Au revoir....

Planting some veggies in the garden, with this as the backdrop- not bad huh?

We've been here almost exactly one month- at a beautiful Chateau, and now it's time to finish up projects and be on our way. We've got house sitting set up in Spain and are ready to be in warmer weather. It's really been amazing here- the work is varied and matches our skill-set pretty well. The family we're helping out is just really nice, thoughtful and caring. From the very beginning we got along well and found a good workflow/rhythm. It's obviously beautiful; the Chateau, the countryside, a swimming pool, small river nearby etc etc. But the weather just isn't really warm. (If you want to check out their website- and see pictures from this place with blue skies and warm weather- then click here: https://chateaucoty.fr/)

We just aren't prepared for winter - although being in Austria longer than we had planned, we ended up getting some good scarves, sweaters and our oldest a better jacket... and Italy was relatively sunny, which at that latitude just warmed you up pretty nicely. But here, even if the sun comes out and the day is somewhat warm (which didn't happen that much) we're in an ancient building that has two foot thick stone walls and no proper heating. I had days where I just had the feeling I never really warmed up, despite wearing my legging under my pants and all my sweaters at the same time.

Pool project! Power washers and making it all clean- the reward? Getting to swim in it! But the water is ice cold!

So- here we come sunshine. Even though the people here are so nice that we could imagine staying longer just to spend more time with them... we're heading to some sunshine and warmth. And, I mean, come on, we can't back out on a house sitting gig, they need someone to look after things while they're gone.

We're also heading to some projects/places where we'll be working less. We will have therefore a little bit more family time and can put more energy into our kids, their interests and family outings etc. Here, the work is good, and people great, but by the time we are done with the day, we really only have evenings and weekends together, just as a family. So a little bit of relaxing time, afternoons together and meals with just us (here we're enjoying lunch and dinner with the other family together.- great conversations and lots of laughs, but just the five of us is nice too) we could use that right about now.

Weekend time together, learning how to play pool!

That's the thing about WWOOFing and Workaway, you can really pick and choose what kind of place you want to be at. Do you want to get a feeling of what it would be like to be in a community, living and working with large groups of lovely people? That's easy to find and you can even filter for projects like that. Or would you rather be kind of more on your own - because either the family or farm your helping gives you more independent jobs, freedom to set your own work rhythm or just likes to eat on their own? That's possible too! Or anything in between, really. You can experience it all. Or just search for things specifically to try something new.

We got to join them when they went shopping at small French markets. One pushed the stroller, one a shopping wagon and the others keep track of the 4 year old!

I'm also realizing that that was one of those rat race things that I actually really didn't like. Getting up every weekday to have the same old boring rhythm, looking forward to and counting down to the next weekend so that we can do something nice with the kids. Waiting for school break to spend more time together and maybe go somewhere. Spending days with co-workers that were nice, but I would have much rather just been spending time together as a family. Exploring. Or meeting new people from other cultures- together with my husband and kids. Making memories and learning and growing together.

Working together to chop down the bananna trees- the boys loved getting to use machete's.

Now we are going to new places all the time. Really, constantly. A new country, town and community- but also new stores, new hikes, new neighborhoods, new climates and cultures. And ever-changing work! Most of the time we're learning more about things we want to gain knowledge of for our life when we're rooted somewhere again. Some places have us up and at'em by 6:30/7am, while other places you can set your own rhythm and start working by 10 - as long as your contributing the expected/agreed upon hours of work. We've learned a lot about animals, and of course farming - as well as home improvement stuff and renovations. All while traveling and adjusting to new rhythms every 1-4 months....

That fits way better to me somehow. I get bored with over structured daily rhythms after a while...

Plenty of cute animals here to pet, play with and take care of - some days we collect 20+ eggs from the chicken coop!

We'll also be staying, as we are here, with families for the next two spots. Two to three kids per spot, same ages as our three (currently 8, 11 and 13 years old), so I think that will be nice for them. They'll certainly have to practice their English! We'll be in Spain for a few months, but all our hosts are from other countries- like the Netherlands, Denmark and Scotland.

Helping out with the ducks and chickens - at first exciting and cute, now they complain when we have to give them new straw and clean up...

So here we go, off (early tomorrow morning) to more family time, more families and kids around us, beautiful nature, somewhat less work and sunshine.

Oh, and there's no real update on the Green Card- I'm slowly chiselling away at Steps 4-7 all at the same time, printing things out here and there, uploading documents and logging into the system to answer questions bit by bit. The hope at this point is to have everything handed in in a week or two- and then it's just a waiting game again. When it's all handed in then we'll be half way done. Not sure if I should be happy about that or depressed that we're only half way done. But we'll keep you updated. Promise!