It is another dreary day with clouds and a little rain here and there up in the mountains in our little village. We are really surprised by the lack of sunshine in southern Spain. We had really been expecting a lot of it and there have been way more cloudy and foggy days than there have been sunny ones. I like the clouds and would like some nice rain but there is something to be said about having the view, too, and for having it be warm enough to spend the days up on the terraza rather than inside of the house. But it has been cold enough that I have been indoors and bundled in my fleece jacket nearly every day. I like wearing a fleece, but it is chilly enough that I rarely sit outside, which I had been hoping to have been doing far more.
Liesl had a good school day today. We did several more of the history videos from the Khan Academy. Those are fun to do together. It is great that we have educational material that we both enjoy going through! Liesl was excited about school today and had to run to tell me about fun things that she was doing and how well it was going a couple of different times. When things are going well, they go really well, with her schooling. But when we hit a problem, it is very tough.
Today was a quiet day for us. We need quite a few of those. It is really easy for Spain to become a bit overwhelming as there is just so much to do and to see. We want to spend all of our available time going here and there and seeing things and if we are not careful we are going to make the same mistakes that we made when we did our “Grand Tour of Europe” in 2012 and completely exhaust ourselves. We can’t do that now. This has to be a sustainable lifestyle because it only gets more hectic as we look at our summer travels (New York, possibly Ontario, California, Texas and Panama and we really need to figure out when we can squeeze in Puerto Rico!!) and then it is right back to Spain but in a different region to the desire to run around and see everything in the area every free moment will be there again too. With so much history and beauty and culture and food around every corner it is really, really hard to resist trying to see and do as much as you can with every minute of every day. But so much of the point of this was to settle into a little village, relax, spend time together as a family and learn what it is like to actually be Spanish – and the locals do not hop in the car every Friday night and run across the country to some other city and make it back just in time for work on Monday!!
Today was purely laid back and utilitarian. No travel. Just work and school. No laundry because of the weather (still.) Tomorrow we are still at home but have to get ready for a busy travel weekend.