Enjoying Washington While We're Here

     Our family isn't quite settled down yet.  The reason this time is because I'm very against Common Core; there are only a few states that have rejected Common Core for their schools, and unfortunately Washington isn't one of them.

     The only states that haven't adopted Common Core are: Alaska, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Virginia, and Minnesota (MN accepted the English part but rejected the Math part).  Of all of those states, the only ones I'd want to live in are Texas and Minnesota.  Texas would be a new experience and it's much more affordable to live there!  A house out there that would cost $250,000 could easily cost $600,000 here in the Seattle area.  We lived in Minnesota for two years and it wasn't that bad; people out there know how to dress for cold weather, and housing is also very affordable.  I wouldn't mind moving back there.

     Before we had kids, Mc and I could move anywhere and only think about what we needed and wanted.  But now that we have kids who are school-age, we need to consider schools when planning where to live.  The Montessori school that Baby Girl is in right now is a good one and I really like her teachers, and although they teach Common Core at the upper levels, she's still only in preschool where that won't come into play yet.  Little One just started a preschool for kids with developmental delays, and I feel really good about his school; I think it will do him a lot of good.  So he graduates from this little school when he turns five years old and is ready for kindergarten, so we'll be staying in this area until that happens.  After that, though, we'll probably look elsewhere.

     Those are our rough plans for now.  Even if we could find a private school around here that doesn't teach Common Core-- or even if I decided to home school my kids-- the housing market is just too expensive and the traffic is just too terrible (and it will get worse over the next few years) and it takes Mc way too long to travel to and from work each day.  Texas and Minnesota would still be much better options for housing and for commute time.  Mc will work at Amazon for as long as he wants to, and if he decides to get another job while we're here, it'll likely be closer to home.

     The weather up here is great though, and there's a great diversity of nationalities and cultures here, which I love.  The Sunday newspaper every week lists events going on in the area, and so I'm looking for places where we'll start exploring.  There is a Birding Festival up near the Canadian border in a couple of weeks, there's a Tulip Festival during the whole month of April, and there's an Apple Blossom Festival that we'll go see on our way to visit my family in Idaho in the beginning of May.  There are museums and gardens and lots of outdoors activities we can do.  Mc has a lot of fun with his D&D group, and he and I have started playing a board game with some of his D&D friends.  I'm also going to take language classes at the local community college, starting with "Chinese Conversation and Culture", and I'm excited about it.

We're doing well, and I'm planning to make the most of our time here.