Learning to Walk in the Rain!!

It has been raining some days this week.  Baby girl wakes up scared when the rain comes down hard on our metal roof.  It is very loud.  We comfort her. I (Wendy) am also scared about the unknown sometimes.  It makes sense to feel scared when you don't really understand what is happening...like who will stay in our house here when we go to the US in 7 weeks or if we should just box everything up and put it in storage while we are gone...Baby girl will be 11 months this week and is working on her walking skills.  We hold her hands and she walks around.  She got her first shoes last week and enjoys putting one foot in front of another as we hold her hands.  We try to go out and do some walking in the park at the end of the day after her nap and before dinner.  Robin and I also continue to walk forward, taking one step at a time...getting ready for a government review at the school, working every day on relationships and being people who can really call ourselves followers of Christ...Making every minute count here with the every day life activities of cooking, cleaning, communicating, documentation...

Learning to Walk!!

The boys finished their American Colonists unit this week and are starting to learning about the Revolutionary War.  Big boy age 7 says that he really liked making a straw tick--the boys stuffed pillow cases with corn husks to see what it was like to sleep on beds in the colonial days.  This week he enjoyed making a replica of Jamestown colony.  We read a lot about Jamestown during our Explorer unit when we read Captain John Smith.  Big Boy age 9 says that he really liked making a tin lantern (great boy activity where they got to punch holes in a tin can to "draw" a design) and designing a sign for the job he wanted to do in the colonies.  He chose to be Cutler, a person like a blacksmith who worked on making knives and swords.  The projects they did in this unit were found in a great book called Great Colonial American Projects.   It was definitely written with boys in mind.  We learned a lot about what life was like in the Colonies by reading some books available digitally from Heritage History. Early America library on CD which offered us a lot of choices and we read Stories from the Pilgrims and Massasoit.  The boys also finished reading Orville and Wilbur Wright out loud.  They LOVED this book and have been trying to make some of their own inventions.  Enjoy the pictures below!!

American colonist unit, big boy age 7 sports a home made colonist wig!!

Replica of Jamestown made by big boy age 7

Replica of Jamestown made by big boy age 9

Tin lantern, straw tick, marbles and "job" poster made by big boy age 9

Silloutte, used by the colonists to send a "photo" home to family in Europe.

Business sign, marbles and tin lantern made by big boy age 7

Silloute done of big boy age 9 by big boy age 7

Bits and Pieces of Ecuadorian Life

About a week and a half ago on a Sunday I was about to post a blog.  We had gone to a new place for lunch and took this great picture!!  

Fun afternoon with family!!

In the afternoon we all needed a break and we sent the boys to their rooms. That is when son #2 was playing with his radio antenna and a small piece fell off the end and into his ear.  After trying to get it out, he pushed it farther in with a q-tip and ended up taking an all night bus ride with dad to get it out at the hospital in Quito.  Fortunately, after sitting out of swimming lessons for a week, he is fine!! Here he is enjoying reading an electronic book during silent reading time.

Reading time and peek-a-boo!

We eat lunch at 1:30 since Robin finishes his morning at school around that time.  The school kids go home at 1:15 PM and have lunch at home.  We usually eat an Ecuadorian lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day here.  We eat a lot of food from scratch.  There are canned goods here but they are consistently more expensive than fresh fruits and vegetables.  Fresh items are available here all year 'round due to life on the Equator not having seasons.  So, if you open our cupboards you will only find canned tuna and tomato paste.  We eat a lot of stirfry, spaghetti and Ecuadorian chicken with tomatoes.  Baby girl is a good eater and eats a lot of what we do.  I take out her portion before I add the salt.  Here is a great recipe that I enjoy making here.

Cooking Seco de Pollo!!

Ecuadorian Lunch...canned peaches are considered dessert here

SECO DE POLLO:

Chicken pieces for the number you want to serve.  I make 4-6 pieces.
3 tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 onion (we use green onions)
cumin
oregano
cilantro
garlic or garlic salt
salt

Blend a chunk of onion with the spices, cilantro and about 1/4 cup of water until smooth.  This mixture here is known as "alino".  Put some oil in a large skillet that has a lid.  Turn heat on medium.  Cut up the rest of the onion and grill.  Add chicken and brown on both sides.  Cut up tomatoes and green pepper.  Add on top of chicken with "alino" and salt, adding to taste.  Add 1/2 to 1 cup of water.  Put lid on and simmer.  Continue to add water as the mixture dries to keep a nice sauce with the chicken.  Continue to turn chicken over.  Usually chicken with bones cooks for about 1/2 hour.  When chicken is no longer pink and starts to fall off bones, recipe is ready.  This is served here with white rice.  Feeds 4-6.

This recipe has a funny story about how it got its name...at restaurants here for lunch soup is served first and then the second plate is commonly rice with chicken or beef.  Many years ago, Americans were contracted to build roads on the coast here.  The workers would ask for the "second" plate.  The Ecuadorian cooks couldn't say "second" so they called the plate "seco".  The name stuck and has continued until today.

Making a volcano for geography class!

Making the volcano explode!! 

We will be in the US in about 9 weeks...Robin is working very hard to get the school year going well.  We will have a government review this month to put the school into a classification on which the future tuition rate will be based.  Robin and the admin. team will be working diligently to get ready for this.  Wendy has been helping put some finishing touches on school schedules...Life is good!!

Thanks for stopping by!!