Marching On

This month was very busy for us but a good busy...

I, Jen, continue to press on in language study and this month I was invited to a moms group, its very exciting. Also there are craft days at the church this month, which I enjoy. I am still home schooling the kids and enjoying watching my kids learn. Jonas is cutting teeth this month, that's been rough at times. I also experienced a pretty bad fall of the bus this month, pretty sure I bruised the bone in my leg but thankfully nothing was broken. Our neighbor had a baby and this month is Easter so we continue to learn things every day. 

Below are a few other things that happened this month...

The first week of March some friends treated us to a date night, it had been three years since our last date. We had a great time finishing our thoughts and completing sentences uninterrupted (not because the kids are bad all the time but they are always in need and you have to always think on the move.) I also and enjoying not cooking!

This month Jamen and Jade have gotten a lot more creative in their playing, naming cars, building towers, having tea and much more.

Jonas is getting into everything and requires Jamen and Jade to rethink their playing to include Jonas. 

Jonas turned 11 months this month, hard to believe he is coming up on a year!

Home schooling continues to go well, Jamen read his first story this month, "The Fat Rat". He is making leaps and bounds in his learning. 

Jade is learning her letter sounds, working on shapes, colors, patterns and following directions. She wants so badly to keep up with Jamen, she often sits and "reads" books to me or Jonas.

This month Jonas learned to stand up in his bed and he is also pulling up on anything he can around the house.

We all enjoyed a fall picnic the other day, the weather has been wonderful this month. Its cooled down sooner this year and we are not complaining.  

Last year we learned to make chipa with friends and learned about Semana Santa (Holy week). This year being our second year we learned more, relaxed more and had a lot more fun. 

Chipa dough consists of butter, eggs, corn meal, tapioca starch, cheese, salt and anise. You mix it all together till its crumbly, then comes the hard part, taking the dough and mixing it by hand till it sticks and you can form it into a shape. We found that we had to mix the dough by hand for 10 min before we could shape it, then you can bake.

Afterwards we enjoyed our chipa with cocido con leche...yum! 

My cute little cooks! 

Also this month Jon experienced dengue fever, this is a disease carried by mosquitoes  Even as I write this he is still recovering. This disease is known as the "bone break fever", you have a high fever, headache, very bad aching in your joints and bones, not to mention the rash that leaves you itchy and the fatigue that keeps you down for more than a week. So, Jon has been confined to bed, eating good foods to keep his blood platelet count up. Thankfully he didn't experience vomiting and he has been able to eat and drink. Dengue can be very dangerous so we are taking precautions but so far so good and  we are very thankful for this.  

This year Jamen and Jade are learning the true meaning of Easter. There will be no hunting of colored eggs or dying of boiled eggs as we don't have the things to do that this year, but we did make Easter baskets for candy tomorrow and later we will make forgotten cookies.

That was our March and we keep marching on in language study and culture learning!