We created a running list of places we've visited and things we have seen over the course of these 5 months. We even have a big map of England with those places circled in red sharpie. We have enjoyed seeing that list expand and getting that sharpie out each time we return home to Sheffield. Each place now has a special place in our hearts together with inside jokes about the mishaps along the way.
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| Red circles highlight places we have visited in England. |
This past week we returned from a fabulous trip to Paris and Rome with a train ride in between. So we are ending with a big adventure, three frantic days of packing up our lives and then we are back in Tampa.
But what were we up to between all those travels? What were we doing when we were not visiting places and taking pictures? Well that is the subject of this post.
We have being living life. Much of the normal things we do in Florida (or anywhere else), we, of course, do here. I'll elaborate. Those things include the children's schooling, laundry, grocery shopping, attending church and fulfilling callings in our Sheffield 2nd ward, going to the temple, singing in choirs, driving children to dances and church activities, visiting our favorite ice cream place, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, getting up for seminary, decorating for Christmas, getting our car checked out at the shop, home teaching, practicing musical instruments, etc. etc. And don't forget to take the rubbish to the curb on the right day. Also filling out job charts, working out squabbles among the children, scripture study, family home evening, cleaning the church on our rotation, going to the park, and walking the neighborhood.
As I list the normal things of life that tend to follow us where ever we go, I notice that nearly all of them have a local twist that has caught our attention.
My older kids say that this is what people really want to know about anyway. The regular stuff. But isn't that boring? Maybe, but the twists can be interesting.
So now we can say our blog was not just impressions from our travels but also a recounting of the ways regular life was different.
So, shall we revisit some of that list?
The children's schooling.
In Tampa they all went to public school, but here the oldest four have taken all their classes through Florida Virtual School. FLVS is an online public school. We had to buy a laptop for each of them and a Magic Jack in the wall so they could call their teachers for monthly calls and discussion based assessments without enormous international calling rates. Each teacher required them to submit three or more assignments each week. Through FLVS, they worked on classes such as Spanish, Pre-Calculus, World History, US History, Language Arts, Geometry, Physics, 6th grade Science, AP Language Arts, and more. On the weeks where we traveled, they had to work longer beforehand to get all their assignments in and keep their teachers happy. I also found a financial literacy course online which I taught them and insisted they learn to type properly. They also were required to practice their instruments (at least once I could track them down--more on that later).
Now Brad's schooling was different. He had me as his teacher. I got my degree in Political Science not Elementary Education, so that was the first challenge. He is a concientious boy, but not too thrilled with being the lone boy in the class. He is very social and preferred submitting Financial Literacy assignments over the ones he was supposed to because "everyone else was doing it." I taught him language arts, general 2nd grade math, and geometry out of Silvan workbooks. My best accomplishment with him was that he improved his reading level and improved his letter formation. I think he will be more in his element when he gets to be in a 2nd grade class with other kids his age.
Laundry.
We have a small combo washer/dryer which sounds convenient but isn't really. We found that the clothes shrank and seemed to be more boiled than dried at the end of the cycle. I realize user error may be involved, but I eventually found it to be easier to skip the dry cycle and instead hang them to dry on drying racks that were here in the house already.
Grocery shopping,
We have to go to the store more often than at home because our fridge is just a little larger than the ones you find in an average hotel room--and I'm not talking about the ones at Residence Inn. I mean the little ones. One thing that made it work out is that all the packages are smaller. Paper towels, bags of flour, milk, salad dressing, bags of apples, and so on. The other thing that helps is the cool weather. The house has a conservatory (an unheated room "sun room") that has become our walk-in refrigerator during the last month or two.
During the last month I finally tried ordering my groceries online and paying just 3 pounds for home delivery. What was I thinking going to the store all those other times? But I did make a mistake online which I would not have made at the store--I had 12 packages of meatballs delivered instead of the two I thought I had clicked. But I checked online, and yes, I did order twelve. So now I will give some away before we leave.
Attending church.
Our church building is one block away down the hill. We have never lived this close to our church.
Nathan and I traded being Bishop and Relief Society teacher, respectively, in Carrollwood Ward in Tampa for youth Sunday School teacher and Faith in God leader, respectively, in our Sheffield 2nd ward. My job as Faith in God leader, together with my assistant Vickie, was to plan and carry out two Tuesday evening activities per month for the 8-11 year old boys and girls. I liked that my Janean was in it. In the US, boys that age do Cub Scouting while the girls program goes by the name Activity Girls; but here the Scouts aren't part of the church program so the girls and boys are together. I did include a scouting-type activity in the mix where we taught the children to build a fire and cook over it. We also did some baking and nutrition activities, service, and sporting activities where learning good sportsmanship was the point. The English here in South Yorkshire are a competitive lot--children and parents.
The children had a good time. We had two boys and five girls. I was touched when one of the girls told me she did not want me to leave. Nathan also was effective in teaching 12-14 year old youth (including Allison and Jeremy).
Sarah, Allison, and Jeremy attend Tuesday night youth activities. Sarah and Allison have been walking down the hill each weekday morning to attend 6:30AM seminary where they studied church history and the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm so glad Nathan has walked with them most mornings. What a blessing to be so close to the church. When we get back to Tampa it will be a 20 minute drive.
Participation in music activities.
The Sheffield 2nd Ward has a great musical tradition and we were fortunate to participate. We sang in the ward Christmas choir--all but Brad. But even he sang a duet as Joseph in the Primary nativity program. Janean narrated the nativity. She also sang a solo in the Primary Program in the fall. Brad also gave a talk in that Primary Program. With 15-20 children, everyone gets a chance to do something.
At Christmas Jeremy played violin in a string quartet while Allison played trombone in a duet with a trumpet. We had a tough time renting (hiring, as they say here) those instruments. Finally I gave my sob story to the Sheffield City Council so I could rent instruments without being a music teacher or a school music program director. I would have brought their instruments from home if I had known music stores do not rent instruments to parents, but it worked out in the end.
There are many little adventures involved in relocating to a different location from finding molasses (treacle) and shortening (no one knows what it is) to decorating for Christmas with borrowed decorations and the stockings we brought from home. We can't mention them all, but with all the puzzles, surprises, and adventures, we have been grateful for the chance.
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| Its time to hop back across the pond to Florida! |
