One Month In Mexico & What We've Learned So Far

 Dear Kids, 

Well, we've been here for ONE MONTH officially!

It seems like so much longer than that! So much as happened:

-We've learned how the bus system works. That took some practice. The bus system doesn't work here like

other places that I've traveled. They have what are called "Collectivos". They paint street names on their windshields. You have to just know the street names and the areas that refers to. At first it kind of panicked me because I didn't want to get on a bus that would lead us in the wrong direction. But after being here for a few weeks (and after we rented that car for a week with Dani and Alan, which helped us get to know the area), we've been able to start to wrap our heads around what everything is called. We have spent plenty of time looking over the map of the area in order to get to know the street names and the area names. Now I don't feel quite so worried about the bus system. We are using it like champs now!

-We found a "Lavendaria" (Laundromat) that we use for our clothing. We take our dirty clothes to them every Thursday and then pick them up every Friday. The ladies there are starting to recognize us and they are starting to warm up to us instead of being irritated with us when we don't know the right word to say to them!

-We have a cute little "Oxxo" store that is down the road from us where we can walk if we need something last minute. It's kind of like a gas station size, but without the gas, and the prices are reasonable. We have a tradition to get treats for every Friday night for the kids from the Oxxo so they have something fun to eat during movies and while we go on a date. 

-We've walked down to the "Super Aki" store that is about a mile away for groceries several times and walked to the mall several times (that is about 1.5 miles away). All of you are starting to get your walking legs under you and it's getting easier and easier to walk more and more. The other day when we were walking and got home Talia said, "Hey mom! Nobody complained!!". We are building our traveling and walking muscles!

-We've gotten to know our little condo area really well and gotten into a good rhythm these past two weeks since Dani and Alan headed home. We were in tourist mode with them, but then we knew we needed to get into "living" mode. This is basically what our schedule looks like on a weekly basis:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Sleep In! Get ready for church at about 11am. Go find a bus for church at 12:15… then hopefully make it to church by 1pm-3pm. Walk back over to Constituyents street and get a bus home. Home by 4pmish. Make dinner and rest.	Breakfast Scriptures School from 10am-noon. Lunch Swimming Room Time G&T, E&J. Educational Screens about Science. Mom and dad work on the podcast. Dinner ready Family Games. Then wind-down time and snuggles.	Breakfast Scriptures School from 10am-noon. Lunch Swimming Room Time G&E, T&J. Educational Screens with classical musicals. Mom and dad work on podcast. Dinner ready Family Games. Then wind-down time and snuggles.	Breakfast Scriptures School from 10am-noon. Lunch Swimming Room Time G&J, T&E. Educational Screens about History. Mom and dad work on podcast. 5pm Leave for church activity and grab dinner on the way. Go to church from 6:30-9pm. Catch Taxi Home. Late night to bed!	Breakfast Scriptures Take Laundry to “Lavendaria”. School 10am-noon. Pool shut down for maintenance. FUN SCREENS this day while mom and dad work on podcast. Dinner and then Family time or guests over for dinner. Wind-down time and snuggles.	Breakfast Scriptures FREE MORNING NO SCHOOL. (most of the time kids listening to music of choice!) Mom and dad work on podcast. Lunch Swimming Errands to the store. Mom and Dad date night and Movie night!	Episode Morning. Errand Day. Mall Day. Grocery Shopping Day. Swimming if wanted. Deep Cleaning. ETC! Saturday night is teenage night for Gabe.

-The kids are getting more screens than normal while we've been here. That's been a little bit hard for me, but it's been the best solution in the afternoons while we are doing podcast work. One of the BIGGEST reasons we are living here for several months instead of at home is because Brent is taking time off work in order to get these Spiritually Centered podcasts completed and DONE. With him not working we've been able to work on them REALLY consistently and we've already gotten half of the presentations lined out at this point! That feels REALLY good. I keep praying to God to make up the difference for you guys. That when we spend time with you it is quality time, but that you are having more screens than when we were at home because of the way it frees up time for Brent and I. I believe the Lord knows our hearts and we are doing our best with this. 

-We have been going every Wednesday to the church activity. They do something fun here where the RS, YM, YW and the Primary all meet together Wednesday night and do activities together. That has been fun! It's a long night for us, we've been leaving around 5pm to get food before getting there (that's been fun to go to different local places to eat) then we have the activity and get a taxi home. We aren't home usually until about 9:45pm or 10pm. But it's a fun night for everyone. 

-The swimming pool as been a GOD SEND! Doing apartment living while we've been here has been interesting. We've made it work really well. It feels so cozy and close, and I really like that actually, not spread out in a big home. But the kids get really restless. So going to the pool everyday to swim has been HUGE. And Joshua has learned to swim while we've been here! He's doing amazing! Brent and I have been swimming as well and getting our lungs working out more with holding our breath. The first time we held our breath under water we couldn't do it very long and it was alarming. So one of our goals is to leaving with better air control. 

-Something else that we're doing as a couple is Intermittent Fasting while we're here. We are fasting after lunch on Monday until dinner on Tuesday. Then after lunch on Thursday until dinner on Friday. Usually it gives us a fasting period of about 24-28 hours. We knew we had to do something to get more healthy, but it's been a challenge to be on the same page about food in our home. It's been a source of contention and frustration for me. So as we talked about it we decided that we might be able to make Fasting work. We still drink water during those times, but we fast from food. And so far I think we might have found something that works for both of us! yay!

-Understanding Spanish has been DIFFICULT because of everyone wearing masks down here. That has been a challenge. But we are working on it very hard. Brent is a CHAMP. I feel like he's the Senior Companion helping everyone understand how to do things in a different culture, including myself. Because of speaking Italian he has been able to understand Spanish much faster than I have, and I'm so grateful for it! I am slowly getting more and more of the language and keep praying to the Lord to help make up the difference for me. I'm trying! 

-For school time everyone has just the basics to get done. EVERYONE does Spanish Study. We got Ipads for everyone for Christmas specifically for school things. We are doing Duolingo together, and it's been a great program to use for all the kids as well. I spend 30 minutes a day on Spanish Study. The kids school right now consists of Reading, Copywork, Math, Spanish Study, Art or Ukelele (for Talia),  and then the educational screens in the afternoon. Talia has also been putting together a Learning Club that she teaches classes online Friday's at 5pm EST (our time), 3pm MST. It is VERY basic school work honestly, nothing really fancy, but it's keeping the kids up to date. Usually at home I had specific teacher prep time every month for what we were going to be doing and focusing on, but I'm not doing that here because besides the kids and navigating the culture here, the Podcasts are the focus of my energy. So the kids are doing basic school work and having experiences. They've had a TON of new experiences here and THAT is a HUGE education in and of itself! I hope YOU ALL REMEMBER that having experiences while we're here was a HUGE focus of our schooling time. 

Well, I think that gives a pretty good overview of everything that we have been able to learn and do! 

I love you kids, 

Your Mom

Dani and Alan, Xpu-Ha Beach, Scuba Diving, Cenote Azul

 Dear Kids, 

Dani and Alan just left to go back to the USA this morning. They had planned previously a trip down here to Playa Del Carmen (PDC), Mexico about 6 months ago to go to an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) gathering. It was perfect timing because we got here just a week before they came down! It was great!

We spent the last several days with them doing all the "tourist" things. Which was GREAT to get a bit of that out of our systems before really settling into the flow of living here. 

We went to the beach called Xpu-Ha. It was FABULOUS. One of Dani's friends (who has traveled to many beaches) said this is her FAVORITE beach of all of them... which is saying a lot. We got there and now I totally understand why. It was amazingly beautiful. I told the kids that they were spoiled to have their first experiences with the beach to be THAT one! They would be forever disappointed in all beaches we ever go to from here on out. ha! 

The water was so clear and beautiful. The sand was white and soft. The kids saw several fish while we were there. It ended up raining a bit while we were there and that was an adventure. The kids could have stayed there all day. We had to head back home a little bit earlier than wanted to get Dani and Alan back for their dinner that night, and another storm was coming that looked like it was going to be a down pour. But WOW, that was an AMAZING part of the world on that Playa!!

While Dani and Alan were here we also visited Tulum and went through the Mayan and Aztek Ruins. We got a guide, which I'm really glad we did because he went over lots of different things about the city that we wouldn't have known about. All the adults and Gabe were LOVING it, but the younger three kids - well let's just say you were all champions of complaining that day. There were lots of groans and moans coming from you three. Dani at one point actually gave you a little talking to about it. Complaining is something we need to work on FOR SURE. 

I just told you guys that going through cultural experiences is something that you just have to do sometimes, whether you want to or not. It's important to learn about cultures and history. I was loving it. It was amazing to be in that part of the land. I could just feel the depth of Lamanite history there. There were a lot of Lamanite souls walking about around everyone that came to visit that place. One thing is for sure, we have a lot of work to do in the Millenium in order to get everyone's family history work completed, especially for places like that when we have no record of it! I felt spiritually that just having the gospel come and be part of their land was starting to liberate them spiritually to listen to the gospel. There is a lift that's happening on the other side because of the presence of the gospel and a temple. That was an interesting thing to feel.

The city of Tulum wasn't that great, VERY touristy. The ruins were cool, the beach was beautiful, but the city was "meh". We tried to go to a cenote while we were there, but they closed at like 4:30pm and we got there only about 30 minutes before it closed, and it was expensive. So Dani, Alan and Fili went in, we told the kids we were going to have to go to a Cenote another day. And WOW there was an OUTBURST of emotion from Talia. You would have thought we cut her legs off. She was really looking forward to it, but we tried to explain to her that when we pay, we want to be able to stay for the whole day, not just 30 minutes. She just had a COME APART. Definitely one of her best "toddler teenager tantrums" so far. It was difficult to be emotionally around her and we had to have her be by herself in the car for a while to get her cries out. 

But luckily, two days later we were able to go to Cenote Azul. And that was BEAUTIFUL. The water was so crystal clear. We went on a day that was cloudy and a little bit rainy, and it was awesome because the crowds weren't that bad because of it actually! It was such a perfect day to go and experience it. The kids just swam and swam and checked out the fish in the pools forever. There was a ramp to jump from, they had a blast with that. And the energy of the place was awesome with all the trees and nature around us. I was just soaking it in. I got to play and swim with the kids for a while and I LOVE it when I get to do that. It is the best! 

Your dad also got to go scuba diving while they were here! We went to the cutest little town of Puerto Morales. It was the CUTEST little place with adorable cobblestone streets and it was so clean. That is a little town I could totally live in! Your dad had to get reacquainted with the diving equipment in a swimming pool before they went out into the ocean. I just was able to hang out at the beach with you guys during the day while the group went scuba diving. We had a good time for sure! We ate at a cute little fish eatery for lunch while we were waiting for them. You guys went back and forth from the ocean to the pool for quite a while. It was a fun little spot. You got to see the boats coming in and out of the harbor. And when the sun went down, it was beautiful! 

All in all, having the car for the week while Dani and Alan visited was a good choice. It was more expensive that we wanted it to be, but it was worth it. The first day we had it, we just went for a drive and showed the kids different parts of the place. We found VERY poor neighborhoods were people were just living in shacks. They had no idea there were people living like that. I think it was hard for them to understand what it all meant, it was scary for them. At one point Talia said, "Um, dad... when are you going to get another job?" - which in her head meant she was thinking through that we wouldn't have a home if he didn't work. We explained that right now the Lord has blessed us so much that we get to be doing this without dad having to work for a few months, and we get to spend time together as a family. WE are VERY blessed that way. We shall see what the next few months bring, that's for sure. 

Having the car helped me to get my bearing of the city in general. Where everything was located, how the city is mapped out, and all the different parts. It helped me SO MUCH to feel more grounded and rooted inside of where we are. I couldn't believe what a trigger it was for me to have no idea where anything was and feeling like I needed to get a better understanding of what was going on around me. I think especially as a mother and the responsibility for my kids. 

All in all, the last week full of touristy stuff was good to get out of our systems. We ate at some good restaurants and had some really fun times! I think it helped you guys you as well because after several day of going and going and going some more, you were ready to come home and hang out here for a while.

I love you kids. I hope you know that part of the purpose why we are doing something like this is to give you experiences outside of the USA. To know what it's like to walk to the laundromat to get your clothes cleaned. To know what it's like to live in a small apartment. To be able to see the poor neighborhoods. To know what it's like to live without a car. To try to learn another language and be around people who are different from us. Those exposures are really important for all of you. 

I love you, 

Your Mom

Mom's Breakdown After Getting To Mexico

 Dear Kids, 

Talia asked me a few weeks ago why she never saw me crying. I told her that I cry, but it usually comes at night while everyone is sleeping and in bed. 

I had a break down Sunday night after we got to Mexico, and it was early enough that I was able to invite Talia in to actually SEE me crying. I told her that I do cry! I am human! There are things that overwhelm me and get to my heart. 

And kids, it's okay to cry and have breakdowns. Not all the time, but when you have emotion built up in your body it's important to get it out. That is one reason why when anyone is having a break down I say, "Go to your room and get your emotions out." Because you need to learn to give yourself some quiet time and space to feel your emotions and let them leave your body. 

that is what happened to me on Sunday night. 

We got into Mexico safe and sound. Sunday we had a good relaxing day... but everyone's emotions were HIGH. There was a lot for all of you to come down from emotionally. I was fielding a lot of break downs on Sunday from all of you and by that night time it was my turn!

When I knelt to say prayers with Joshua we did our usual prayer time and in every prayer at night we pray for angels to be around him while he sleeps. Since Mimi passed away he's been adding, "And bless Mimi to be my guardian angel." When he said that it just hit me in my gut. 

I miss my momma! I miss her so much! I miss that she wasn't the one calling me and asking me about all the details happening since we got into Mexico. I felt the MAJOR overwhelm of living in a different country. I just was like... "what are we doing??? What are we thinking??". I was feeling isolated, away from everything familiar and everything was so new. I didn't know the language. I can't communicate. I brought my kids into an area that we don't know. So many BIG emotions hit me and I just CRIED. 

I cried and cried and cried. I cried for a long time. It's been awhile since I cried myself to sleep, but I did that night. I had a lot of emotion that had been put up on the shelf and been saved for later. There were so many times in the last 7 months that the Lord just told me to put something I was feeling on the shelf and I'd be able to take them down later. 

Well now I am in "the later", and it's time to take all those things on the shelf down. And Sunday night was the start of it. 

And let me tell you, it felt REALLY good. I had a lot in there. I just needed to cry and let it out. 

I LOVE this quote that I'm putting in here. And it's true. When you cry, sweat or sit by the ocean, there's so much healing in it... the only thing left out of this quote is how Jesus helps you through all the "things". :-)

I love you kids... there's going to be A LOT that happens to you in your life times. We don't know what the future holds. We don't know the successes or failures, we don't know the tragedies that await us. But we can control how we handle it, every time. The gift of agency is a beautiful thing, especially with the way it works together with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We can control our reaction because of the Grace of Jesus and the power that it includes. We can make the best of situations because HE is the one who can make us capable and strong. 

After I was done crying I just prayed and prayed and asked the Lord for help. And He sent me Jesus. He always sends me Jesus. Jesus heals me and helps me. He makes everything whole. 

We can do this! The Lord is on our side!

I love you, 

Your Mom

Events First Week In Mexico

 Dear Kids, 

We've been in Playa Del Carmen for 5 whole days! Wow it's been a complete whirlwind.

I'll give you the update of the "events", then in another post I'll write about some emotional experiences. 

1. We left Tooele on January 27th to go down to St. George. We got a hotel there so we could have our own space (we have been so ready for our own space!). We had to take some legal documents to our tax guy, work on getting the truck cleaned to give to Merrill to sell, see Mesha and the kids, see Shirlyn and Katie and their kids, and a few other errands that needed to be run. We picked up the van from Ashla Friday night so we could have it for loading our stuff.

2. We left EARLY on Saturday morning January 29th to go to Vegas. Ashla Clay drove us down there, which was great to catch up with her. She was so giving of her time and resources to do that for us. I just love her! Our relationship is really amazing and how we can help each other. We got there in plenty of time and actually there weren't very many people at all so going through security was amazing! So easy. We had like an hour in the airport before our plane took off. 

3. We decided to do the direct flight from Vegas to Cancun on JetBlue. It was a little more expensive, but since it was the kids first time flying, I'm really glad we did it so we didn't have to worry about switching planes or any layovers. The day was long enough with all of that!

4. You all LOVED the plane! It was so great to see your eyes as we took off and as you saw the ground getting smaller below us after take off. Elijah said, "I just don't know if I can keep watching the ground get smaller!!" and he slammed the window covering shut! haha! It was hilarious. Talia's eyes were like Christmas morning seeing everything around her and how the plane worked and flying inside the clouds. She loved it! When we got to Cancun and we were flying over the ocean, that FREAKED Gabe out a bit, but he was excited about the adventure of it. Joshua just played games the whole time. 

5. We got into Cancun at about 6:30pm local time (which is Eastern Standard Time). Pasqual was recommended to us by our airbnb host for transportation, and he was awesome. He worked in the US for a while and spoke great English. He dropped us off at a store to grab some supplies and we got to the airbnb. Everyone was EXHAUSTED. It was a long day of traveling and you guys all did amazing!! 

6. Our cute apartment was pretty easy to wrap our hearts around. It was really great colors and good energy. Brent dedicated the space and we just hung around on Sunday. We went for a walk on Sunday and you all got to see a bit of the neighborhood. It was hard for you guys to see the trash that was thrown around. Talia was really bothered by it especially. She had a different idea in mind of what things would look like and it shook her up a little bit. I told her to remember when I said that it would be dirtier here than in the US. She said, "yes I remember you saying that but I didn't think it would be like THAT." In reality it was hard for everyone to see all the differences. We had a little bit of traveling shock for sure. I had a break down on Sunday night (I'll write about that later).

7. Monday was a brighter day. We were able to start a good school routine first thing. It felt good to get back into the swing of school, we've been off our routine for SEVERAL months because of Mimi's death, then we got sick, then Grandma Kvarfordt passed away, then we started watching the Merrell girls in December, then holidays, then we went to Dani's and at Dani's there was no structure for a few weeks... needless to say we were all ready to get back into a routine together. You all jumped in like no time had passed - I'm so grateful that you have the rhythm muscles and know how to get back into getting your schoolwork done. We've always had a basic routine with reading, math, copywork, scripture reading, family reading. We have always done the basics really well. 

8. We kept at our routine Tuesday - Thursday. Everyone went on lots of walks - you are all going to be having quite a few walking muscles by the time we are finished here! Which is good, we all need it. We took laundry to the laundromat on Thursday (only $7 for the whole week of laundry!), walked to the supermaket a few times, found some new places, figured out how the bus system worked... which that is a whole thing in and of itself. Everywhere we've traveled (we've mainly traveled in Europe) has bus stops and bus schedules. It's not like that here. There are vans that act as buses and they have their main destinations on the front of the windshields. When you want to catch one you just stick your hand out and tell them where to go. We also went swimming for a few days at the pool there are some great trees by the pool and it's super quaint. 

9. Me and Dad went to the downtown area a few times to check it out - took buses to get there. We went to Walmart to get more supplies before we found all the stores we could walk to that were by our house. We checked out where the church was so we had that in our minds for Sunday. 

10. Your dad and I were able to start reviewing the podcast project we are working on while we are here for a couple of days. I was able to get a couple good runs in and yoga sessions by the pool. Your dad was able to start a cleanse he's doing and go for a few exercise sessions as well around the neighborhood. I got the first meditation outlined for the podcasts... it's off to a good start! Little bit at a time. 

Then today is Friday! It's been a good eventful week. We rented a car today to have for the week. Dani and Alan are here for the week so we figured it was a good time to rent a car and use it. It ended up being more expensive than we thought, but we just do our best to get our money's worth out of it! 

You are all getting used to the small apartment space. It does feel GREAT to have a space of our own again without getting into anyone's way. We have to be careful with the energy of you kids because it's an apartment and you have to get out and get your energy out as often as possible!

We are having an adventure! This is definitely filling up my adventure bucket that is for sure.

I love you. I hope you all know that a huge reason why we are doing this is for YOU and your LIFE EXPERIENCE. We want you to experience different cultures and way's of being. It's important, especially for building up of the kingdom of God. 

Your Mom