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Where has the time gone? Our update ...

Here we are in the middle of December and the time is flowing by so what is going on in our life?  Ok, it's the first of January by now!!!

I have been really busy with studying German, working on getting certification of being able to teach English as foreign language, learning how to work with certain needs that we have in our family, and generally keeping afloat that sometimes seems like a complicated task on its own.  Getting ready for Christmas was crazy busy time as well.  Starting now (January) I joined an online reading club which I am super excited about - one book a month, sometimes there is a theme and I get to pick the book, sometimes there are specific books.  For January, I choose Chronicles of Narnia which I never read before. I've also been trying to sell/give away/throw away things we don't need or use.  The chance of us moving within next 3 years is not a crazy possibility and I don't want to drag things along that we don't actually want.

Chris travels A LOT.  And when he is not traveling, he keeps busy at home with miscellaneous projects.  Those projects are usually nothing like we had in Pittsburgh because we have no house to take care of, but there is always something else that needs done.  Lately, he's been busy with all things electronics related (backing our stuff, changing passwords,clearing out accounts that we no longer need, etc.).

The boys are growing and changing fast.  Anton is a busy little guy who is extremely loud!  In fact, more people say that he is not loudest person they ever met and it's most likely true - he has a high-pitch voice to begin with but also he screams! He's had a week off from kindergarten between Christmas and New Year but goes back on January 2.  He really enjoys going there which makes me happy.

Ilya, while still loves crafts, is also in love with his Kindle and spent a good portion of his vacation watching videos.  I tell myself that he is learning German that way :)  We also working on improving his subtraction skills, and I am trying to get him to read to himself.  Success rate - 50%.  I am trying to have him sit next to me while I read my book and he reads his so he can talk to me if needs to.  Ilya is a perfectionist so some things are more difficult for him because he hates making mistakes and when he does he get incredibly frustrated.


Andrei is growing up so fast.  We are learning that in third grade, we need to put a little more work into studying than 1st and 2nd grades.  He has been working on his math and his social studies work for a little bit each day because he managed to miss some homework assignments earlier and now we are playing catch up.  Amazingly, most of the time he does not argue.  Andrei also spent a decent amount of time playing computer games with his big cousin who lives in a time zone that's 9 hours before us so it's not always easy to schedule things like that during school time.






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