The Week of Ss

We had a Super Short week with School and Stroganoff. This week was pretty low key. The missionaries are busy planning and preparing for the start of second semester in August, but with the kids being gone and with us just being volunteers, we don’t have a lot of responsibilities right now.

This timed out great for us to start school, though. I can’t believe I have a high schooler and a middle schooler now. I have adjusted my already-adjusted homeschooling in Brazil plan again. I have decided to ditch English and Writing and Grammar and replace it with Portuguese by continuing our Portuguese classes with Mrs. Sonia. However, we are going to drop Portuguese down to two days a week for two hours a day to make sure we still have time for science, math, social studies, and technology, and still be able to finish in time for serving in the afternoons starting back in August. This gives us the month of July to slowly get back into a school rhythm. It is very hard for this type-A, list making, rule follower to adjust our schooling this much but I think in the long run it will work better for our time here.

The boys also had their quasi-weekly wiffle ball game on Thursday.

Aside from school, we had an FCA team of college athletes from Georgia visit this week. They were helping at a sister location so we were in charge of housing and feeding them. Trevor and I helped with lunch on Monday and dinner on Thursday and Friday. The team had a great week. Unfortunately, I was too busy chit chatting and cleaning to get any pictures. I love seeing these young people (ha, young people, I’m so old) love the Lord and having passion to share the gospel with others. So, if you think the world is horrible right now just know there is always a remnant; God always leaves a remnant.

It was nice to just chill and spend time as a family this week. Having the extra time, I decided to tackle my first Brazilian dish – Brazilian chicken stroganoff. Some use tomato sauce, some use ketchup and mustard; both will tell you their way is the right way. I, personally, find it too sweet when made with tomato sauce, so I’m team ketchup and mustard. Some will add mushrooms; some don’t. Tucker doesn’t like mushrooms, and Mason only slightly likes them, so I went without. It turned out pretty good. Trevor and I liked it. Mason even said it was better than some he had in restaurants here. I’ll call that a win. Tuck didn’t try it and just ate chicken and rice. Shocker. Stroganoff is always served over rice and topped with batata palhas (crispy potato straws). The picture would have looked prettier if I would have added a sprig or two of parsley for color, but, hey, I’m keeping it real.

And that was it. Our easy breezy short, school, stroganoff week.

Oh, wait! I almost forgot. Trevor and I finally got our Brazilian resident IDs; just took 3 1/2 months. They still didn’t have the kids’ IDs ready yet. So, we will have to make another trip to Campinas when they’re ready. The trip wouldn’t be so bad but the tolls are expensive and they only take reais or debit. Uugghh. But now that we have our IDs, we can at long last get a bank account here. Yay! I’m starting to feel like a grownup down here finally.