Controlled Chaos Travels the World
365. That is how many days I have been away from our home. Exactly one year ago, my children and I left Beijing on what we thought would be a few months of Ordered Departure. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, The US State Department, in its infinite wisdom, ordered the evacuation of all… Continue reading Evacuation Day
It is starting to feel like Spring here in Beijing. We've been really trying to enjoy every sunny, fresh air day. These kinds of days don't always happen at the same time here so we really need get outside when they do. We recently spent one of these days at the Yonghe Temple or Lama… Continue reading Yonghe Temple
Hey there lovely readers! Long time, no see! The Traveling Circus has been getting settled into our new home here in Beijing. It has been quite the adjustment. The language barrier is more like the great divide. Finding familiar foods is difficult even with a small grocery store nearby that caters to expats. And the… Continue reading Back At It
So, over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to do a little stay-cation nearby. We had originally planned to go to Philadelphia, but just couldn't make it work. Instead, we decided to do a few things around DC and then spend an overnight in National Harbor. We spent Saturday at Mount Vernon. We have been a… Continue reading Stay-cation
I hope that everyone had a calm and enjoyable long weekend. We decided to a little staycation which I will detail in a future post. It was actually just what we needed. We had planned to travel to Philadelphia, but I am so glad we decided to postpone that. I have about a million things… Continue reading Taking care of my selfie
This week, our daughter celebrated her 12th birthday. Now, we have always done birthdays big in our house. There has rarely been a year when the kids didn't have a huge party to celebrate their day. They get to choose the meals or where we go to dinner on their birthday. Some years, they have… Continue reading The Story of a Birthday
Over the kids' Spring Break, we headed down to San Antonio. It was such a fantastic way to spend their break. The parks, the food, the culture, it was all so amazing. Bear with me here because there is so much good stuff that it was hard to narrow it down to 5 things. This… Continue reading 5 Things to do in San Antonio
I am constantly in awe of how resilient my kids are. The life of a Foreign Service trailing family is not for everyone. We are never in one place for very long. Just long enough to get comfortable before we are "uprooted" again. I keep telling myself that it is good for the kids. It all… Continue reading Just like riding a bike
I've got to tell you: I am in love with Amazon Prime. I know that pretty much everyone knows about it, but in case you don't, check it out here. A yearly fee opens up free shipping for PRIME items, free Kindle downloads, music, PRIME video, unlimited photo storage, the list goes on & on.… Continue reading PRIME time
Hey everyone! So I recently discovered some amazing skincare products that I wanted to share with you all. I actually shared these products in a blog post a while back, but it wasn't the only thing I talked about. This stuff is so awesome that I wanted to give it its own post. Just for… Continue reading TULA to the rescue
This Traveling Circus 