ride, we took a short break to eat a snack and get our energy back for one very last hike: The High Place of Sacrifice. We were feeling pretty good again, and took most of the stairs two at a time and made that hike in about 10-15 minutes (the guides tell you it takes 1 1/2 hours...whatever)! It was very impressive! The views on the edge of the cliff were astounding, and it was just so interesting to see the altars of sacrifice and to KNOW that what we've been taught about sacrifice is really real! You can just imagine the Children of Israel up there doing their sacrifices. Amazing. On our way back, we were passed often by the carriage rides you can take from the Treasury up to the entrance if you don't want to walk the 1km back uphill. We found the walk very lovely and MUCH more comfortable than wooden wheels on rocky and unpaved ground! :) All part of the experience, I guess, but I liked watching them pass instead of sitting in them. Here is the proof of what you can do when you turn of the tv. Gives you something to think about, eh?
He he... That's one of my favorite lines from Muppet Treasure Island... But, this has nothing to do with muppets and everything to do with dead stuff! :) Well, not really dead things, either. Just a big Dead Sea! We made some big plans with some friends, packed our bags and headed down to the Dead Sea for Thanksgiving this year! We ate our big traditional dinner the night before (on Josh's birthday!) and then took off Thanksgiving morning for a fun romp at the sea, some swimming, some relaxing, and some fun with friends! :) We made many forays to the hotel pool where the kids were fish! :) They had such a ball--and the view of the dead sea and the mountains on the Israel side was SO beautiful! (The pictures, of course, don't do it justice since it was pretty cloudy...) My favorite was Andrew, though, as he would climb up the side of the jacuzzi, make friends with whomever was in there, then jump off the edge of the jacuzzi into the big pool! He got away with it a few times before the life guard had to tell him to stop...Ha!! We took some time to float in the Dead Sea... That water is SO COOL!! You can SEE that it's a salt and water solution--the water looks almost greasy! It feels thick, sort of like unset jello, and you really do float like a cork! I can't wait to do it again! (Of course, poor Josh and Claire with their eczema...that wasn't so nice...) Peter refused to get into the water. He had a great time, though, playing in the rocks on the shore! He is a little climber! So, really, he had the best day ever! :) It was sure funny to watch him clamber over the rocks and giggle and squeal over the different colors and fun times he was having all by himself! At the end of our lovely day there, we took the time to walk around the hotel and the beach area of the sea and watch the sun set. It was SO lovely and peaceful! The colors were gorgeous and we enjoyed our evening walk together. I got some cool shots from the car...our first view of the dead sea, the sign that shows the turn-off for the baptism site, some cool buildings, a bedouin camp...and then some cool pics of the Israeli mountains across from us. Overall, it was a great trip. We really enjoyed our stay at a really cool landmark! We'll definitely go back again!
This past weekend was a local holiday, so we took advantage and made a trip to Jerash with some friends! What a cool city! I will most definitely go back--we didn't get to explore too much as the kids got hungry (ok, so I did, too) and it's SO close that we can get there quickly. And besides, the live chariot races weren't going on since it was a holiday! I'm SO going to see that and take these guys! They would eat it up!!! So, here are some lovely pictures from our quick Saturday trip to the ancient ruins in Jerash! Um, sorry bro Wayne, I really didn't mean for my panoramic shot to make your face look so weird...
A super cool outing! I look forward to the next time! What a lovely stay we enjoyed in Vienna! We arrived in the city at 8:30am and found a large van taxi to take us to our hotel. Fortunately for us, the room was already ready! WOW! So they let us check in early! That was a first! I will HIGHLY recommend the Hilton Danube to ANYONE! If you go to Vienna, stay there. Yes, it ‘s a little ways outside the city center, but not really THAT far, it has great HUGE rooms, beautiful views of the Danube (Our rooms were on the ground level and the windows looked out right on the river! So pretty!), AND if you’re staying at the hotel, kids eat free in the restaurant! THAT was our favorite part! J We dropped our bags off in our rooms and Devin and I showered. After a LONG flight across the Atlantic, I have to admit that it was NICE to shower and get a little refreshed. I know I hardly slept on the flight. I sat straight upright the whole time. Andrew, Claire and I had the middle three seats, so Andrew lay down and put his feet across my lap and so did Claire, so I held their legs on my lap all night while they slept. It was alright. Then Claire woke up at 6am Vienna time—there is no stopping her internal clock!!!!—and asked me if it was morning yet! Gah! She spent the rest of the flight playing video games on her tv. Thank heavens for that! Anyway, we showered and changed and walked over to the train station so we could get day passes on the public metro/whatever system to go do some siteseeing. We got to the ticket machine and swiped the credit card, and it asked for a pin. Huh? It’s a credit card. There IS no pin. But then we read the fine print and it said that ALL credit cards required a pin and if you didn’t know it, you needed to call your credit card company. Um, it’s hard for people who have no phone, you know? So, our ticket transaction was denied. We couldn’t get train tickets! L We were all REALLY grumpy at this point, so we walked back to the hotel and realized that we hadn’t eaten for almost 24 hours. (Yes, they fed us on the plane—and unfortunately, it was the WORST airplane food I’ve EVER HAD, and I’ve been on lots of airplanes. They gave Claire, Andrew and me pasta because everything else was out. Number one, I don’t eat pasta. Number two, you open that up and it was DARK BROWN—almost BLACK from being overheated and was as hard as a rock! Gross. Everything was serious carbs. I would get less sick eating nothing than eating what they gave me. Same with breakfast. Sugary yogurt, a muffin, and orange juice.) So, we went to the hotel restaurant that had just barely opened for business and ordered a HUGE lunch for everyone. It took a little while (they cooked it!!!) but when it came, everyone ate in silence and at the end there was nothing left on the table! Hooray! We all felt much better after that. So, we decided to go for a walk on the banks of the Danube since we couldn’t see the city center. It was SO LOVELY!! The PERFECT way to see some of Vienna on our own terms. In the middle of our walk, we found a park! Now the kids will have VERY fond memories of Vienna! Then, we walked back to our hotel and watched some Olympics until dinner. It was a lovely, lovely day. I’d definitely go back to Vienna. Here I sit on the floor of our temporary apartment in Falls Church, VA, contemplating the fact that we're leaving the US...yet again. It's nice that I'm very calm about this move. I'm not sure what the difference is this time. I was VERY nervous about moving to Africa. I was nervous about moving to Finland. I suppose I'm nervous about moving and all the things it entails, but I somehow feel more...well, I can't say prepared, because you just can't ever be prepared for moving overseas, but maybe that's why I feel calmer this time. I know I can't be prepared; I know that it's going to be difficult to adjust; I know there are going to be a lot of bumps and pitfalls along the way; I know it's going to take time to find my niche and get used to not only the culture, but the other many things on my plate, and it's all ok! So, I guess in a way I AM prepared! I'm prepared knowing that I'm totally unprepared and that everything in my life is going to be turned upside down once again, and it will (eventually) be ok. Three years is probably enough time to get fairly settled. I'm excited for new adventures and, yes, even new hardships. Both of those give experience and aid growth.
So, onward, ever onward we go. It may be awhile before I have internet access again. I don't know how quickly it will be installed into our apartment in Amman. In the meantime, I will take lots of pictures! Did you know that there are Jr. Ranger programs at the National Mall in Washington D.C.? Well, I didn't...until today! We were walking downtown to the Main State building (to get new passport photos and update Devin's stuff) and we walked past the Lincoln Memorial. As we were nearing the monument, we noticed a small ranger station (kiosk-esque style) and noticed that it said it was the Department of National Memorials and Parks... Hmmmm... So, we went to the information person and Voila! we are the proud owners of three Jr Ranger booklets! Luckily, we still have almost 2 weeks left here, so we can do them at our leisure and learn a TON about the monuments at the National Mall! Super cool! This will fit perfectly into the mini unit we're doing while we're here about the founding fathers/presidents/United States! Josh is Uber excited to add another badge to the hat (just wait until I get his Jr Ranger post up! What a hat he has!)--Andrew and Claire...not so much. But, they're going to learn things anyway. The Jr Rangers tend to have a lot of writing in them, and while I think it's important for the littles to do some writing, I think over-doing it is not a good idea. So I ask them questions or tell them cool stuff and they answer everything orally and I write it down. That works for us and they retain it better and are having a blast, so I have no problem with it. We learned all kinds of things about the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial today. The best thing about all of these Jr Ranger programs is that we learn more about the parks/memorials than we would otherwise. We seek out the rangers and ask them all sorts of questions and the kids are genuinely interested. We go on hikes that we wouldn't otherwise do. We look at memorials more thoroughly and with a more observant eye. It is such a great program. Everyone should do it. Seriously.
We didn't finish our Jr Ranger today, though. We got to Main State, the kids and I got our photos taken, then Devin had to wait to get his badge. We waited...and we waited...and we waited...and an hour and 40 minutes later he was done. Man, it was hard to keep 4 energetic kids occupied in a hallway for that long. We survived...barely. Then we had to run (literally) to the car as our time for parking was almost up! The kids were troopers and ran right along with us (well, Peter and Andrew were in the stroller and Devin pushed them. They whooped and yelled about how fun it was to go so fast! Ha!) and we made it just in the nick of time! Whew! It was HOT, and while we were hoping to float around and see some more things and find some cool D.C. t-shirts (always important when we're here to update the cheap off-the-street-vendor-touristy t-shirt), we just decided to sit in the A/C and go home with a quick side trip to Target to get some ice cream! Good times. On another note: I love watching the Olympics. I can't help tearing up a bit as I watch cyclists tearing down the road, or synchronized divers execute something I couldn't even dream of doing. It's inspiring, even with all it's craziness and hype and politics. The people who compete are amazing and ALL of them deserve our awe. They're all Gold Medalists in my book. Well, here we are in lovely downtown Falls Church, VA. It's always a cozy place to come back to, as we've lived here a few times. Our trip here was uneventful, really, which is good and bad. Good, because we didn't have to stress too much about anything. Bad, because there's not much to blog about when your trip runs smoothly!! Ha! It DID take us quite a long time to get our bags from the baggage claim (we went to the wrong one...I heard the announcement that the baggage claim was changed, but Devin didn't, and I couldn't get his attention without leaving the kids and the bags alone, so I just waited until he got tired of searching for the non-existent bags...once I told him where they were, we found them in minutes...but the entire process took over an hour), and once we got our bags and jumped on the shuttle to the rental car place, they told us that they didn't have the car we had requested (why has this happened to us so much lately? We even pre-paid, people!) so Dev spent another hour with the lady trying to decide which car we should take instead! This took a lot of ingenuity on my part to keep my poor cabin-crazy kids somewhat still AGAIN so they didn't start running all over the parking lot and smashing cars while playing tag. We sang '10 in the Bed' and 'The Ants Go Marching...' a few times, with some very creative actions by me (I bounced them on my legs like a horsey ride and threw them off--they thought it was funny--and I got a workout), and managed to get through the hour of waiting. Off we went in our HUGE Ford Expedition to find some food. We ended up at the kids' favorite buffet, ate until we were all so stuffed we could hardly move, then found our apartment and dragged ourselves inside (it was 10pm by this time). The kids were in bed by 11, but then we remembered that it was Saturday night and we had NO food! So, Devin left to see if he could find a grocery store open. He did, and managed to find food, but didn't get home until after 1am! Gah! So, we were REALLY tired...and luckily, church wasn't until 1pm the next day. Whew. But, we're getting better now.
Some of the things that I really love about this place is the fact that I can walk out of the building and there's a park or a pool that I can choose from to take my kids; there are activities all the time; the people are really friendly... I love starting up conversations with others around me and finding out about all the different places people have been and where they're going! It's just so cool to live in one spot and know that all the people who are staying there are part of the same job and travel all over and have the some of the same experiences! We can chat about traveling with kids (I remember thinking that the plane ride from D.C. to Utah was a horrendously long time...and now, it's my favorite because it's SO short!), movers at different locations, the hardships of moving often and to different cultures, the amazing things you can find in other lands...it's just so fun! I love the diversity! The kids and I have managed to swim every day and play at the park every afternoon. We write stories and read stories and listen to music and eat food... We went to a park and played with friends for a special Pioneer Day activity. We are now very laid back and enjoying some quiet time so we can hopefully do some recuperating from our very active and exciting vacation. We have only 2 more weeks left in the states. While I DO have some fun field trips and outings in the works, our trip is really winding down. Here is a cute story: The other night, while I was reading to Andrew and Claire, I could hear Josh reading out loud in his room, too. I thought he was reading out loud to help Peter go to sleep. When I finished reading to the other two, I went in to Josh to see how he was doing. I noticed Peter was sleeping, so I told Josh that he didn't have to read out loud anymore. He looked at me and smiled and said, "I'm reading to my bear." That melted my heart! What a sweet boy! He had his big blue bear cuddled up to him, and he was reading to him! How sweet is that? I love my kids. :) It's a lovely morning here in Rexburg, Idaho. I'm sitting outside in the backyard in a camp chair, watching the packers pack up all our 'new' belongings to ship to Jordan. I was thinking about how many times I've sat and watched packers pack my stuff in the past 5 years, and while it's only been 6 times, it sure feels like this is ALL I ever do! :) I have no complaints, really, though. I'd MUCH rather sit and watch than have to do all the packing myself. The organizing and planning is hard enough for me. I think next time, I'll just leave all my belongings in Jordan, and order all my new stuff online and just ship it to our next post. Hmmm...that idea has some merit... It sure is fun, though, to watch all the things be packed up: stuffed animals, school supplies, bicycles...STUFF... We'll see it all on the other side and probably wonder why in the world we bought all that STUFF!
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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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