random money

When we moved, in one of the drawers in our bedroom we found an envelope of random money. Hmm, this could be a sign that you are an expat... your spare change is not just in one currency. Here is a sampling of all the paper money that we found:

Can you identify all the countries represented?

We also found coins from several other countries. Often as you are preparing to leave a country, you have just a bit of money left. You try and plan to get just what you need. But no matter how you plan, there is just a bit leftover. And then it is not always practical to change just a little bit of money. And so, the random money envelope is born.

In case you are wondering, the money is from: (starting from the top left) China, Japan, Hong Kong, India, England, Malaysia, and the US.

Pinewood Derby

And just like that, March is almost gone. It has been a month of busyness and settling into our new routines.

One of the highlights for Josh was the Pinewood Derby. Can you believe it? Even here in China, a key part of the Boy Scout experience is building and participating in the Pinewood Derby!

Andy and Josh worked hard together to build the car.

Of course, J choose to paint it green, his favorite color. As we lack a garage or any other space to work on this inside, they went outside to spray paint it. In fact, if you walk through our neighborhood you can see a faint outline of where the paint went off the paper.

After a couple of weeks of working on it, finally it was. . .

RACE DAY!

J's is the all green one. The very plain green one.

He is standing with his friend, Jakob, anxiously watching the results.

But race after race, he either won or was second in all four of the heats. He was close to going on to the Regionals with the Shanghai winners. Apparently what we lacked in style we made up for in speed.

[As a side note, the Pinewood Derby was held in Shanghai, the Shanghai pack raced in the morning, our Suzhou pack raced in the afternoon, then after our races the top 4 from each of the two pack raced to determine the Regional Winner]

But he did win 1st in his den! Well done, J!

As this was our first Pinewood Derby, we were just hoping not to finish last. A friend of ours [Dave] who has helped his sons through multiple years of Derbies gave Andy some pointers to help out. Much to our surprise, our car did really well. Unfortunately, Dave's sons didn't fare as well. And I have a feeling that we won't get any help from Dave next year!

one month without....

refined sugar.

This has been coming for a while. I have been pondering this but just have lacked the motivation to do it. A friend here recently did a 10-day cleanse and inspired me. As I was out to lunch yesterday, one of the ladies asked why I was going to do this. Was it for health reasons? For Lent? A fast? And the honest answer is none of these.

I just really like sugar. And for me, my great weaknesses are cokes and chocolate. For a while, I would have just one coke a week. Then a couple times. And now I have one almost every day. It has become something of an addiction. So I think I just need to step back. Since once you have some sugar, you often crave more, I have decided to cut out all refined sugar. My hope is that by putting this out there I can be accountable for the entire month. Not sure if I will continue it for longer. Let me make it through this month first!

new house, new rules

As I was typing this, Becca came up and read the title, and inserted her two cents:

"Well, it's not a house, we live in an apartment."
True, but that didn't flow as well. 

"And our rules are not all different, just a little bit."
[I'm rolling my eyes now...] Yes, my literal daughter, let me have a bit of literary freedom here.

Anyway, we are all moved in (except for a few random boxes on the balcony that we won't mention) and we are loving everything about our new place. We love the convenience -- just a few bus/subway stops away from many of our activities. We love the layout. I love having our whole space on one level. We love how warm it is! Not that you really want to know this.... but I haven't worn long underwear or tights under my clothes in weeks. I know that come summer we will miss the pools of our old neighborhood, but we gained so much in our daily life that I am not complaining!

new house

The draped thing is the keyboard.

B's room. WARNING: Random stuff lurking in the background on the balcony.

J's room. And more random stuff. Eventually, the balcony is going to be like an extra room. But for now, it is just storage.

master bedroom

T's room. Lumpiness is what happens when 7 year olds make their own bed. 

And the room that sold me on this place....

our homeschooling room

new rules
A move is always a good time to instill some new disciplines (for everyone, not just the kids). One that we are all adhering to is that we each make our bed every morning. This may seem like a no-brainer, but when you have house help sometimes these things get overlooked and then it is not the kids doing it, but our ayi. We are also being much more disciplined about keeping our rooms in order. I must confess, that at the old house I was guilty of this one. We had a desk in our bedroom that was completely unusable as a desk. In fact, it was unrecognizable as a desk! Papers and just general stuff gathered on top. I stacked clothes on the chair. Andy [rightly] asked me how I could get on the kids about keeping their rooms clean when I had the desk mess. Ouch! But right, so to avoid temptation, there is no desk in our bedroom.

And while some of the pictures are dark, it is really that I was too lazy to get out the real camera. Our house is so sunny and bright, one of the many reasons I was drawn to it. Maybe I be less lazy soon and post better pictures. Maybe, making no promises.

what I'm cooking

Actually this first one, I was teaching B how to cook. She has been asking for me to teach her to cook. I often have these grand ideas but my follow-through can be lacking. I have been wanting to work with each of the kids on cooking. I think this is one that will be postponed until after the move. Then I hope to have each child help me with dinner once a week. And then after I have taught Becca some meals, I hope that she can take over cooking one night a week.

We started with chicken tenders. (And these are her hands cutting up the meat).

Assembling all of the ingredients.

I had hoped to get a picture of the after, but we were hungry and ate them too quickly!

If you are interested, here is the recipe:

Baked Chicken Tenders
1-2 pounds of chicken breast or tenders
1 1/2 cups of flour
Salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup of milk
2 cups of Panko breadcrumbs

Cut the chicken into strips. Mix the flour with the salt and pepper and place in a shallow bowl. Beat the eggs and add in the milk. Put the breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl. Dredge the chicken in the flour, dip in the egg mixture, and then coat with the breadcrumbs. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 400˚F for 15 minutes or until done.

Then today, after much begging (on the kids' part) I am making crock-pot applesauce. Which is super-easy. And I am wondering why I have not made this before?!

Crock-pot Applesauce
6-7 apples, peeled and quartered
1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar (you can even use apple juice or just water)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Orange peel
1 Tablespoon lemon or orange juice (if you look below, I just used a whole orange and then took it out before I blended)

Combine all the ingredients in a crock-pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours. If you want a chunkier applesauce mash with a potato masher (or fork) or for a smoother applesauce, blend in food processor or blender. So good and if you notice, no extra sugar!

moving

After almost 5 years in our current house, we are moving. Nothing drastic like our last move. Instead, we are just moving to the other side of the city. We have talked about it on and off for the last year. With our transition to homeschooling, we are spending so much more time on the other side of the city. And unfortunately, it can take over an hour (each way) to commute there. Our decision was moved up when earlier this month we were without water for 5 days. Which is annoying, but we managed. But our landlord refused to pay to have it fixed. And this was the thing that pushed us over the edge. A few days after the water incident, I began looking at places. Found one within a week, we signed the lease yesterday and we move in next Thursday. No moss growing on us! When we decide something, watch out!

So homeschooling is taking a backseat. And the kids are learning important things like. . .

How to pack a box well.

And the importance of thinning things out. This is their pile of 不要了 (things they no longer want). I have been really proud of how they have on their own decided to get rid of a lot of things.

homeschool mother's journal: [january.11.2013]

In my life this week. . .

This has been an eventful week. . . we were without hot water for 5 days. We finally got over the stomach flu that has been plaguing our house since New Year's eve. After talking about it for awhile, we finally made a decision to start looking for a new place to live. I spent an afternoon looking at apartments. And somehow we home schooled in the midst of all of this!

In our home school this week. . .

We started on Ancient Egypt in our history. I found a great lapbook (for FREE*) that Josh will complete and Becca has decided that she will do a presentation on the computer. I feel good about the way we are doing our history. As we listen to Story of the World, we decide on topics that we think are important to learn and study. The kids then decide what media that they want to use: make a speech/presentation, lapbook, create a poster, ....  the way they present the material is up to them. And this is going outside the box for me! I am a planner and like to have everything decided. But I was realizing that my prescribed method (especially when I am making the two of them do things the same way), was not working. And honestly, it was a little too much like "school." When B asked if she could do something other than a lapbook one time, I let her choose. Never too old to learn from your kids!

*Here is the link to the lapbook J and I will be using from homeschoolshare.com: Ancient Egypt

Things I'm working on. . .

I am starting to purge and thinking about packing. I am sure over the next couple of weeks we will be doing just a little less schooling and I will be enlisting my helpers to pack. As we are moving from a house to an apartment, we are also needing to eliminate some of our stuff. Isn't it amazing how much stuff you accumulate over time?!

I'm grateful for. . .

Good Health! We started the new year with T getting sick (**ahem, can you spot the euphanism for vomiting?) just after midnight. She then proceeded to get sick many, many more times the rest of the night. Keep in mind that we were on vacation. She was feeling better by lunch that day and was even able to enjoy a little bit of time on the beach that afternoon. We traveled home the next day and thankfully all of us were healthy. The following day Josh was sick. A few days later Becca and I were not feeling well. Andy is the only one to have escaped this nastiness. But I am thankful that we are all feeling better now.