Another Year Done

At the main square in UB shortly after arriving in Mongolia.

Another year of school is done for my children. When the decision to move to Mongolia from Uganda for the remainder of our first term with MAF we knew that I would need to home school our kids again.

We did not come straight from Uganda to Mongolia, we went through Canada first. While in Canada we began to organize schooling for the kids. They were accepted by a school board in Alberta that offers courses on-line. We are very thankful for this as they were able to do all their LA(Language Arts) on-line. For those of you not familier with Canadian curriculum LA is English class. All the rest of the subjects I taught. I was able to find curriculum for Science, Social Studies(History), and Health. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to get everything for their math. I ordered the math curriculum when we got to Mongolia. Do to a mix up with my order, having to reorder it, and get it shipped to us here in Ulaanbaatar, we were able to start math just before Christmas.

So another year of school is almost done.

The kids and I were able to start school shortly after arriving in Mongolia, once the jet-leg was mostly gone. They have all worked very hard this year and I am very proud of all that they were able to get accomplish by the end. They are going to trying to complete their math before the next year starts so that it is an easier transition next school year

Working hard on their LA

Getting her work done

       

The Pounds Away Weight Reducer

There is an old game that my in-laws have that is called "The Inventors". In it, there is a card that describes a real-world invention from way back in time. This particular one was called the "Pounds Away Weight Reducer". It was a crazy contraption that had a frame with belts, springs, and weights which people belted themselves into in order to lose weight. Like most quickie weight loss things out there, I'm sure that it was a gimmick.

The idea behind writing this post started back in September 2011. Back then I had made a decision with Dallas to lose weight and change our lifestyle to a healthier one. We knew we were overweight and not living a very healthy or active life. In the four years that have since gone by, I have slowly been dropping the pounds and getting healthy. I have never gone back to the weight I was then, but I have also not gotten to the weight goal I had set for myself.  Looking back at pictures over the years since that time I see how far I have come. 

October 2010

Near the end of September 2011

April 2013

July 2015

Apparently I only let my face be photographed, but you can see the weight lose in my face over the years.

So with this goal from 2011 still needing to be completed I started to think how I might work towards that completion in 2016.

I think that it was in November of 2015 when Dallas' cousin challenged a few of her female family members to form a team of 4 to run/walk the year. The challenge is to run or walk 2016 miles in 2016 as a team of four. To see the challenge go here. I decided to accept the challenge and three of Dallas' aunts and myself are a team, we are mostly walking the year. This started on the 1st of January and so far we are on track for the amount of miles we need to complete each month to finish the 2016 miles this year. 

I also looked at this as a way to work towards completing my weight loss goal, be more active, and get healthier. My plan at the beginning of the year was to be careful what I ate and when (no snacks after supper). Near the end of January I came to realize that that was not going to work as no pounds were coming off. I wasn't gaining weight, but I wasn't losing any either. I needed something more to keep me accountable on what I was eating and how much, so I found an online calorie tracker to help me. I started logging what I was eating and how much on the 30th of January. Over the last few weeks I have starting to see weight dropping again! Hopefully this is the start of a trend that I can keep up until I finally reach my goal.

Back to My Roots

A few weeks ago I sat down to write about how we have dealt with the change in temperature from Uganda to Mongolia. I was almost done and then in a moment of not paying attention I deleted it.

So now I will write it again so you can know how we dealt with the winter weather here in Mongolia.

For Dallas and I we went back to our roots. A good winter jacket, warm boots, a warm toque (Canadian for winter hat), good gloves or mittens, a scarf, and layers. We have learned that if you put on layers you can regulate your warmth. If you have on a few layers you have the option of taking a layer off if you get warm or just putting another layer on if you are not warm enough.

We are now passing this information onto our children and they are learning quickly. They soon realized that if they did what mom and dad suggested they were a lot more comfortable.  

On a shopping trip

My warm boots

No toque in this picture but a warm headband and thick scarf.

My mittens and winter jacket.

This is how we survived our first winter in 4 years.