It’s been a hot minute since I’ve just given a good ol’ life update (which is all I used to do back in my early years of blogging). Since apparently I’m an adventure-blogger now, I don’t share nearly as much of our every day lives. But I don’t want anyone to get unrealistic expectations of our family. No, we aren’t out adventuring every single day. Yes, we have been adventuring a LOT as of late. But that’s only because my husband received a new DEROS date that is way sooner than we had anticipated… so we’ve got to cover more ground here faster if we’re going to get through our bucket list. And so, without further ado, here is…
The Now: August 2023 Edition
| Summer in South Korea | is hot, humid, and overall kind of miserable. Is it more miserable than Washington was in the summer? Yes. Is it the worst possible place in the summer? Unlikely. We’d been warned about the heat and humidity and I’d say it pretty much lives up to all the warnings we heard. Still, I like to think I’m pretty optimistic in general, and we’ve figured out ways to make the best of it – even with 3/4 of our bedroom ACs breaking down due to the heatwave we were having (yes, they are fixed now). Along with Typhoon Khanun the heatwave seemed to leave. And yes, Brandon was very disappointed that we were not personally hit by more than some rain. Despite the heat and humidity (and all the rain that monsoon season brought) we’ve been able to get out and explore.
| Homeschooling | We’ve been homeschooling through the summer – which my kids think is the cruelest thing ever. But it’s only because we were so lax during the school year, that I felt it necessary to just do it year-round. We’ve also made the decision to try out public school again, once we get to our next duty station (more on that at a later date). The kids – for the most part – have been begging to try public school again, and I’ve accepted that our whole lives might just be a back-and-forth between homeschool and public school. Honestly, I’m not sure we are really good at either of them, but the kids SEEM to be learning stuff, so we’ll see.
| Grad School | Brandon starts his Master’s Degree next week and we are having so many feels about it. On the one hand, it’s really exciting to have him finally starting it. But on the other hand, neither of us are too excited about having him working full-time AND go to school full-time (again). It’s been a few years since he’s had to worry about school and, while his Master’s program is all online, he’s going to be busy. Still, he’s the best husband and father in the world and I know he’s going to rock it all. It’s just going to be an adjustment for all of us. That all being said, I’m not ready to share all the details of his degree and future career aspirations just YET, but we’ll get there when we get there.
| Moving | In my last edition of The Now, I shared how weird of a phase we’re in. We haven’t been in South Korea that long, but our time is almost up. It’s been strange having our time here be so short. Especially since most people live here for 2-4 years. By the time we leave, we will have only been here as a family for about 15 months – and that is WILD to me. Honestly, we’ve covered so much ground in that short period of time (stay tuned for my post showing and linking EVERYTHING we’ve done since our move to South Korea) and I can wholeheartedly say we’ve given this country a shot and have learned to love it all. My heart breaks thinking about having to leave so soon – and my brain is trying to comprehend exactly how we’re going to move halfway around the world AGAIN – but I’m excited for the future adventures (even if our next duty station doesn’t seem all that exciting).
| Jiu-Jitsu | The kids are on a break from jiu-jitsu for the summer (after earning their third stripes) and we were originally planning to send them back come fall. A few things have changed, however, so they likely won’t be starting up again during our time in South Korea. We’re trying to decide what kind of activities the kids will participate in at our next duty station, although it’s impossible to plan completely before we actually get there. I’d love to see them continue with jiu-jitsu – L in particular is a natural and I’d love to see her continue – so we will see what they decide to do.
| Wandering | I’ve had a few questions about the title of our blog: The Wandering Whittens. While I don’t profess to be the most well-traveled person on the planet (I absolutely am not), I loved the idea of 1) alliteration and 2) a title that explained what we are trying to do: wander. No matter where we live, we’re hoping to explore and learn to love our location, and wander all over. We did it in Washington and we’ve done it in South Korea. And at our next duty station, we’ll do that same thing. I’m excited for the opportunity. So even when our adventures in SoKo are over, stay tuned for updates on all our wanderings.
| Visitors | We’ve got some visitors coming next month and in November and we are so excited! I’ve been researching different things to do (they’re totally going to help us check some things off the ol’ bucket list!) and I think we will have a very full itinerary. Still, our kids do great with all the exploring and they’ll love it even more when some of their favorite people are here with us!
So there isn’t really MUCH in the way of updates, but here it is! We’re just soaking up these last weeks of summer and these last months on the Peninsula. I’m sure there will be more updates as we await orders and start the process to move back to the States, but until then, we’re going to keep doing what we do best: wandering!
’til next time…
Ash
