Lucas and Henry built a fort. They spent several weeks spending hours in the woods with their friend Tye building the fort and playing in it. Fort building is a great way to learn by playing. There are several skills you can learn from fort building. Team-building- Lucas, Henry, and Tye all had roles in building the fort. Lucas was…
We are eating well in Nicaragua. People ask us if we miss American food. We can eat just about everything here that we ate at home, so no (except Chic-fil-a and berries). We are sad when we see our friends in the US going berry picking. Berries are still hard to come by here. We did find frozen berries for…
Since we left for Central America in February the four of us have been together every day. We are not sick of each other yet, but everyone once in a while we need to have some space, and Michael and I need a date night. We have had several date nights since we have been traveling. The boys are old…
We took our kids out of public school last year. We were living with my (Judy) sister. Michael was going through cancer treatments and I was still working full time. We deregistered the kids at the end of the 2018-2019 school year. We could have put them back in school when we found out our trip was delayed, but that…
We watched the documentary Minimalism last night on Netflix. It was not earth-shattering for us because we have already begun to minimize our lives, but it did reinforce the decisions we have made and are making in our lives. We have two suitcases and four backpacks worth of stuff with us right now in Nicaragua. We have been gone for…
I (Judy) will say it. I am burned out. I am tired of COVID, tired of lockdown, tired of seeing people turn a blind eye to racial injustices, tired of a President who spends all of his time bullying other people, tired of figuring out what our next meal will be. I could go on and on (send out the…
We found out we were pregnant with Lucas at the same time Michael was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the first time. He was born a month after Michael finished his chemotherapy treatments. He was a ray of sunshine at a time when we needed it. Lucas was an easy baby and is an easygoing kid. He has a calm…
Henry is the smallest person in our immediate family, but he has the biggest personality. There is never a dull moment with this kid. He came out of the womb with grit and determination. We don’t remember potty training him. He just watched his brother and wanted to do it too. We were worried about him learning his letters because…
We are heading into month 4 of quarantine here in Nicaragua. We are not able to go out and have experiences like we normally would. Before COVID, we would find activities or playgroups for the kids. We would travel to other cities, go out to restaurants, and take tours. Now that COVID is here, we stay at home and the…
When we set off on our trip to Central America, we planned to be back in the United States in May. One month in Nicaragua has turned into five, and we may be here longer than that. Before coronavirus struck, dental tourism was big here in Nicaragua. The cost of dental care is much cheaper in Nicaragua than in the…