World Nomad Games 2018

Here are just a few of my favorite photos from our time at the World Nomad Games in Cholpon Ata. I promise, if you run a Google search, you will see and read more amazing things from many of the other people who attended. It is definitely something to think about visiting in 2 years.

Beautiful, Amazing Kyrgyzstan!

Happy 11th birthday to our little girl!

Sissi is 11 years old!

It took me a few days to get caught up and do this blog post because life has been so crazy with her injury. What? You didn't know she got hurt, well, let me tell you what happened.

A week before her birthday, Sissi and Indy were off doing their horse riding lessons and Sissi's horse slipped on a wet patch of earth and fell, on Sissi's leg. At first, we were certain it must be broken, but after two sets of x-rays and several doctors and specialists taking a look, it was determined that it was just a really bad sprain. Thank the Lord for wet earth that gives way and a child's bones that are mostly made of cartilage, things seem to have bent with the weight of the horse and not broken, but merely stretched her tendons and ligaments to their extreme.

She has been on bed rest and needing lots of help to accomplish even the most basic of tasks. She is pretty exhausted and not feeling 100%, but we're so thankful for the miracle of His grace in her accident!

Her birthday crept up on us in the midst of her recovery and we had to make some changes to the plan...which had been to meet up with some friends at a local water park for the day. Take a look at the pictures and I think her smile will tell you that she still had a pretty great day.

The table, all set up the night before her birthday!

With her friend, Vicky.

Vicky, got her a stuffed elephant.

And, she knows how much Sissi loves crafts, so a friendship bracelet kit.

Also, a how to draw dogs kit.

Her friend Anna was also able to come to our house.

Anna also got her some crafts, a color your own purse kit.

And, more drawing sets.

Of course, any artist needs a good "Paris" notebook and a cool puzzle pen to sketch and draw things.

We set up the sewing machine and the girls used some scrap cloth I had to make some clothes for the new stuffed elephant, now named Tori (after Vicky, whose real name is Victoria.)

The finished product.

Then, they watched "Phantom of the Opera" (which I didn't take pictures of) and went outside to squirt water on each other since they couldn't make it to the water park.

The day ended with burgers and milkshakes and lemonade at Rick's Diner, a new 50's style diner in Bishkek.

The following morning we celebrated as a family...with doing our usual sharing around the table, "** Things We Love About *****."

Her big gift this year was getting riding boots and chaps. I pray she gets to use them. The plan was to get serious this year with her riding and so we felt it was worth the investment to get her some proper riding gear. We're all still praying about whether or not the lessons will be able to continue.

Sissi with her new chaps.

Some comics that we brought with us. The kids love the regularity of getting comics every year on their birthday and at Christmas.

And, another entry in our ever expanding Disney pin collection. I bought a bunch of pins on eBay last year and brought them with us for birthdays and Christmas. For Sissi, she has received 2 of the 3 Oswald pins I purchased for her.

And, the fun gift, that Mommy made for her....and elephant pillow. It is named Josephine!

She wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday, so I made a classic Hershey's chocolate cake and cut it in half. We put ice cream in the middle and M&M's and then put the other half of the cake back on top. It's covered in homemade chocolate frosting and whipped cream! It was super yummy!

Happy, happy birthday, to my sweetest, kindest, and loveliest girl!

We are so grateful for you and pray His amazing blessings continue to follow you now and forever!

School year 2018-2019

And so it begins!

We're starting back to school a bit early this year so that we can have a bit more flexibility to take time off. Last year we didn't start until mid-September because of our move back to Kyrgyzstan and we only took off 2 days between then and Christmas Break...and the spring semester look similar. By the end of the school year we were all a bit burned out after getting our 36 weeks in. So, starting early hasn't made me the most popular mom/homeschool teacher, but, I think in the long run they will thank me for it because we have a horse trek planned, the World Nomad Games to attend, I'm planning the whole week of Thanksgiving to be off from school so Indy can take the boys bird hunting, and we're going to take 3 weeks this year at Christmas for some family travel and a conference! I am hoping this makes for a fuller "life!"

Now, let's talk about what we're doing this year for school.

Each year looks just a little bit different. This year is my first year with no Grammar (Elementary) students, and that seems weird to me! I have been homeschooling since the beginning, so when Krypto turned 2, we started doing letters and numbers and cutting and pasting and reading out loud and I have had an elementary aged child, doing arts and crafts and "simpler school" for 13 years now....this year, no more! Sissi is in the 6th grade and officially a Dialectic (Middle School) student.

We are back at Year 1 in our Tapestry of Grace studies, this time is our third time through the curriculum and we're finally using it all...Government, Philosophy, Worldview, Geography, Literature, History, it's a full buffet at our house!

I spent time this past spring making sure I had all the supplies I needed and ordering a few odds and ends to be brought out by some visitors we had in June. Then, I took some more planning time over the summer and drew up a schedule/routine and pre-read the materials so we have our plan in place. This is what each child is covering this year.

Krypto - 10th grade
Tapestry of Grace Year 1 - Creation to the Fall of Rome; covering History, Literature, Writing, Fine Arts, Government, Geography, Bible/Worldview, and Philosophy
Math U See Algebra II
Apologia Marine Biology
Master Books Biblical Archaeology
Analytical Grammar review and Wordly Wise
PSAT prep with Khan Academy
Logic with Thinking Toolbox
Russian
Sambo - A Russian martial art
Drama at Hope Academy

Gwangi - 8th grade
Tapestry of Grace Year 1 - Creation to the Fall of Rome; covering History, Literature, Writing, Fine Arts, Geography, and Bible/Worldview
Math U See Algebra
Apologia General Science
Easy Grammar
Logic with Fallacy Detectives
4H Coding
Russian
Sambo

Sissi - 6th grade
Tapestry of Grace Year 1 - Creation to the Fall of Rome; covering History, Literature, Writing, Fine Arts, Geography, and Bible/Worldview
Math U See Zeta
4 H Science curriculum about dogs and horses
4 H Coding
Easy Grammar
Logic workbooks
Russian
Horseback riding lessons

In addition, they will be continuing with their memorization work and we will pick up right where we left off last year after memorizing Philippians, Colossians, and the first 3 chapters of James. They memorize about 2-3 verses a day and then quote whole sections or chapters as they go until they have an entire book done, then we put it to bed and move on to the next book. When we finish James, my plan is to move on to some more of the letters before in future school years conquering one of the Gospels and hopefully Acts and Romans.

We've also done some catechism work in the past, to make sure our theology and doctrine is sound. This year I am going to try something new, the New City Catechism. It is set up in 3 parts, with 52 questions total. The idea is to read the question and answer and then talk about and memorize the answer along with the scripture reference to back up the answer. My plan is to do one question a week to give us some time to research, talk about, and explore each idea as we progress forward.

Krypto did finish writing his pirate adventure novel in June and he and I spent a good chunk of the rest of the summer editing it. We have sent it off to about a dozen people to take a read through the book and give us edits and ideas. We think we are planning to pursue some kind of publishing avenue, but aren't sure yet what that will look like. He did ask me to purchase the next part of the One Year Adventure Novel series, which deals with writing Fantasy and Science Fiction and he is hoping to begin work on another novel, though that might wait for a few months as he is currently a bit tired from all the writing.

Vera wanted to get in on all the action and picture taking as well.

Candy for the first day of school!

Krypto's assignment book

Gwangi's assignment book

What Sissi is up to today.

Camping in Chong Kemin

For our last weekend of summer 2018, we planned a camping trip to Chong Kemin National Park. We had been to this location back in June and had met some really great local friends that told us about some beautiful horse treks in the region. Indy brought some of his Taigan Expeditions' clients here in July and when he came home told me, "Yes, we need to go back, it's lovely!"

The weekend got cut short though by an accident with our pup, Vera. Turns out being raised in suburbia, away from horses, has got her a bit anxious and excited about these larger animals. Our local friend brought up 5 horses, plus the one he was riding, and Vera was not thrilled. She started jumping and barking and wouldn't go with us on our horse trek when we were sure she would follow right along as she does on hikes and other walks. In her exuberance, she jumped on our tent, breaking one of the plastic extension poles. Indy tried to fix it and another pole broke. We really liked these easy pop up tents, but the lighter weight, plastic poles aren't as sturdy and now we're afraid we're without a tent. It put all of us in a foul mood unfortunately and we had to pack up on Saturday evening and head home to Bishkek. We learned a few things about grace and forgiveness though, so for that we're thankful for our time out in Chong Kemin.

Our little corner of the wilderness with our tent all set up.

There were so many different kinds of wildflowers, I just couldn't stop taking pictures.

Purple in my color, and this area was covered in purple wildflowers.

Part of the path we took to get up to our campsite.

The tall trees surrounding where we camped.

Our puppy, Vera, now 8 months old and weighing 53 lbs.

Yeah, yellow, a different color from purple.

Walking around the valley, you can see Vera on the path on the left, following the kids. I was always falling behind to take pictures.

A view from our horse trek.

Cresting this hill and looking down in the valley was just beautiful.

Indy stayed behind to clean up the camp site and the kids and I went on with our friend for a couple of hours of horse trekking.

A family driving up in the mountains for a day trip.

There they go, down the hill to return to the village.

The dark trees on the hillside reminded me so much of Colorado.

Sissi took this and many more pictures. She likes to take close ups and layer her photos. I might have her do a post at some point sharing some of our photography.