It’s hard to believe that only 4 short months ago, we found out that I was losing my job, that I would be taking over Nick’s job, and that Nick would be striking out on his own and starting his own school. We’ve been through (and back through) all the stages of grief, plus periods of excitement, hope, exhaustion, sadness, and contentment. It’s definitely been, and continues to be a journey!

The first thing we did was to take a night away to process, gather ourselves, and remember that, while we’re experiencing a big bump in the road, at least we get to do it in beautiful Thailand!

Then we finally did some transition counseling, which is apparently available for expat families when they move abroad, but we never knew existed until 2 years in! It was really validating to be able to look back and see all the stages we’d gone through and realize it was all totally normal. And as a bonus, it now totally applied to our NEW transition!

Next on the agenda was finding a location for Nick’s school. A friend suggested Chiang Mai Drama Centre, which was renting out their space to different groups. It was on the 3rd floor of a shopping area, pretty far from our house, but also in the area where a lot of expat families live.

Nothing glamorous, but the price was right, and after checking it out, we decided it would be a good first location for Mr. Nick’s Kindercamp!

As a complete coincidence (but not really… there have been so many coincidences that just couldn’t have been coincidences), Nick’s former TA, Ms. Poppy, was looking for work. Nick pulled her on board, and they got to work building Kindercamp.

Meanwhile, the rest of us started the school year ONLINE. After delaying the start of the school year for 3 weeks in hopes schools would be permitted to open in person, the government order continued to be extended each week until we finally had to start the year virtually. We were all super bummed.

Each day was a new adventure in how to keep everyone’s spirits up. Letting them choose their own workspaces daily worked somewhat, but also felt like I was moving 3 kids into college dorm rooms everyday. Lots of storage solutions and cord management.

My workspace was not as cozy or glamorous.

My workspace also doubled as the WOLC (Windschitl Online Learning Cafe), which was open every 50 minutes. The first 2 sittings were set menus, and then it would deteriorate throughout the day into a self-serve free for all, with me mouthing “ABSOLUTELY NOT” at Brecken trying to microwave candy canes and marshmallows and drink them through an oreo straw, while simultaneously trying to get 4 year olds to guess the letter of the day in a zoom call.

Plus, it was always fun to have a live audience at the table during my ridiculous attempts to engage 3 year olds online (yes, at the beginning of the year, I was teaching 3, 4 AND 5yos online)!

The days became a fun game. My morning class would finish, and I would have 5 minutes before the kids’ classes finished to whip up (the first of 16) lunches.

Then I’d try and figure out something (ANYTHING) to squeeze into another part of the day to distract them from the monotony of their 6 online meetings a day. Sometimes it was all I could do to get milk and bread delivered by a guy on a motorbike, other days I pulled off family cookie-baking.

We also did a lot of online learning playdates with kids from their classes. This definitely brought more joy to the day, and it was hilarious watching them manically try to maximize their playtime during their 10 minute breaks between classes.

At some point a couple weeks into online learning, the kids decided they wanted a hamster. Nick and I are not pet people (and especially not rodent people), and we spent a lot of energy trying to convince them they didn’t actually want a hamster, and that they were barely keeping our last year’s online learning pets (fish) alive. They were relentless. So we did what all good parents would do: create a series of impossible hoops for them to jump through before they would be allowed to get a hamster (in hopes they would give up/lose interest).

The first hoop required them to use all their daily allotted screentime for a week to research breeds of hamsters, hamster care, hamster equipment, and recent developments in hamster neurosurgery…and then compile it into a written report.

Which they friggin did.

They also had to do ALL their daily chores and personal hygeine tasks without being asked, for 10 days straight (impossible, right?!)…done.

In a last ditch effort to save us from rodent-hood, we told them hamsters take huge smelly poops and have to have their cages cleaned DAILY, and it was highly likely we’d end up with a biter. They were unfazed (dammit).

So off to the pet shop we went…where they had a million baby BUNNIES!!

You know I love me some bunnies.

But in the end, we went home with a 3 week old hamster, who was christened with the name Cookie Arlo Windschitl.

The girls are still complete bookworms, and it hasn’t been easy (or cheap!) to keep up with their reading appetites while overseas. We miss libraries so much! Our school library is pretty lame, and there are very few English bookstores here. We end up ordering a lot of books from a guy in another province who buys a pallet at a time from the UK and will ship sets to us. Plus there’s the occasional box from Grama!

We did find one pretty cool shop with great prices, though!

After 6 long weeks of online learning without having set foot in school yet, all of a sudden (like most things in Thailand) the government gave the green light for international schools to go back in person. We did our spit tests, and we were on our way!

Since Nick now takes our only car about 25km down south to his school everyday, the kids and I are now bike commuters.

It’s about a 10 minute ride on some tiny sois, past a temple, and a few little roadside markets. The locals have gotten used to our little farang parade twice a day, but we were definitely a sight to behold the first couple weeks!

Being in ECC is weird. I still feel like I’m subbing for Nick most days. But I have the absolute best little class, and I can honestly say I’m really enjoying kindergarten!

I was always jealous of Nick’s department–the TAs are amazing, the holiday celebrations huge, the costumes and decorations over the top, and they always have lots of staff get togethers. They take baby showers, end-of-the-semester, and goodbye parties very seriously. They even threw Nick a surprise “Good Luck” party to celebrate his new venture!

We have loved our new neighborhood, especially with so many kids from our school who have been on the same online learning schedule. They run out and play together during lunch and between classes, and once everyone’s devices are shut down for the day, they’re all banished to the outdoors, and they ride bikes around the hood til the streetlights come on.

Brecken got a drill for his birthday during the summer, and has been repurposing the same 6 boards since. It’s pretty ridiculous the stuff he builds completely unassisted.

Ava’s house is still the go-to for shabu parties!

Another fun neighborhood activity–watching the workers change the streetlights with all their safety gear and OSHA-approved procedures.

With no school sports or after school activities allowed yet this year, a few dads have rented out a local soccer field once a week where the play on father/kid mixed teams. Brecken loves it, and comes home filthy, sweaty, and full of stories about how he’s schooling all the dads. Nora and Bryn have started joining recently, too.

Despite not being able to do a lot of extra-curriculars, some things still being closed down, and the bouncing back and forth between online and in-person school, we’ve managed to delight in the small things.

Like getting noodles from this couple at the weekly market near our house (pretty much weekly for 2.5 years!).

Crashing our friends’ staycations.

Going to this awesome hot pot restaurant.

Nick’s pickle sweatshop.

Thai massages.

Double date Thai massages.

Couch naps.

Yoga fly.

Muay Thai.

Bryn learned the blues.

Tried a sewing class.

More market food.

Makerspace and art projects (combined).

A friend’s wedding.

1:1 UNO happy hours on the balcony.

Took our semi-annual deworming pills! So fun!

Nick dabbling in dungeons and dragons (…I know).

Breakfast in bed.

The kids all up in my bathtub.

All of a sudden it was Halloween! Our favorite! We got right to work painting Thai pumpkins orange.

We were happy to be in-person on Halloween! Even though the kids and I are in different “bubbles” now, and I don’t get to see them during the day, we snapped a pic at drop off.

Trick or treating in our ‘hood was put to a vote (due to concerns of The Unmentionable). It passed by one vote! The little monsters were thrilled.

Nick took his costume straight from school to the gym…

…and immediately won a prize.

We went to an (adults only) Halloween party.

After 4 glorious weeks of in person learning, at the end of the school day on Halloween, we found out we were going back online (sob). This brought all kinds of disappointment, not the least of which was that we’d be online for our favorite Thai holiday, Loy Krathong.

Nevertheless, we got together with our neighbors and made Krathongs with banana leaves from our trees.

The girls and I had a mommy/daughter overnight with 3 other families at a really cool place on the river, just a few minutes from our house. It was a great way to spend Loy Krathong, and to lessen the blow of more online learning news.

The boys held down the fort by apparently lighting it on fire.

But also headed out on the town to see the decorations and release some lanterns!

Next up was Thanksgiving, another one of our faves. Our annual Friendsgiving food sign-up spreadsheet started circulating a couple weeks before, which kicked Nick into chef mode. I admittedly have never contributed anything to our Thanksgiving meals, even back in the States. Nick has always reveled in his 2-day cooking frenzy, and I just gluttonously enjoy it (and also take on full clean up of the Thanksgiving-prep-kitchen-bomb, scrubbing mashed potato bits out of the window screens for days). Anyway, this year Nick was THRILLED that the kids wanted in on the prep! They peeled, chopped, sauteed… it was quite the operation.

No (full) fingers were sacrificed; and only a small amount of Nora’s knuckle skin ended up in the mashed potatoes.

The crew at Friendsgiving was none the wiser!

The kids love having Friendsgiving at Ms. Jordan’s house. She’s always got a slew of foster kittens ready to be man-handled.

Our British besties that we got stranded on Koh Lanta with 1.5 years ago (and who promised us they were moving back to Chiang Mai, but then chose Mexico and Lisbon instead) came to visit! The kids and Edward picked right up where they left off, even though it seemed strange without the gorgeous, empty Koh Lanta beach as their backdrop.

Tom and Eleanor are big thinkers with contagious entrepreneurial spirits, and we spent a couple great dinners spitballing Kindercamp ideas!

I was recently invited on a ladies camping trip with some (very experienced) camper moms. Loving everything about camping except the sleeping-in-a-tent part, I was a little hesitant, but said yes for adventure’s sake.

We headed up Doi Pui, the second highest peak in Thailand. The road was a super fun, windy drive (made extra fun by the fact I got to drive it alone, with no carsick children wailing in the backseat). It was delightfully chilly at the top, and had a gorgeous view.

I was way too intimidated to sign up for a meal, so volunteered to be in charge of snacks. I may have gone overboard on the charcuterie and Miang Kham, but none of us were sorry about it.

We hiked up to the peak the next morning and were treated to more amazing views.

There were even PINE TREES up there! They were apparently planted a few decades ago as part of a reforestation project. It smelled deliciously like home.

Also, the Thanon Thong Chai mountain range (of which Doi Pui is a part), is technically the beginning of the Himalayas. So I pretty much climbed Mt. Everest.

After another 6 week of online learning, we were allowed to go back in person for the last 2 weeks before winter break. We were thrilled!

As usual, we all found ways to celebrate (in our own bubbles), and decorations, costumes and parties were still prioritized!

On our last day before break we said goodbye to our amazing classroom TA, Ms. Nuey. Nuey has never left Thailand before, but has decided to move across the globe and take an au pair job in Atlanta, GA! She was Nick’s TA last year, and I inherited her amazing help this year. She has made my transition to kindergarten so painless, and I’m going to be LOST without her!

I organized secret santa for the ECC staff, and they went ALL IN. It was so fun, and we all revealed ourselves at our end of year party right after the kids left school the last day.

In preparation for our friends’ annual ugly sweater party, Nick polled the kids on what shape he should shave into his “reverse” sweater, and Christmas tree won out this year.

Brecken and I had to miss out on the festivities due to a stomach bug (him, not me). He was so bummed–it’s his favorite party of the year. He dresses up in his little Santa suit, wraps up gifts for EVERY kid (his own treasures, stuff he finds outside or around the house, that he thinks each kid will like), puts it all in a red pillowcase, slings it over his shoulder, and rolls up to the party like a boss. He gets so much joy from handing out those gifts! I’m not sure who was more bummed for him to miss the party–him or me–as seeing him gifting his little treasures to all his friends is probably my favorite part of Christmas.

Nick and the girls headed off to represent the Windschitls at the party…

…and Nick and Bryn came home with the Best Sweater awards in both the adult and child categories. This is Nick’s second consecutive win, and one of his proudest life achievements.

Nick and The Christmas Cookie Crew (our 3 + Ben) were back in action again this year, painstakingly churning out the usual 6 at a time in our easy bake oven.

We also had a neighborhood secret santa exchange among the kids. So. Much. Joy.

Between all the Christmas festivities, I managed to squeeze in getting my booster shot. Booster eligibility was super confusing in Chiang Mai, and was based on the combo of shots you initially received. I decided to try my luck at a Thai government hospital (translation: no foreigners, no English). I just kept getting in queues, and somehow walked out with an Astrazeneca jab (I think?). Win!

We’re still waiting on 5-12 year old eligibility in Thailand, and also hoping that it brings fewer school closures.

One thing that WAS consistent the last 4 months, was Nick’s IN-PERSON kindercamp! Despite all the school closures, he was able to stay in-person, which his students and their parents loved, and we were all jealous of! Several parents opted out of online learning at their kids’ international schools and sent them to Nick’s kindercamp instead, boosting his enrollment during those periods. So how has Kindercamp been going? I think the pictures speak for themselves.

This has always been a dream of Nick’s, and he. is. rocking it. This is only a small stepping stone and there will be much evolution, but Thailand has been a great place to start. The ease of renting a space, hiring an assistant, providing food, finding cheap/donated supplies, etc, in Thailand is never lost on us. The bureaucracy, red tape and regulations in the U.S. would make this a very different venture. And while we may go that route someday, it has been an amazing gift to be able to try it out in this country first. He has spent 20 years figuring out how to make the kindergarten experience awesome for kids AND parents, and now he gets to do it without having to squeeze it into the mold of a traditional school. He’s totally in his element.

While both Nick and I have had pretty big gig shifts this year, probably the biggest change has been how much we now have to rely on each other to do our new jobs. For the past 11 years, we both had the “teacher” title in common, but it pretty much stopped there. I was at a Deaf school (which also happened to be a charter), he was at a public school in a large district. I jumped around the lower elementary grades, he was a lifer in Kindergarten. Now I’m in the big international school in a grade level new to me, and he’s in a multi-age start-up.

It’s long been in my nature to reinvent perfectly round, efficiently-rolling wheels. I can spend (waste?) lots of time trying to make even my own lessons from the year before incrementally better/flashier for the next year’s group. While Nick and I have very different teaching styles, I vowed to make an already-challenging year easier on myself by using his tried and true lessons he offered to hand down to me, without trying to add too much of my own flair. So once a week, we sit down at the dining room table after the kids go to bed, and he helps me plan my next week. And by “helps me plan,” I mean, he gives me everything I need for each lesson. Over the past 20 years he has refined and distilled his curriculum down to only the stuff he knows is effective and that kids love doing. And he keeps a lot of it from year to year. This is a completely foreign concept to me, as I’ve been in special ed/ESL for my whole career, where the abilities vary so widely from class to class each year, that I’m rarely able to repeat lessons without at least altering them. When he tells me to teach THIS one week, and move onto THAT the next week, my question is constantly, “How do you know they’ll only need a week for this, and what if they’re not ready to move on to that?” And he just knows. Because he. knows. kindergartners. It’s been a lesson in trust and humility to sit down with him each week, take the lessons he’s giving me, and resist the urge to change a bunch of stuff and try to make it “better” or more “my style.” I’m grateful for the gift of the material, but even moreso for the gift of learning to accept help and let go of overwork and perfection.

In true symbiotic form, Nick also relies on me for helping to usher his Kindercamp baby into the world. It’s a of midwifery of sorts. He has these amazing ideas and an unwavering vision of the experience he wants kids to have, and as he tries to wrestle them out of his imagination and into the world, I’m monitoring vitals, suggesting less painful methods to birth the baby, calling in extra help when needed, and offering encouragement and emotional support. The parts of my job description that don’t fit into this slick little analogy are billing manager, financial analyst, google form engineer, translator liason, graphic designer, and publicity director. I am not naturally gifted at any one of these things, but Nick is admittedly worse at all of them, so I’m muddling my way through, and we’re making it work!

We’re also blessed with wonderful entrepreneurial friends here who also happen to be big fans of Mr. Nick. Thanks to them, and at no cost to us, we have an invoicing system, spreadsheets with magical formulas, translation services, a hand-me-down computer, subs to teach during holiday breaks, and even an intern! It’s truly amazing the support we’ve been given without even asking. We’re so grateful.

This has been our second straight Christmas in Thailand without visitors to share it with. My parents made it for our first year, just before The Unmentionable hit, but no one has been able to come since. It was still a good one with just our little fam!

After learning to play monopoly on a recent staycation, we decided to get the kids the global version for Christmas. This is what arrived from China.

Also, because we’re insane, Brecken has now added “pickaxe” and “hand saw” to his rapidly growing collection of Tools Too Dangerous for Kids.

After all the challenges in the last 4 months, and with Omicron looming, we were really itching to get away for a few days during winter break. Luckily, Santa brought a scavenger hunt…that led to a trip to the beach!

Definitely not the same, but we’ve recently discovered a “beach” in Chiang Mai, just minutes from our house. It overlooks the Ping River, which is definitely not beautiful, but they trucked in a ton of sand, and serve beer in paper cups during booze bans! It will definitely tide us over between real beach trips!

A few months ago, I started taking sunrise walks in the area around our village.

During The Time of the Unmentionable, coupled with big changes in our careers, it has been easy to get caught up in it all, and in some ways, forget we are living abroad. We’ve been living overseas for 2.5 years. We thought we would have visited home by now, had several visitors, seen more of SE Asia…but instead we’re navigating online learning and life interruptions like a lot of our friends back home. It takes a lot of intentionality to remember that this experience abroad, whether it looks like what we imagined or not, is a gift. It’s something my daily walks have reminded me of, and an intentionality we hope to carry into the new year.

We get a lot of questions about our intentions. =) We continue to hold it all loosely, but we have very intentional plans of a lengthy visit home this summer…and then a return to Thailand for another school year.

Thank you for supporting this crazy journey of ours (even if you’re someone who is mad we’re not home yet =). We love you!

Cheers,

Sara