March Madness

Ok, not really madness... that's a reference to all my hoosier family and friends reading this. But it was a bit up and down.

Before and after: a project for the boys to help out in the garden.

Yeah, March has kinda been a roller coaster. It turned out totally different than we had planned or expected. Unforeseen stress made us cut our time at the Chateau short. We were there just over two weeks. We knew we shouldn't stay longer. The stress and conflict wasn't getting any better and we took a pretty big decision to leave earlier than we had originally planned.

It was actually a really amazing opportunity for me to pull out all my resilience tools and techniques! I learned a lot about dealing with stress in the moment. I've been fortunate enough to not have many situations like that, where I really needed help to get out of my negative feelings – so when one came up I could really relate to people who have to deal with this kind of stress and conflict in their day to day life. I'm a pretty naturally resilient person, but man, I had to pull out all the stops to not let negative emotions ruin my energy level.

In the end it was a really good lesson for us. To listen to our intuition, take a hard look at ourselves under stress, and know when to leave a situation. We've never had to abruptly leave a place like that. But man am I happy we did. Now we're ending a nice week break, (or rather a mini vacation) here in south-eastern France. It's just what we needed.

We finally got to explore a bit! Every day we headed out to just go on a short hike here in the area or head out to a cool waterfall etc. The weather's not the greatest. But we always found the few hours of sunshine and got out when we could. I think the weather's even better in Germany than here right now. I mean, we're up at about 1,000 meters elevation, so it's a bit colder- and it's super windy sometimes. Maybe that's how it always is in this area, I don't know. But when we left Germany almost a month ago we thought we'd spend some time in southern France and then head to Spain.

A couple of our adventures- suspension bridge over a beautiful river gorge, hikes and climbing rocks and a beautiful waterfall.

Well that didn't work out. I've been reaching out to places in Spain where we could possibly visit for months. Literally. I looked back at my searches and messages- since November (four months!) I've been writing places... and we basically got one of three replies: 1. Come in the summer, that's when we need help. 2. You guys can come, but you'll have to sleep in tents. 3. We would love to have you come! But we don't have the space for all of you.

Yup, we're a traveling family! Of 5!

Back at the Chateau- a before and after. I did so much weeding that my hands ached like crazy!

But maybe it's just not supposed to be. We wanted to be somewhere a bit warmer. With some more sunshine than the grey and dreary German spring... so we thought we'll go back to Spain. We had to cut our time there short last time because of the appointment at the consulate for my husband's green card that came up. But it seems that it's not supposed to happen right now.

Good thing we have summer clothes with us. Just joking. We haven't used them... yet.

Anyway, we switched gears and started looking for other places. To our surprise we're staying in France. We basically just drove almost straight east and are on the edge of the French Alps. Which is, for my husband- the nature and mountain lover- perfect. It might not be sunny and warm all the time, but we have some amazing nature surrounding us and mountain views. Plus we're getting to experience something new! Remember, a mix of new places and old?

Our last few adventures on vacation- in the middle the neighborhood dog that fell in love with the kids. (Well, the kids fell in love with it too)

We're headed to an amazing family (of 6!) to help them practice their english a bit. They've got an upcoming trip to India and wanted a refresher. We're tempted to speak english with them- with a crazy Indian accent to really get them ready. But I don't think we will, that's just mean. But I'm curious to hear more about their travels- my husband and I met in India and both feel a strong connection to it. We even went there with our boys when they were 10 months and 2 years old for a few months because we thought we wanted to move there. And they're going with four kids! For a whole year. Wow!

The family we'll be helping bakes bread, grows a lot of their own food and plus: there's ponies, chickens and – sheep! You know what that means? People, it's almost April. A bunch of baby lambs!!! I am so freakin' excited! And so is my daughter. Walking a pony every day and possibly bottle feeding lambs? Heaven!

We'll see how it goes. We've learned to go with an open heart and trust that things work out as they should. And have a plan B. Even with the last place where we had to leave kind of in a hurry, I still think that it was meant to be. We definitely learned something from it. But it was, unfortunately, just too much stress. The next spot sounds much, much more chill. And I can't wait.

I hope you all have an amazing spring and wonderful Easter with family and friends!