Friday Favorites ~ Homeschooling

Homeschooling Mom.That is a title I have associated myself with for 10 years.  That was never in my plan, although I was never against it either. I just had other thoughts.  But I went by what God had for our family. I am homeschooling Brook this year after taking a year off last year.  Today, I am highlighting just a few of our favorites from homeschooling this week.

Most of Brook's school work is done on the computer this year, with the exception of Bible, Spanish, and a few workbooks to supplement for reading, writing, and logic.  So far, we've been pleased overall with the curriculum she is using. This afternoon, Clara comes for her first class with Brook!

Brook doesn't have to wake up at 5:45 like Isabella does, so we only have to pack one lunch and make sure one gets on the bus on time!  I think the girls do miss their morning/afternoon routines together, but the two different schooling choices seem to work well for both of them so far!

I know it is August and summer in most of the world, but it is chilly enough here to wear a wool sweater to the mall! The temperature is low 60's, but with the wind blowing, it seemed a little chilly outside.

Brook went with me to the mall.  She helped me grocery shop, we bought Cinnabon, and we got chair massages, which was the equivalent of $1.38 USD!  We won't go do things like this everyday, but it is nice to have her with me and to get us both out of the apartment every once and a while!  (We did bring back Cinnabon for Avery and Isabella too!)

Meanwhile, Isabella has 10 1/2 hour days at school and 2-3 hours of homework each night.  For now, that is the best decision for her, although it is no doubt very challenging and exhausting.  We are thankful for the opportunity to send Isabella to a private, Christian school and for the freedom of homeschooling both in Colombia and in the USA.

Stranded ~ Footwear

This months feature from my stranded island edition is footwear.  So today I will highlight some of my favorite footwear.

1. My first go to pair would be my Skechers Go Walks.  I have the Skechers Go Walk 3 and they are the most comfortable shoe to wear while walking all day or even just around the house or to run errands.  These have been worth every penny.  

 2. I would also have my UGG Cardi Boots.  I looked at these boots online for over a year and finally bought a pair on sale last December when I was in the USA.  They are so comfortable and stylish at the same time.  It is my first pair of UGG, but I've always heard just how comfortable they are and now I have experienced this personally!

Here I am wearing the boots yesterday.

They can also be folded down to be worn as booties.  It feels like you are wearing a comfortable pair of slippers!

3. My third choice, since I am on an island, would be my pair of Merrells.  I left my pair in the states this summer, but they are my go to shoe for outdoors/water activities. I like they are easy to put on, comfortable, and have a closed toe.

(This isn't a picture of my pair, but it is very similiar)

The bottom line is, you can wear stylish, yet comfortable shoes whever you are, and hopefully if we find ourselves on an island, we are there by choice staying at an all-inclusive resort :)!

Back to School!

Yesterday was the official first full day back to school for Isabella and Brook.

Isabella began her sophomore year in high school yesterday.  How can this be??  It seems like yesterday when I began homeschooling her kindergarten.  She had a good first day back, almost like she never left :).  She was out the door at 6:20 for her bus pick up and arrived home at 3:50.  So she is gone 10 1/2 hours every day.  Then, she had homework in geometry, read a chapter of a book...in Spanish, and read and answered questions in Biology.  The teachers don't waste anytime with homework! 

Brook began her 1st day of 7th grade yesterday at the Bridges academy, aka, homeschool.  Brook decided in the spring she wanted to be homeschooled again, and we all quickly decided this was the right choice.  She hasn't changed her mind at any point.  She actually didn't feel too great Sunday night and woke up with quite a bit congestion Monday morning, so even if she weren't homeschooled, she would have probably stayed home the first day of school.  She had a good day back for the most part.  It will take a few days to get back in a routine of school at home, but she stayed pretty busy today doing school from 9-2:45, with a lunch break.   

This is the lesson plans we are tackling with Brook this week.

Since we missed the awards ceremony at the end of school in May (we left early and came on to the states), the girls received their awards last week.  

Brook received an extra recognition for being an alumni of the school and also a certificate for reading 35 books last school year.

In spite of Isabella's homework, our family went to Crepes and Waffles for dinner (Isabella's choice) for our back-to-school dinner.

We have a team meeting today, so Brook will go with us and do school work there, so we are already being flexible with this schedule.  

Day 2, here we come!!

Weekend Wrap Up ~ Olympics and School

Happy Monday from Bogota!  It is the first day of school, which I will blog about later this week. We had a busy weekend, so it was a fun last one before the school routine began.

Friday, Brook invited one of her friends she met at school last year to come over.  Mariale became one of Brook's closest friends here and I really hope they will keep in touch.  She is so sweet, and so is her mama, even though I don't understand her half of the time due to the language barrier :(.  Brook had brought her a souvenir from Memphis and Mariale had a gift for Brook too.

When the girls and I flew back to Bogota a few weeks ago, we met a girl on the airplane who was on her way here to work at the girls school for a 3 week program.  We have kept in touch and she came over Friday night to have dinner with us and watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. 

Colombia

USA

We like the Olympics, but so far, it is just not the same for me not watching it from your home country.

Saturday morning there was a mandatory back-to-school picnic at the school.  The students go to their classes, where attendance is taken, to get their books, lockers, and basic information while the parents go to an assembly.  At noon, everyone joins together for a picnic.  It was a nice morning overall and good to see some friends again.  We rested the remaining of Saturday.

Back to School event

Sunday, we attended church at United, the English speaking International church here.  It was good to be back there and see some other friends.  The pastor and his family are our teammates and friends here and they had their 3rd baby while we were in the states.  We brought them lunch and visited with them for the afternoon.  Afterwards, we ubered home, dropped off the girls, then Avery and I met with two other teammate families to discuss a new English club opportunity on a university campus here.  Afterwards, we came home to spend some time praying for the new school year ahead.  It is here!

Friday Favorites ~ The Little Things (mostly)

Happy Friday!  This week, I am concentrating on the little things of life that have been favorites of mine.  

I have often said I have spent at least 25% of my time in Bogota trying to open these vegetable/fruit plastic bags in the grocery store here.  There is no "open this end" sign and usually I just put each piece individually on the chekcout belt instead of having things grouped in bags.  Well, this week, I was able to sucessfully open 4 bags in one trip!  This is a record and I want to celebrate the little things.

Okay, as of now, the Bachelorette is still engaged to her choice at the end of the show.  I always like a good story with a happy ending.  At least it is for now and time will tell if they last......

I have spent a lot of time complaining about this machine. First, in the midst of those times, I have always been thankful to have it too.  Now I am learning how to manage it all better.  Instead of doing laundry 2 days a week, I am doing laundry every day with very small loads so that our clothes will dry in less than 4 hours and me opening the dryer door every 10 minutes.  I am choosing to make changes to keep my sanity and it is working so far!

You Tube

Yep, You Tube.  When other internet sites don't work due to us not being in the USA, You Tube often comes through for us.  Our family silently depends on You Tube quite a bit during the week.

And in bigger news.....

My niece and her husband found out this week they are having a girl!!

And if I ever see a mug like this, I will be gifting it to myself!!

What's Cooking Wednesday!

It has been a while since I have highlighted some of our food we have been eating, but with Avery back from Peru, I have been meal planning and cooking a lot the past week and have really enjoyed it too. Next week is the beginning of school, and I have no meal plans past Monday, so I will have to work on that this weekend!  Now for a few highlights of our food this week.......

Sunday after church, we had good 'ol spaghetti.  I had the meat cooked, added it to my slow cooker and made my own sauce in the slow cooker.  I chose this recipe over a jar of spaghetti sauce to reduce the sugar intake.

I brought back some hashbrown potatoes for the first time to Bogota.  I wish I had brought more, because they were very good!  The potoatoes sold here are very small so they would be very hard to shred.

We had shredded hasbrowns and turkey sausage for breakfast one morning.  As I've mentioned before, breakfast sausage like we know it in the states is not sold here so I am able to buy ground turkey from our import store and make my own sausage.

For dinner one night, we had crab cakes, broiled tomatoes, and criolla potatoes.  This was also my first time to make crab cakes here because I brought back some crab meat from the states, but only enough for one dinner.  (Notice our fancy dinnerware??  Remember, no dishwasher here so we use paper products 3-4 days during the week).

These are a photo of the potatoes I buy here, which are called "papa criollas'.  As you can see, it is a small and yellow potato which is used in soups, for baking, or any other way you like to prepare potatoes.

My favorite way to cook them here is to cut them in half or quarters, add one or two sliced onions, a sprinkle of garlic powder, salt and pepper.  I drizzle olive oil on top and bake them for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees (or 200 celcius here :)).  If I had access to sweet potoates, it is very good to mix Idaho or red potatoes in the states with sweet potatoes.

Last night for dinner I made this very simple, but delicious meatball recipe. We paired it with leftover potatoes from the night before, and carrots. 

We were not big carrot eaters before coming to Bogota, but now we all eat them.  Even Isabella!!!  We simply peel them, slice them, and eat them raw as a side dish to many meals or for a snack.

For dessert, I made this chocolate zucchini bread for the first time.  Everyone tried it first and then I told them it had shredded zucchini in it!  And they still said they liked it!

What else is coming up to be cooked this week??

My plan is to prepare Pesto Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers and chili.  

And possibly this spin on waffles for breakfast one morning.

This version of frozen yogurt is also intriguing to me.  I will keep you posted!

As you may can tell, I enjoy cooking and have been inspired with recipes lately :).

Bogota Bridges

Happy Tuesday!  Today I am blogging at Bogota Bridges :).