Allie in the South of Spain

  As promised I'm back to tell the tale of our house hunt. And all the drama that has been associated with it so far. After our family grew by three in as many years our apartment was starting to feel small and Jose and I started discussing looking to move. In 2019 when I was pregnant with Carla we started to casually go and look at houses, mostly in the area where our apartment was located since there was a ton of new building going on. It took a pandemic and having to quarantine in our 900 square foot apartment with five people and a dog (without being able to leave or step foot outside) for 6 long weeks that finally pushed us to make a decision. In the summer of 2020 we put our apartment on the market and started to seriously look at houses. We decided we didn't want another apartment but rather needed more space for our growing girls to run around and hopefully some outdoor space which was so incredibly lacking when we were stuck inside all of last spring. The pandemic real...

I'm back again to update on how our past school year went since it just ended last week. My last post was written just having started back and I was nervous. I'm here to report that things went much more smoothly than I thought they would. Carla was in daycare and LOVED it. She walked in happily every day and went with her teacher (who constantly had to wear a mask) without even waving goodbye. Laura and Vera were in their second year of preschool and have learned a lot. They are starting to read in Spanish and have started to learn chess. Jose was back at his school full time and I went back to teach part-time while finishing another Master degree in bilingual education. Here in Spain there were a lot of health restrictions at schools (and in life in general). Kids from primary up had to wear masks all day, there was social distancing in classrooms and windows and doors were open for ventilation. All that said, we were in-person schooling for the entire course and besides one ...

  After what turned out to be a strange spring, we followed it up with a summer that we struggled to make as normal as possible. Online school ended in June for both the girls and Jose and I think everyone involved was ready for a break. Our community pool thankfully opened after much debate between neighbors and we took full advantage as the heat started to bear down on us. Summer here in the south of Spain is awful and after having spent months inside all day we used the pool as a much needed break. We also decided to book a house in the mountains for a few weeks early on when we saw what travel restrictions were going to look like. Since we weren't sure what the beach scene would be (and because going to the beach with three small children is a daunting task), we decided to head to the nearby mountains to a place with a pool all for ourselves. We stayed in a tiny village with about six houses so social distancing was not a problem and our days looked pretty much like they do whe...

45 days. It's been 45 days that we have been quarantined in our small apartment and I am happy to announce that yesterday Vera and Laura were finally able to go outside. With the latest relaxation of our lock down kids are able to go outside one hour a day, with one parent up to one kilometer away from their home. It's not much, but I will take it. If all goes well, adults will be added to this measure next week. It was wonderful to see them be able to run and stretch their legs, to shout hello to birds as loud as they wanted and to discover that it really is spring in the south of Spain. Vera and Laura have been amazing this past month and a half. Before it would have been impossible to imagine two four-year-olds staying inside for longer than a few rainy days. And they did it for 44 days, with no complaint, accepting the situation and trusting that we were doing what was best even if they could not understand it at times. Many people out there complaining and protesting...

This update is coming a few days late so really we are about four and a half weeks into our quarantine and still no end in sight. This past week has been hard since it's starting to really sink in how long we have been inside and not knowing when this is going to end. I've been reflecting on how fortunate we are (still healthy, Jose still working, the girls are still behaving better than I would have ever expected) but also how a lot of things seem to have worked out before this crisis to put us in a better position right now. For example, as many of you know I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer this past fall after having surgery to have my thyroid removed. I had to have a follow up radioactive iodine treatment when we got back from our visit to the US which required me to stay in the hospital isolated for a few days and then to self isolate at home for about a week. (Really I have been in quarantine more than not in 2020). I was able to get all of this done in February a...

Week three of quarantine in Spain recently ended. Not much has changed for us.  We try to wake up at about the same time each day, have breakfast and get dressed.  We are still doing lots of "projects" as the girls have come to call our arts and crafts time each day. The latest addition to our arsenal of activities has been beads. We've made just about everyone we know a bracelet. I really think our routine is making things easier all around.  Jose is still teaching his classes online and we are making good use of technology as we've been using Zoom for some family chats as well as having some classes with the girls' teachers. I am really thankful for the technology that is allowing us to stay connected with everyone. I'm used to using it for my family but we've been forced to do the same with Jose's family and our friends as well. Jose and I have continued our Marvel Universe movie marathon. We have only 10 left of the twenty or so ...

So here is my 40 before 40 list and I am actually sort of surprised by how many things I have accomplished so far. I find these kinds of lists help me to motivate myself to actually get out there and get things done. Plus I like to see how my goals change and develop over time.  1. Buy a house (We are currently house hunting since it seems like we are quickly outgrowing our three bedroom apartment. I love my place now but would also really like to have some outdoor space for the girls. We aren´t in a rush but we have been out there visiting houses and have seen some we really liked. The area where we live is absolutely blowing up so we will probably stick pretty close to where we are now, just looking to get into to something bigger. Wish us luck because international house hunting isn´t what you see on TV). 2. Go back to school (This is also in my plans for next school year after Carla is a bit bigger). 3. Grow our family     Done and done! With our latest addition,...