New * family* adventure

If I had more money, I would love to travel! I want to experience new cultures, strange countries, unique ways of living...I love reading books set in other countries. I've read so many about the Indian culture, that even though I've never been to India, I feel like I can picture it in my mind. So that being said, along with my love for geography and maps and Joe's curiosity about the world (not to mention brushing up on his geography skills), Joe and I have decided to implement a "Country a Month" activity with our family. For October, we are starting with Germany. I've checked books out of the library and been looking online for some ideas on teaching the kids about Germany. We plan to eat at a German restaurant in San Francisco, as well as talk to friends who are German. We also plan to watch movies set in Germany, listen to music, and so on. I am excited to try this! I'm putting up a map in the kitchen, so we can familiarize ourselves with Germany and its surrounding countries. Does anyone have any other ideas that we can try? We have not planned out our countries yet, so we are starting to go month by month. I want to touch on many different places around the world. I'm so excited! I hope my family enjoys this new adventure!

Cleopatra & Amazing history

Lots of ideas came to mind while reading this month's book selection, Cleopatra: A Life by Stacey Schiff. As a member of the From Left to Write Book Club, I received a copy of this book for review. You can read the other members posts inspired by this book on Sept. 27 here. I thought about writing about misconceptions in history (Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian!) or how real life makes for a good story (Cleopatra's life is full of very interesting stories...).
However, what I kept coming back to were the things the author mentioned that Cleopatra knew...way back in BC! Cleopatra knew the earth was round-she knew of the existence of the equator_that just blew my mind! This was B.C., people! Didn't we just "discover" this a few hundred years ago?? What happened-and why-did we have to learn this all over again? I was so impressed with the education of these ancient people. It's amazing (and sad) to me that so much knowledge was lost and had to be relearned. I'm wondering about our own future. What will be lost? What will my great-grandchildren know that I don't know or will they know less? We seem so advanced today, but in a way, so did the Egyptians and Romans of the day. Will another Dark Ages happen on earth?

Family Time

OK, so living here isn't our "ideal", as many of you have probably heard me say. Joe and I dream about moving back to LA again...we loved living there, but I will say that I am happy to be here for now for the main reason: FAMILY. I know we made the right decision to live here. I love seeing the kids connect and make memories with Grandparents, cousins, and aunts/uncles (though I wish MY sisters were closer...)

My sweet in-laws have a beach house in Aptos now (shared with 2 other families, one being my father-in-law's brother) and we got to have lots of cousin time last weekend. The kids had a blast! Playing, playing board games, throwing poppers, beach time, and more playing! We got to hang out with Joe's cousin Janell's kids, who we rarely see, as well as Tyler & Pana. The next day, the Gresham cousins came up (minus Maddie). FUN!

And the Grandparents...I love that the kids have "dates" with them, overnights, and just time away to be with Grandma or Grammy. Coop enjoyed his date today with Grammy!

I have such good memories of my Grandma growing up. I loved being at her house. I'm glad my kids get to make their own memories with their grandparents, too.