Too Good to Let it Go

I've been working on school stuff these past two hours, but I cannot go to bed without blogging about today even though that may mean I'll be sleepy tomorrow...

Today and yesterday were days off school (Yippeee!).  Unfortunately, my parents left Thursday mid-morning and so we couldn't take advantage of my time off to be all together.  Emily, however, skipped school Wednesday to spend their last day in Spain doing something fun.  She and mamá took Ga and Papa to the Parque de las Ciencias in Granada--they spent most of the day there and had a blast. :)  It warmed my heart to get pictures of their adventures at school.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because Emily and I opted to stay in La Zubia despite not having school in order to go to ballet today.  For various reasons, we've only been to class once a week for about the last four or five weeks and I think the lack of routine is taking its toll on Emily.  She has started to hang off me and even has gone in crying the last few classes.  I know she really does like it (in spite of what she says) because she always comes out of class happy, but it's hard to know what to do when she hangs off my leg claiming she doesn't like ballet and she doesn't want to go. :(  I don't want to force her if she really, truly doesn't want to; but it is important, too to learn to uphold commitments and persevere when activities become difficult. 

Anyway, I thought that if she made friends with some of the girls in class, that it might help her feel more comfortable and look forward to going more.  In chatting with the mother of one little ballerina, we discovered that we're very close neighbors and swapped numbers to arrange a play-date.  Thursday we sent them a message, but they were busy.  However, I was not to be disuaded so easily, and immediately asked if they wanted to get together at our house for pancakes before ballet Friday (today). They agreed, and so the day's first play-date was scheduled!

Yes, you read that right: "first" play-date.  On Thursday afternoon, after my parents and mamá had left us to our devices in La Zubia, we began calling all our friends to get together...but all of them were busy or away.  However, one friend from school asked if we could get together Friday morning.  I had already arranged for a personal "play-date" with friends from work at a river nearby.  We were going to have a picnic and hang out from about noon on.  So I told Emily's friend that if she could meet up in the morning, we could certainly see each other.  Suddenly we had our whole day booked with activities from 10-18:30!

Although we did have a full schedule, everything was quite laid-back and nice.  I'm happy that Emily got some play time in both with a school friend and her ballet buddy.  She was still a little reluctant to go into ballet class, but was really happy when we left and I think that our pancake, pre-dance snack has opened the door to further get togethers.  I am sure that making a friend will make a difference in Em's attitude.  Plus, today we got her dress for the dance recital in June!  Emily was pretty excited.

Our picnic at the river was also fantastic.  The río Dilar is a beautiful, well cared for place, more of a creek than a river, with lots of picnic tables and shade trees.  Today, being a week day and during work hours, we were virtually alone.  Norte spent these two days with me and Emily, since I didn't have to work and could therefore walk him.  He was THRILLED to be free to run around, swim and explore at the river.  We just sat snacking, chatting and playing in the freezing snow-melt while he ran himself silly!  Needless to say he was a very calm puppy the whole drive home to La Roda.

Whew!  It's been a long, but wonderful day.  This was certainly just what the doctor ordered.  As the end of the year approches and we scramble to get everything taken care of before the term ends, it is nice to take a day to do everything BUT think about (much less do) anything related to work. :)

Tech Excuses

Aside from being busy and hectic, my computer has conspired against me and know my "n" and "b" keys often stick or just flat out refuse to function, which means blogging and tediously having to backspace or press keys for extended periods of time in order to get a properly spelled sentence out is just too time consuming.  (Please forgive any missing letters I don't catch in this post)

The school year is coming to an end and rather than winding down, I feel like the opposite is happening.  There are so many things to do to make next year's school year start smoothly, it's hard to see how they will all happen.  The school year has been crazy and challenging as you already know, but it is rewarding to see the progress the children have made.  I suppose those rare moments when you can see your hard work paying off, is what it's all about.  Anyway, I cannot wait for summer, but at the same time I am dreading the work to get there, and then the work I will most likely have to do during the holidays to get things up to scratch.

Other news: my parents are here! :)  I didn't even blog about my mom's January visit this year...  Now they have both come for just a quick two weeks before heading to the Rotary International Conference in Hamburg, Germany.  It's too short a visit, but we'll actually be seeing them again so soon that it's alright.

Emily is thrilled to have Ga and Papa here. Monday and Tuesday of this week she stayed home from school to be with them.  They have been painting, playing prehistoric people, building duck ponds, doing puzzles and reading LOTS of books.  It's wonderful to have them and especially to see how happy Emily is that they are here. Their Spanish is much improved, which makes them more idependant, and especially my mom knows our schedule pretty well after her frequent visits, so they both quite easily slip into our daily routine.

Mostly, I just wanted to post SOMETHING so you all know I am still here... It's difficult to gather my thoughts for a blog post, when so much time has gone by and so much has happened since and even BEFORE my last post.  Blogging and writing is something I really enjoy and it helps me process all the craziness...some how I need to find a way to work in some more blogging.  Maybe I'll have to start with getting my keyboard looked at!