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Confessions of a COVID Homeschool Mom

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I never, in a million years, had any intention of homeschooling my kids. Ever.  For one, I didn’t really understand what homeschool IS - I thought homeschool was either regular school at home for eight hours a day, or ultra religious families who wanted to teach flat-eartherism and creationism.  For another, I’m a single parent and it just wan’t an option when I worked full-time. My kids had to be in school or day-care when they were younger.  But then I retired from the Air Force. And then COVID-19 happened and schools shut down in March 2020. Of course, we all know what happened then... NO ONE DID WHAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO  ...so schools went to virtual learning. When the county we were in announced they were going to virtual learning for the first nine weeks of the 20/21 school year, I knew it was not going to work for Declan and Harper. The end of 2nd grade was honestly horrible for everyone. It wasn’t the teachers - let's be clear about that. They were both fantastic and
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Aaaand We're Off (Again)

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 We're off on a new adventure! This time to Chennai, India for two years. We arrived three days ago and immediately went into two weeks of quarantine in a temporary apartment. Our permanent house is undergoing some construction and upgrades. Due to COVID-19 and some funding issues, the construction was delayed. The good news is, our UAB is here and waiting for us to move into our house! First impressions: I am SO glad I hired a driver. I know...that sounds so bougie, but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable driving here. I thought driving in Kuwait was bad. No...no it wasn't. At least there, they kind of adhered to the rules of the road. Here: lanes area a suggestion. Mopeds gaggle at lights. Horns are used copiously. Merge willy-nilly. It's truly frightening. But everything is so lush and green and vibrant and I can't wait to be able to get out and explore. As much as possible anyway what with COVID restrictions.  Jet lag has hit us hard. I've tried to st
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Messila Water Village

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This post is a little late, but here's my (our) take on Messila Water Village. It's located just down from the Jumeriah Hotel and Messila Beach. It has four water slides - one where you take an inflatable tube for either two or three people; and three others that you slide down without a tube. There's a lazy river, a toddler pool and play area, a pool and play area for older small kids, a wave pool, a plunge pool (where the slide dumps you out above the water), and one of those almost vertical slides that you slide down on a mat. My first impression is that it's a little run down and could use some updating. The tiles in the lazy river were painted over at one time and the paint is chipping, along with some of the tiles. There aren't a lot of inner tubes available for the lazy river, so everyone kind of just swims/floats along. The fiber glass of the slides is faded (understandable given how hot the sun is) and could probably use some patching. But...the kid
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Strawberry Picking at Blue Lake Farm

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I know...strawberry picking in Kuwait - who'd've thunk it. BUT, it's not like strawberry picking in the US where they hand you a bucket and you go to town.    This is easy strawberry picking. No bending over and digging into the plants for strawberries. They plant the strawberries in vertical planters and you have to use scissors to cut the strawberries. Strategizing Yummy strawberries! I went with a friend and her kids and last year she was told it's because if you touch the berries, they'll stop growing. I think it's because they're planted so shallow (shallowly?) that if people yank on the plants a lot, they'll pull them out of the planters. Either way, they hand you a small container and a pair of kid's scissors and you cut the strawberries into the container without touching the berries. Yes, we did try a few - they're delicious. In addition to the strawberry picking they have a couple of money sucking areas for the k
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Location: Abdulrahman Alfalah St, Abdali, Kuwait
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Yasmin Farms Tour

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I have to say, I'm very glad this was an organized trip on a bus and I didn't drive, because it would really not have been worth it. The ride is about an hour - the farm is only a few miles from the Saudi Arabia border - and there is very little to see once you leave Kuwait City. I was amazed by three things - the camel herds (cool), the amount of tent cities (workers, I guess), and the amount of trash in the desert (not cool). From the description on the website, I was expecting an in-depth farm tour - how they grow produce in the middle of the desert - that kind of thing. Once we arrived, we loaded up in a golf cart, the driver said, "This is potato." Pointed at a field. "This is lettuce." Pointed at another field. We drove through an open sided barn with milk cows in it, and were dropped off at a kind of petting zoo place. The kids loved this part, I will say that. They got to pet and feed the goats; Harper rode a donkey, they got to see camels u
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Our Little Corner of the World

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We've been in Kuwait for almost two months (I know this, because I've started getting notifications that it's time to change my password at work) and we're settling in nicely. Declan and Harper have made friends with a little boy their age who lives two doors down from us. The great thing about living on the compound is they can run back and forth between the two houses and I don't think anything of it (unless I know the baby is sleeping at the little boy's house, then I don't let them do that). There are a lot of kids close to their age and Declan and Harper usually have someone to play with when we go to the park. We spent the day at the pool this afternoon and a lot of other families had the same idea. There's usually something planned for at least one day of the weekend, even if it's just having the jumping castle out for happy hour on Thursday. Harper has it in her head that she wants to do a pajama party, so I'm going to send ou
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New Traditions

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I decided that every year on Christmas eve, I wanted to make handprint ornaments.  Well, this year, it's footprints.  We started off trying to get Declan's handprints & he kept grabbing onto the dough.  The footprints were a little iffy as well, since he kept digging his little monkey toes into the dough.  Cute little monkey toes.  But here is the finished product.  They're a little larger than I expected, so we might not be able to hang them on the tree next year, but the handprints should be ok. Merry Christmas!
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