Spring - new joy and energy

I should know it by now, yet every year I find myself surprised at how much my spirits lift when the weather improves. Following the Vienna trip there were several more months of winter - cold and dark - and I felt so run down. Blamed all my circumstances... when really, it was my own capacity that was low and run down because of the long winter months.

Now it's getting warmer and lighter and lo and behold: I'm loving life again. I'm not doing less - if anything I'm doing more! But I'm at peace, not overwhelmed. Mind boggling to think it's just the weather!

So, as it's been a few months since my last post, what's happening in our lives...?

Over the past 3 months I've been doing a self defense course with Bristol Combat Gym twice a week. It was hard work, not just for me but also for Mr. who looked after the kids those two evenings right after returning from work. The course is now finished but I've loved the fighting so much I've decided to carry on... I feel like at long last, after years of struggling to stick to any exercise because I just bloody hate exercise, I've finally found a sport I truly enjoy that has the side effect of getting me fitter.
The kids have decisively dropped their midday naps. I thought I'd struggle with this but actually I've found it fairly easy - this surely has to do with having more energy because of the season, but also because bedtime is suddenly so much easier! D is down at 7 and N at 8, and both are now consistently sleeping until after 6. It's brilliant.
N has made very clear that she wants to quit German school and I'm happy to allow that (at the end of term) - I've been stepping up my speaking German to the kids more consistently and they've both picked it up more. N is also way too advanced in her swimming class so I'm thinking of dropping that. She'll continue to go swimming almost every week together with D, as the grandparents take them.
And the really big news, if you've read this far: we're going to Kenya together in October!! This is to help build a school with a local church that we are connected with through a Kenyan family in our church; a whole team is going out to build the school, as we're fundraising for the cost of materials right now. It's an amazing opportunity for the kids to see a very different way of life, it's an amazing opportunity for us to build true friendships and travel not as tourists, but to be immersed in the local church and really make a difference. I'm sure I'll write more in another blog post!

So, life is busy as ever. I'm preparing for Kenya by sorting out passports (Austrian ones this time!) for the kids, our very last term before N hits school age is coming to an end (and much will change after that, for all of us...), and we cannot wait for summer. Oh and D is 3 years old tomorrow, where did that time go??

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