Wow, what a change, that's about all I can say about the transition from Germany to Spain. I went from this morning walk just before we left….

To this, the morning after we arrived:

We have a very neat house. We're in an old traditional style house in a nature preserve.

Big C has his own space, except when I have to come in to do laundry.

The old time oven is still there.

It has a lovely terrace.

The original water reservoir has been converted to a swimming pool.

It's absolutely beautiful. There are ibex running around that come right up to our terrace.

There is a path that leads down to the pebble beach.

It's really ideal, and yet, the transition has been somewhat difficult. From what I read, it's not uncommon for world schooling families to hit a wall at the three month mark. That's the point at which it stops feeling like a vacation and you realize all the obligations of life are still there. The kids have been out of sorts and not really able to say why. The three days of laundry we accumulated between Krummhorn and here felt burdensome to me, and generally no one felt like doing much. Then with that comes the guilt for not enjoying every second because we have such an amazing opportunity. We do have an amazing opportunity, but that doesn't mean there aren't difficult aspects. Change is hard, burnout is real, and that's ok. We decided to take things a little easier this week and next. There is a lot to do in Andalusia for sure, but there is also a lot to do right here. The kids are pretty well entertained with the pool and the beach, and if they spend a little more time with Legos that's ok too.

So with that in mind we decided to limit ourselves to two big trips, Alhambra this week and Gibraltar the next. The other days remain unscheduled and we do what we feel like. Sometimes that might be lazing by the pool or walking down to the beach. There are a couple things near here we could do on the spur of the moment if we feel like it, but mostly we're just needing some down time. We had considered a quick ferry trip to Morocco to get one more country included, but I don't think anyone really wants to and it would mean another round of COVID tests, so kind of an expensive hassle for just a day trip or overnight.

For all that it's been a pretty nice relaxing week.

Thursday was J's birthday so we did what he wanted, which was just to walk down to the beach and try one of the two restaurants down there.

He's always happy with a fresh fish dinner. Afterwards, we played on the beach awhile. The kids examined rocks and J flew his kite.

I braved the gas oven (the kind you light with a match) and made some peanut butter cookies for his birthday treat.

Friday was the trip to Alhambra. I've wanted to go there ever since I was about 11 and read about it in Aramco World magazine. It was truly amazing. There is so much to see you can't really take it all in. I swear it wasn't intentional, but I left my phone in the van we hired to take us there. Not a big deal, the driver is very nice and just held on to it until he came back for us. Actually, it kind of felt like a day off because J and big C handled all the navigation and photography. So this time there are plenty of pictures of me!