Our Weekly Schedule
So many people have asked me “exactly what do you do every day?”. So here is a rough outline of our weekly schedule. As you can see, we are pretty busy – which is great!
Sunday
Attend morning service with Willings at their church (Church of Joy) or at our church (Global Mission Church English Language morning service with Pastor Bob Kim). Often we have lunch with a family or group of families. Afternoon we try and attend the GMC ‘Family Integrated (English) Service’ recently started by Pastor Bob. We have been asked to teach a family Sunday school and my dad is talking with Pastor Bob about starting a small group for The Truth Project. If we didn’t have lunch out we most likely will accept an invitation to have dinner at a families home or we fellowship with The Willings. Whew! Sundays are very busy.
Monday
Mom is up at 5:30 each morning, which I’d love to be doing also ☺, but I am fortunate to be up by 6:30 ☺. Dad says that to say I’m NOT a morning person is an understatement! We’ve joined a nice, modern health club (not my idea!) 10 mins. away and Dad, mom, Krissy, and I try and go there every morning from 7-8am. Then we come home, I read my bible for 30 mins., then have breakfast and shower/get dressed for the day. (Not always in that order! ☺ ) We try and have 1-2 hrs. of school at least before lunch. Monday is High School Co op day (15 students) so there is a flurry of activity getting ready to leave at 12:15 for our 1pm co op. (it takes about 20-40 mins. depending on traffic which is VERY unpredictable). Mom, Dad, and Krissy are teaching character, science, public speaking, English, and parent training each week. I help out with the English and character. We finish around 6 and are home around 6:30-7:00 depending on how much parent discussions we have and again, traffic. Last Monday the parents took us to a Shabu Shabu (Korean beef) restaurant, which was a real treat (this is a very high end restaurant in Korea). But we try and be at home most Monday evenings because Tuesday is another co op day.
If I am not actively doing something in the co op, I have school to do – reading (always!), penmanship – letter writing and journaling.
Our home evenings include dinner, a devotional, and dad reads aloud. I try and get to bed by 9:30 (early for me) but seldom make it (Mom says I’m blog addicted!)
Tuesday
Same morning routine but we are a bit more relaxed and have more school. Some of Tuesday (35 Elementary and Middle school children) teaching is down-sized from the high school teaching we’re already done, the parent training is the same, but public speaking is not held. We also have a shorter co op from 2-5:30 on Tuesdays.
Dad likes to ‘celebrate’ after we finish our Tuesday co op and takes us out to dinner sometimes, and we may invite a Korean family to join us. YEAH! We did find a good Mexican restaurant, although Krissy was wondering where all the Mexicans were. Ha ha.
Wednesday
This is our catch up day. After the standard morning routine including cleaning the apt. (2500 square ft. 4br/3 ba), we take out the trash. There are 7 separate recycle containers we have to haul outside to the pickup – 1st we have to load everything into the hallway, then into the elevator and then out to trash. Quite an ordeal!! We also make our COSTCO or E-Mart run. We may go to the bank, which is walking distance, to pay bills (bills are paid through electronic wire transfer at the ATM machine, not with checks, as my dad has explained to me), cleaners, etc..
Joe and I are in the Willing’s orchestra and I spend the entire afternoon there either in orchestra or helping. Joe is in the advance beginner orchestra and takes lessons from Jonathan (as he does during the week at our apt. also).
Everyone starts getting organized for next weeks co ops on Wednesday evening and we have a normal evening.
Thursday
Standard morning routime. This a big day we dedicate each week to work on co op co-op preparation (Mom, Dad, and Krissy.) I do a lot of school and get time to catch up on email and my blog ☺.. Standard evening routine.
Joe and Iryna have swimming class from 4-4:50 at the health club.
Friday
This is the day Dad said we set aside to be ‘tourists’ and go on our own field trips or often we are invited with families to go with them. This is a great day as we get out, ride the subway, or learn how to get drive on the crazy freeways in S. Korea. We usually laugh a lot trying to make sense of their direction indicators and their frequency of having to make U turns to get to where we need to go. Even Dahae (our Korean live in) gets confused and when even she cannot explain it we all have a great laugh. We usually call Mrs. Willing (Dad calls her our car navigations system ) to help us. Mrs. Willing is amazing at being able to read the Korean language maps! We have such a long list of places we want to visit and see that we won’t get it all done in our 6 months here.
Friday night is our family night and we may eat out or have pizza (Papa Johns delivery NO TIPPING) and watch a movie, often with the Willing’s.
Saturday
Since the Willings tell us Saturday traffic in S. Korea is so bad (3 or 4 times as long to get anywhere). This is another co-op preparation day. We have normal morning routine (dad tells me by the time we leave S. Korea I’ll love going to the gym – I don’t think so … ☺ ), Joe/Iryna have another swim class, but we mostly work on co-op all day and evening. We go to bed early as Sunday is so busy.
Thatt’s life in S. Korea. We are blessed to see the Willings every day one way or the other. We have a lot of laughs. We don’t see the Hurtado’s as often, but usually at least once a week and often at church on Sundays. Alex says he really would like to stay long term! The Korean families seem so very thankful that we are here and just really appreciate everything we are doing. I am hoping to make at least 1 or 2 long term friends while here.
It’s good we are so busy as I could easily get very (very) homesick thinking about all of you in Texas. But mostly I am really enjoying being here. Dad tells me Christ pulls all of us out of our comfort zone – and that pulls us closer to Him. I agree I am doing things I would never have imagined doing 30 days ago. Please pray for my family – our health and that we can in some small way be a witness for Jesus Christ here in S. Korea by teaching the families to love homeschooling. Pray for the homeschooling families to have courage to stick with it as it is so very new and very against their culture. Several people have actually said they had never even heard the word “homeschooling” until several months ago. And my Dad asks that we pray for the families and churches to understand that it’s not about homeschooling, or cirriculum, or the patty’s or willings, or Brad Voeller, or Hurtado’s – It is about being called by Christ and receiving Him in their hearts and into the hearts of their children. THAT'S WHY WE ARE HERE. My dad keeps reminding us that we have an audience of ONE!
