Welcome to Mexico

Welcome to Mexico....
 This week we left our study of the USA behind and ventured into our southern neighbor. We  are taking our time in Mexico and spending 3 weeks instead of 2. I am mainly adjusting the schedule because of our extracurriculars taking such a chunk out of our time I have been feeling majorly rushed and find myself turning into "Monster Mommy." This weeks more relaxed flow has been so much nicer. We started our week fresh off vacation with  "Art day". We made banner "papel picado" (Paper banners) and tissue paper flowers that we used to decorate the living room and the dinning area chandelier. Theser were our final products.

 I am also chaning up how we study the country.  We are going to swtich to doing lapbooks on most countries I think because my girls seem to prefer it. Maybe its more "primary" grades then I was thinking this year to be but its fitting. We are using a free version through Homeschool Share.: Mexico Lapbook The most fun we had this week was with food. We got adventurous and tried new things. Had some successes and some failures..lol.. but everything was edible. we started our week with a delicious Chicken Tomatillo Soup. Recipe available here:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tomatillo Soup. Got 6 thumbs up from the pack and we had leftovers enough to drain and try to use as a filling for our empandas. Unfortunately, I did not master emapanda dough. We will try again in the next two weeks. The dough I did make fired up nicely into disks that we served with the leftovers. Below is Hulk assiting with our empanda attempt. And then our final "sell your mistakes" dish..lol

                          

We made bean burritos for lunch most days.... Kids loved them...

We had breakfast burritos with Egg, sausage, & cheese served with a side of Papya.

Our Biggest Adventure was Ceviche de Pescedo with Cilantro Lime Rice. This got mixed reviews. Ying judged in edible, Yang asked for it never to be served again, and Hulk ate it like it was going out of style. Both girls were a little off put by the uncookedness..lol

We went out for Ice cream for desert that night as a reward for everyone trying so many new things this week.

Saturday night we tried Carne Asada with Elote ( Mexican grilled corn). It was fabulous.

Here are links to some of our recipes:

The Ceviche de Pescedo and Carne Asada were from a cookbook called Not just Tacos I got a while back for free on Amazon.

Cilantro Lime Rice

http://www.chefandherkitchen.com/2013/06/cilantro-lime-rice-recipe-easy-mexican.html

Elote:

http://www.iwashyoudry.com/2013/07/05/elote-mexican-grilled-corn

Also here is a link to the pintrest board I have created for Mexico and Central America:

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-ecc-mexico-and-central-american/

We were also blessed this week by obtaining free access to Discovery Education streaming via our local PBS stations. This has been an amazing source for us of video about Mexico and our science topics.  Hulk has been watching episodes of Reading rainbow on Mexicican folktales, and the girls  are informally teaching themselves some Spanish via some videos. This week it has really taken the place of our bookbasket.

I thank the Lord for his mercy and sticking with me through the last few months. I was really getting frustrated and angry, feeling pulled in too many directions, and second guessing my choice of having the kids at home. He put his hand on me and carried me through the storm, and I am seeing the light again. Praise Him and His Glory. He is so good to me.

Palm Cost & St. Augustine, FL

 So we just spent and beautiful and relaxing week in Palm Coast, FL. We stayed in a lovely "home" (mansion..lol) right on the beach with a 50 yd boardwalk directly  dropping us on some of the softest sand I have ever encountered. It was amazing. We were just wrapping up our brief 2 week recap of the United States , so it seemed fitting that we visit the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the USA... St. Augustine, FL.

The kids favorite site in St. Augustine was the Castillo De San Marcos National Monument. We had an amazing tour and presentation by this lovely gentleman in costume. The kids also completed the workbook required to receive their Junior Ranger badges and Master Range patches while we were there. It took them some time and looking but they did great. Even Hulk accomplished this though a few of the Rangers on duty let him cheat by answering orally since he's not up to writing much yet. But hey a five year old who listened to the talk and remember something was impressive..lol.

One of the coolest things we learned about was the rock from which the fort was made.  Coquina is a form of limestone made primarily of shell fragments. The entire fort is made from coquina and it uniquely qualified as a building material for a military fortification. When cannon balls hit coquina instead of shattering the rock, the cannon balls just got stuck. The rock was strong but porous enough to absorb the shock. The large reef of coquina is what given the beaches in the area their "cinnamon" color.

The kids loved being on a less traveled beach this time around because they got see a lot more nature. (seeing a shark in the wild sorta made up for not having other kids this trip). This is just a small list of the wildlife we saw from a distance, up close, and sometime a little too close for comfort:

Dolphins

Pelicans

Gecko-2 kinds

Skink

Salamanders 

Snake

Sand crab 

Starfish
tree frog

Toad
Reef Shark
a lot of fish ( all kinds)
lovebugs and distinctly missing..... MOSQUITOS!!!!!

The reef shark is a story my husband and daughter will be telling for years to come. They happened to be out near low tide about 30 m from shore. they were watching large schools of fish in the waves. My husband put Ying  up on his shoulders to get a better view. He turned around and next thing he saw was a large reef shark chasing those same schools of fish. Needless to say, they slowly backed away until they got out of the water.

Well a good time was had by all and a little school got thrown in, too!

My Child Would NEVER.... ummm.. Yes, They Did....

So our whole family got a big life lesson this week in character. On Tuesday, my DH's Grandmother (G.G. To the kids) called to tell me that she was missing two expensive and SENTIMENTAL pieces of jewelry given to her by her late husband ,Bill (not my husbands grandfather, but that side gets complicated... Lol). Well apparently these items had been missing since my girls had spent the night at the end of July. She had looked everywhere, and while she hated to think it, had come to the conclusion that the girls had something to do with the disappearance. At first, my pride got the better of me. "My children would never!" But within about 20 seconds, God was in my ear. How many times a night in the ER am I told this by a parent when I have tell them their child is drunk, high, pregnant, or caused injury to someone? He reminded me; we are all sinners who give birth to sinners. I agreed to talk with the girls that night, still confident in my heart that she was wrong. Well, I was wrong. Before I could get the question out that night , Yang was in tears confessing the whole thing while poor Ying sat there very confused. Turns out Yang had taken them. She admitted to trying to tell us a few times, but either being interrupted or losing her nerve. Then she lost one of the necklaces, and she got even more frightened . She was so scared she stopped trying. In her mind, she couldn't repent if she couldn't "make it right". Since she'd lost it, she couldn't return it.  She did give me the one she still had, and I had to humbly call G.G. She was the picture of Christian forgiveness and compassion for both Yang, as the guilty party, and me, as a very embarrassed mother. Yang was so upset she was unable to talk to G.G. that night, but she called the next day and had a long talk. You know something went right when your kid ends a conversation like that with a genuine smile.

She humbly and patiently accepted her consequences. She was on restriction for 3 days- no TV, no video games or computer, no afternoon with friends. One of those afternoons was spent with my mother and father, so she had to tell them what she had done and what her restrictions were. I must say she handled it with real grace and dignity. No tears or back talk, just a calm acceptance. She managed to read 4 chapter books in 3 days.

Her brother and sister had lessons too. Their challenge was with gossip. I challenged them to not talk about Yang when she wasn't there especially with their friends. It was Yang's story to tell not theirs. They didn't need to explain why Yang was on restriction, and to the best of my knowledge they succeeded.

For my husband and I it was a lesson in not letting our pride get the better of us. First, in allowing the possibility that she could have committed the offense. Recognizing that our child are very well behaved but not perfect. Secondly, was not over reacting out of wounded pride. We had to find a middle road between giving her consequences that would make an impression that this was a sin and unacceptable behavior, and condemning/punishing her till she felt with one mistake she was beyond redemption. I think we accomplished this.