I Love to See the Temples

We arrived in

My theme for the trip Early Saturday morning, Blake gave us a ride to the airport, then literally went the extra mile when he picked up and brought us our COVID immunization cards, just in case. He had served a mission in Berlin, so he was super excited for us. We had a long layover in Seattle so we visited my brother Mark, ate sushi, said hi to the Pacific Ocean, then visited my BYU roomie/bestie Rozalyn. Mark dropped us back at the airport and we boarded this zany striped plane bound for Frankfurt. Miracle Moment: In the PHX airport, we were sitting by the ticket counter, and I remembered we didn't have a lot of cash. I said, "We could really use a Bank of America ATM sometime."  About five minutes later we walked around the corner, and guess what we ran into... yes, a Bank of America ATM. Sweet moment.

Why go to Germany? ... Why not? A few months ago I was in a teacher supply "store"--where people donate supplies, and teachers can take what they need. It's like a Goodwill for teachers, but free. Among the random things there, I found an old map. There were no other maps. Just that one. What was the map of? Northern Germany.  It had all the little towns and roads from Denmark down to Hannover. I took it.  I had been having the itch to travel. And not a normal weekend in Flagstaff. I wanted to use my passport again.  The random map of Norddeutschland  was a sign. I was an exchange student in northern Germany from 1994-1995. I went back to Germany in 2018 with Ella and my mom, but Ephraim had never been and I wanted to show him the places that were so important to me as a teenager. I wanted to use my German again. I wanted to pay in euros, ride trains, and fit my life in a backpack. I wanted to buy a chocolate bar with a coin and eat it entirely by myself with no kids aski

We're doing our part by staying home... now what?? With the closing of schools, families are faced with the challenge of keeping kiddos learning. With my  extensive  homeschooling experience (all of 8 months, haha!), I thought I'd offer some helpful tips. I haven't been in this long, but I did have to go through the learning process very recently, so it's pretty fresh. Curriculum Curriculum is a fancy word for "what you are going to learn about." If schools don't give you guidelines, then you can choose what you like. There are so many resources out there. Pick what works for you and your kiddos. I love the Core Knowledge Sequence. It's exactly what I want my kids to know. Plus, they have  free materials  you can use. I download the units I want onto the Kindle so we can read them together on the couch. And the learning takes off from there as we discuss, research, and create as we please. We use  The Good and the Beautiful  curriculum for

Notice anything different about Ella??

We got to go beach camping in Carlsbad with some friends this week.  It was phenomenal! So much fun and fabulous weather and great ocean time.  I just want to live there.  On our last day we went to San Diego and visited the temple, the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, and Mission Beach.  Then headed for home.