World Travels England Letter

Hello Again!


The wind blew just right and we landed in England! We flew over the famous Stonehenge monument and many beautiful country cottages. When we finally landed in the capital, London, we had a great view of Big Ben. As we looked at the time, we thought about a time when people feared England.


Way back around 500 a.d. was a man named Augustine. He was sent by a pope in Rome to go to England and tell them of God's love for them. Augustine brought a team of men with him for the long journey. As they got closer they began to hear stories about the English. They heard that they were barbarians and that they would all be killed the moment they got there.


Augustine's team was scared to go any farther. After some encouragement from the pope, they made it to England. Augustine sent a message to the king about who they were and why they were coming. Do you know what? The queen was already a Christian! The team was welcomed into the country and Augustine eventually became the archbishop of Canterbury.


You really just don't know about people until you get to know them! We can't wait to get to know new people all over the world. How about you?





 

 

Big Ben Photo via wallpaperswiki.org


 

If you have access to BBC this would be a great time to watch some British television. Some of our favorite shows include: Top Gear, Shawn the Sheep, and Bang Goes the Theory. Top Gear and Shawn the Sheep can be found on Netflix and Amazon instant video. Bang Goes the Theory has science experiments to go with the show on their website as well.

 

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

 

Indescribable

Have you seen this video by Louie Giglio yet? It is really amazing to see how the universe proclaims God's glory. Take some time to watch it. God really is indescribable.

Learning the Uke

The Cat Returns is one of my favorite animated films. The end song, Kaze Ni Naru, is one of my favorite parts and gave me the longing to play the ukulele. I found just the uke for me here in Montreal. It is part musical instrument and part souvenir of Quebec. I am not terribly good at it yet, but I am starting to get this song down. Once I have it figured out, I will either attempt to learn the words so I can sing along, or move on to another great song. In the meantime, here is a great cover of the song by someone who has been playing a lot longer than I have.

Canada is NOT North USA

[caption id="attachment_1151" align="alignleft" width="300"] Downtown Montreal[/caption]

Back home Canada is like a sister to the north. As you head further north it seems like the line is blurred between Canadian and American. When we first told people we were coming to Montreal to serve as missionaries, many of them thought we were crazy. How would it be any different than simply serving in Minnesota? We didn't really have any clear way of sharing the differences, but had heard they were there. And, oh, how different it is!

There is the obvious here in French Canada, everything is in French, the signs, the directions and alerts in the Metro, the information posted in the busses. That was to be expected. The little things are really what catch you off guard. You need 4 forms of Canadian ID to get a phone. People are surprised when they hear we have the same last name, in a country where changing your name, even for marriage, is illegal. Bank accounts are not free and some accounts severely limit the number of transactions allowed in a month. The street lights run differently. The food here tastes different and the prices of the food are very different too.

I could spend all day typing up the minute differences of living in Canada, but I won't. The part that makes acclimating to a new life here are the similarities to America. I can go down the street and order a pepperoni pizza just like back home. When I bite into it and I taste that bologna like pepperoni they have here it is a reminder that I am not back home at all. Though the similarities sometimes trick us into thinking we are in the States, it always comes out Canada. We are getting used to the changes and expect there will be more to get used to over our months in Montreal.

Morgan Minute: SUNday

Enjoy this tropical Morgan Minute all about our SUNday at City Church.


Morgan Minute Y15 03 from Adam Morgan on Vimeo.

City Church for Easter

Do you need a church home here in Montreal? Check out this video and then head to http://mycitychurch.ca/ for more information!


City Church Easter from Adam Morgan on Vimeo.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I love Rend Collective and this video is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy this Irish group on this day of the Irish!

The Jesus Journal

Today we are back into the swing of things in our homeschool. We are doing six weeks on and one week off at the moment and last week was a very busy week of prepping for the next six weeks for me. Today we are starting a lot of new things thanks to our recent supplemental order from Amazon. I am most excited to be starting the Jesus Journal, from the folks at What's in the Bible.

We have had it for a while and tried it back before we moved. Jayne was a little young for it back then and we didn't make it through the whole thing. Now that he is older I am looking forward to giving it another try. Today is the perfect day to start as a lead up to Easter. If you think you want to try it, you can get the download version and still start today.

This week we are talking about who Jayne is. Next week we will talk about who Jesus is. During holy week we will be remembering the cross. Week 4 will start on Easter Monday (here in Canada) and will be all about how we live a life in Christ. There are some fun bonus materials too and so we will do those the 5th week.

Our family has been big fans of What's in the Bible for a long time. We have the DVD volumes 1-13 which cover information from every book of the bible and the Why Do We Call it Christmas DVD. We also do the Everyday Emanuel book at Christmas. We have really enjoyed the depth that they share in such simple ways that our 7 year old can even understand it.

Well, I guess I better go get started! Have a great week!

World Travels Ireland Letter

Hello!


The wind blew us away from the big city of Paris to this amazing view! We landed at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. The cliffs overlook the Atlantic Ocean. There were so many birds! The sea birds make their homes in the cliff face. Their high nests give them easy access to food in the sea and keep them safe from predators.


While we were in Ireland we heard about Saint Patrick. He was a Christian boy in England. When he was a teenager, he was taken from his home and family and brought to Ireland as a slave. While serving as a pig keeper, he gave hope to his fellow slaves by sharing about the love of God. One day he had a chance to escape and returned to England. He did not forget the people of Ireland though. Patrick went back, this time as a missionary, and shared the Love of Christ in Ireland for the rest of his life. It is an exciting story from the history of Ireland and Christianity. 


We loved hearing stories of Saint Patrick here in Ireland. Maybe the wind will be right and we can see where he grew up next month!





 

Cliffs of Moher Photo via businessinsider.com

If you began your study in January, it is perfect timing to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in March. What better time to learn more about a great missionary and Irish culture. You can find many green goodies to go along with your study. You can also use your flag stickers, Cardline card, and maps.

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

And a Storm That Seems Never to Lift

As I greeted new faces at City Church yesterday, my eyes were continually drawn to window. Snow, lots of it, filled the sky to the point that it was hard to see the other buildings around us. We knew that it snowed more here, in a knowledge sort of way. It snows almost every day here, especially this week. It is hard to be cheerful when the gloom of winter weather is literally over your head.

As I watched the deluge of snow outside, I couldn't help but think of this song from one of my all time favorite movies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. They sing about the months of winter and I am relating big time to the song this winter. So I watched the snow, greeted people, and hummed this song. It brought a smile to my face among the gloominess of the day.

February finds a drift and a storm that seems never to lift.

I hope it brings a smile to your face this cold winter day too. If you want to see the part I am talking about, it is at 2:51. I could not find a clip with just this scene.

World Travels France Letter

 

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

 

Hello!

Dinah and I enjoyed our first trip on the hot air balloon so much! It was amazing seeing the earth from so high up. We floated through the sky for a very long time, going wherever the wind blew. The wind brought us from the United States of America, across the Atlantic Ocean, to a huge city!


Standing in the middle of the skyline was an incredible tower, the Eiffel Tower. We saw so many cafes, bakeries, and architecture. In Paris, France there is so much to see and I wanted to see it all.


Dinah reminded me that not everyone can see the sights that we were able to see. She told me that about 200 years ago there was a boy named Louis Braille. He lived here in France. When he was just three years old, he had an accident in his father's workshop that caused him to be blind. As he grew up, the one thing he wanted to do was read. Louis left his family to attend a school for the blind in Paris.


In Paris, he was able to learn to read. The letters were raised so he could read with his fingers. There weren't many books to read though. Louis began to think of a new way for the blind to read, a way that could make books for the blind easier to make and to read. He created the Braille Alphabet Code. Each letter was made with a series of dots that are easy to create, feel, and read. Braille's alphabet is still being used by the blind today.


I can't wait to learn more about countries all over the world. They are all bound to have their own amazing stories.


Till next time,





 

Image via Nicole Codega


 

France is our first stop on our study around the world. Netflix and Amazon Instant Video should be great resources to find documentaries about Paris and France as a whole. This is your chance to break out your flag sticker book for the first time too. At my house, we put the big flag for the country in our passport and the little flag on or near the country in the book. Then we color in the country. Here are some other things you can add to make your study of France more enjoyable and hands on.

World Travels Introduction Letter

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

Hello!

My name is Delbert. My good friend Dinah got a very special Christmas gift this year, a hot air balloon! Can you believe it? It is beautiful, with gold, red, and black stripes. Dinah had a great idea of how to use her special gift. I bet you can't wait to hear her idea! Well, she thought we should travel around the world in her balloon. I thought it was a great idea and said yes right away.

I came up with a great idea of my own too. I knew we would learn so many new things about lots of countries we have never seen. Then I thought we should share what we learned with someone. We thought long and hard about who we should share our adventures with, and we thought of you!

Dinah and I are going to have so much fun traveling all over the world in the hot air balloon. We hope that you have fun learning along with us too. I will write again soon when we land in our first country!

 

 

Balloon photo © Walleyelj | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

 

This introduction letter is a great opportunity to share some items with your kids that they can enjoy for their whole journey. We use a play passport, which would be easy to make. We also introduced these items into our study.

World Travels Geography Series

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Welcome to World Travels! We are so excited to learn about the world with you. In this series you will find an introduction and 16 country studies. Delbert and Dinah will be flying around the world in their hot air balloon, learning about the countries they visit and how Christianity has impacted them along the way. Here are the stops we will be making. We will begin in France, then head to Ireland, England, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Mongolia, China/Hong Kong, Australia, Guatemala, Mexico, and finish in the United States of America. Click the country to find the post when it is available. The introduction letter can be found here.

In addition to the letters from Delbert and Dinah, we will be using several materials. You can choose to use these to further your study or use your own ideas that will spark your children's desire to learn. I will share country specific items after each letter, but the following we use in our home for all or nearly all of the countries.

 

Introduction Letter

France Letter

Ireland Letter

England Letter

Netherlands Letter

Italy Letter

Greece Letter

Egypt Letter

Saudi Arabia Letter

India Letter

Mongolia Letter

China/Hong Kong Letter

Australia Letter

Easter Island Letter

Guatemala Letter

Mexico Letter

United States of America Letter

Arriving in Montreal: The Drive

We have been so immersed in everything happening in Montreal that the drive here almost feels like a dream...a long awful dream that you are very glad to wake up from. We left on Friday, the 2nd. It was a beautiful day for a drive. We said our teary eyed good-byes to our families, buckled into the U-Haul and began driving. That is when the excitement began.

The truck began moving and Tucker, who was sitting at my feet and is our dog, freaked out, jumped on my lap and tried to climb over me to hide behind a seat or something. We all burst out laughing as Jayne and I tried to restrain him so he wouldn't end up by the driver's side. I kept him on my lap for about an hour till he calmed down. Then I put a blanket on the floor for him to curl up by my feet. He was fine for a while, but then he noticed the gap under the seat. He started wiggling his way in and we all thought it was cute...until he got stuck. That space was much smaller than he had thought. We stopped and he popped himself out. Every time I put him down there he tried to go under the seat, so I drove the whole way, 4 days, roughly 1,400 miles, with our dog on my lap.

Day 2 we drove in an ice storm through Chicago. We drove 13 hours that day. It started with snow and changed to ice around Chicago. The second half of the day was just rain. We were all pretty temperamental that day. Day 3 was about 10 hours of driving. It was 60 degrees when we woke up and we were racing the wind. We knew the storm was bringing 60 mph winds and we got an early start. Most of the day brought dense fog and rain. About an hour before we reached our last hotel, the wind caught up to us. We drove into town to find downed power lines being fixed. We could hear the gales outside throughout the night. In the morning we had another beautiful day to drive.

We hit the border about an hour or 2 into driving. We went in with nothing but our paperwork, not knowing what to expect. It was quite intimidating as we were basically interrogated off and on for 3 1/2 hours. The man helping us did at least get more friendly toward the end. Driving in Quebec was hard. All the signs are in French, which we expected. It was just incredible to see Montreal as we drove across the bridge for the first time. We had waited so long to get there and we were so close to home. It did not take long after that to get horribly lost.

Driving in Montreal was scary. Everything was covered with ice, since they had also been hit by the ice storm. Cars were parked in the lanes, people were walking in the streets, and we were right in the middle with a huge U-Haul. We finally found where we were on the map and found our way to our Montreal apartment. We were greeted by Dave Hemmerle and his kids we got everything moved into the apartment with their help and help from the Pinneys, as well. It was a long journey, that I am not looking forward to doing again. At least we will have a better idea of what to expect come November.

Morgan Minute Episode 02

Our 7 year old, Jayne, did all the video for this episode! I hope you enjoy it. We won't have a new episode up next week because we will be gone visiting family. The following week we might introduce you to the Canadian dollar.


Morgan Minute Y14 02 from Adam Morgan on Vimeo.

A Christmas Card from the Morgans

Inside the Test Kitchen: A Book Review

While I do most of the main cooking in our family, Adam loves to experiment in the kitchen. He says, "if it is good for you in any way Michelle probably made it." Inside the Test Kitchen is all about experimenting. You open it up and you feel like you just opened up someone's high school notebook. This cookbook is so relaxed that you just can't help but want to dive in.

The first thing I always notice about a cookbook are the pictures. This book is filled with photos and I love that! Not just a photo for each recipe, but photos of the process. They are accompanied by "handwritten" notes. The recipes are unique plays on classic comfort foods like mac and cheese and green bean casserole. There are discussions on the best type of ground meat to use for hamburger and which cheeses are the stretchiest. I am delighted to have this book in my new kitchen when we move in 50 days from now.

Tyler Florence has really created something special in this book. It is as fun to read as it is to cook from. It's so easy to follow and I can actually find the ingredients. There are many recipes that are gluten free, which is a major plus for our family. I can't wait to surprise my darling husband with this super fun cooking experience this Christmas. My taste buds can't wait either!

Oh, To Sleep

Well, I have been up for an hour now. I don't think I am likely to get any more sleep tonight. The 3:00 am hour is becoming far to familiar to my liking lately. That used to be the hour my baby would wake each night. Now it is the hour that I wake up and can't turn off my brain. The last couple of weeks I have been frequenting 3:00, and what keeps me up? It's to do lists and excitement like Christmas morning.

This particular morning was a combination of apartments and shovels. Our team is looking at an apartment today that I especially like. I can't wait to see it and that is what I woke up thinking about. Logically, of course, waking up that early means I have to consciously wait that much longer, good going brain. "Day" dreaming about what this apartment would be like got me thinking about the snow on the steps of the apartment and that it might be a good idea to have a shovel since the owner of the apartment would most likely not be standing there shoveling off every speck of snow during every bit of snow fall. Then I began to wonder if we made sure to keep one small shovel. I deduced that we had not, because we gave them all to a local church that needed them. After that I thought about how a shovel might come in handy as we drive 1200 miles in January with a U-Haul. Then I wondered if a shovel would actually do us any good if we needed it since we have never had to dig ourselves out of a ditch before. So while we wait by the side of the snowy road we could give a mouse a cookie.

After a quick bathroom break, Adam rolled over and said, "You're awake too?" Yes, unfortunately I was. Thank goodness I wasn't the one who woke him up because the poor guy's alarm was going off at 4:00 am anyway. We had the morning to talk, which was nice. Maybe when all the details are in place, and we are simply waiting to leave, we will be able to get a full night sleep again...or maybe I'm just daydreaming again. In the meantime, I am grateful to have a 7 year old who will generally let me take a nap if I need one.

The Busy Season is Upon Us

We are leaving for Montreal in just 9 short weeks! After all these months of waiting it almost feels surreal that we are beginning to plan the details of our actual arrival. We anticipated that our last 6 weeks would be busy ones. They would be regardless with Thanksgiving and Christmas in there. With us making sure to visit everyone one last time before leaving, it was bound to be extra busy. We kind of thought we might get a little peace before the storm...

Yep, that did not happen. In the first few days of October, Adam's 97 year old grandmother took a turn for the worse and passed away. Our busy season had begun. It feels like it has only been a few days since we got that initial call but it has actually been just about 3 weeks. With activities, meetings, support raising, working at home and away, the days are flying by faster than I even want to think about. That 3 weeks flew by like nothing We only have 3 more of those to go.

Adam and I have taken an approach of asking ourselves what we can do to prepare to leave each day. One day we check on all the details involved to bring our dog, because we have been encouraged by our team to bring him. On another day we go through boxes weeding and fine tuning our belongings and packing so we don't have so many super heavy and super light boxes. There are lists to be made, paperwork to obtain and fill out, and calls to make. On top of it all, there is still support to raise.

Adam leaves his job on November 15th. I am so grateful that he will be able to take over some of the record keeping when he is done. We are really excited about the coming weeks and the leave date. It will be hard saying goodbye to our family and friends and it will be like a crazy race to the finish line with all that needs to be done, but we know that God will provide and be the strength we need when we need it most.

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: A Book Review

I love the feel of a tidy home! I didn't grow up in one and neither did Adam. It certainly doesn't come "naturally" for us. We have spent years purging unnecessary stuff and each time is the wonderful result, a tidy home. We have also seen the emotional impact of doing this. Our entire family is happier in a tidy home. Even now as all our things are packed and we are ready to move to the mission field in a few weeks, we are ready to go through all our possessions again and make one final purge.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo really sparked my interest. I knew right away that this book would be up my alley and I couldn't wait to get it. Chapter one did not disappoint. I love the stories of her years of experimenting with tidying and organization. They remind me of my own. Goodness knows Pinterest is full of ideas for organizing. Marie talks about why we can't seem to keep our houses tidy, how to go about discarding your belongings, tidying by category instead of location, how to properly store things, and how a tidy home will transform your life.

The book is so easy to read and I was so absorbed that I couldn't put it down. The cover is beautiful. It is simple and the watercolor art is wonderful to look at. The best part is that I am so psyched to go through all of our moving boxes again that I can't even express it! I am really glad I had the chance to read this book. I am having a hard time deciding if I want to keep it forever or share it with someone else. This is definitely a must have book for anyone that needs to work on their tidying. I would give this book a 6 out of 5 stars, if only I could!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

• More Info


• Author Bio