As I mentioned a few weeks back, I'm swimming in a ton of actions right now for so many projects: the sale of the house, getting our visas, getting #1 organized for his Israeli army service, and planning our physical move. We are done with the due diligence phase of the house sale, and now we are cruising into closing. Our agent calls this being "in the tunnel," and boy do I have tunnel vision these days. We rented a storage unit several weeks back and have been packing boxes

I found out, pretty soon after I got here, that I had missed the registration deadline for the February DELE 2A exam. I was mad--mostly at myself--for not checking and assuming that I'd be able to sign-up once I got to classes. A few days of back-and-forth emails and the testing organization confirmed that I would not be able to take the exam on February 9th. Which is both good, and bad. I got my results from the practice exam today, and I passed on the 3 parts that were retu

I don't know if I'm the only one that measures and counts in many different ways. I'm not talking about creative math or alternative facts, I mean subtle, subconscious ways that I use constantly. Kids When the kids were little the easiest way for me to measure time, and make it understandable for the kiddos, was in the number of sleeps, i.e., how many sleeps until Daddy gets home from his business trip, or how many sleeps until Blue comes and lives with us. We used this a lot

As mentioned yesterday, the painters are here and things are starting to move quickly. After my post 2 weeks ago about struggling to let things go, I had a few motivating chats with some friends. As a result, I'm moving along at a much faster pace, and even C is surprise by my newfound ability to put things in the Moving Sale pile. As a way to help clear things from in my closet, I began packing over the weekend. I was about 3 pairs of pants into my luggage when I realized th

A few weeks ago, I installed a major update for the calendar program that I use on my phone. I like gadgets and updates and all those techie things, so I jumped in and was so happy to use the new features of the app. Unfortunately, during the next few days, I received several calls about appointments I missed. Sure enough, these commitments were saved in my calendar, but the reminders didn't trigger and I missed them. At that point, I realized just how out of touch I was with

I think I have a lot of time before we move, but I'm realizing quickly that is an illusion. I leave for Spain the week the kids go back to school and return on Friday, February 16th. The window washers and house cleaner will come that next Monday, the 19th. We will finish staging on Tuesday and pictures for the website are being taken on Wednesday. House will officially be on the market on Thursday, March 1st. Because of my upcoming trip, the work we are going to do in the ho

Earlier in the week I mentioned that I'm a planner. In the age of the internet and smartphones, it's been easy to have access to information that, even 10 years ago, would have required months of digging and years of community building, with a good dose of luck for meeting the right contacts thrown in. However, in the 10 months since we began this process in earnest, I've found some of the most fascinating apps and sites and I'm going to do a quick roundup of my favorites. L

This morning, I am disappointed, frustrated, and all around annoyed by how things are going this week. Obviously, Monday started with a surprise. And then yesterday, C was informed that there may be an issue with taxes which we weren't prepared for. We were aware that we will likely have to pay some taxes in Spain. However, we weren't prepared to hear that moving may open up C's company to Spanish tax liability, which would kill the deal on the firm's side. There are work aro

I'm a planner. I research, read, learn, schedule, check, double-check, and then begin. I usually get to that last step and cross my fingers and hope that nothing pops up that I'm not prepared for. I'm also self-aware enough to know that I'm visual and I do much better when I write things out on paper long-hand and not rely on a screen, whether phone or computer. We've got some work to do on our house to get it ready for market. There's not a ton, but in order to get things do

Spaniards are very proud of their heritage, and Spain is not looking to dilute their culture or language when allowing people to become citizens. To make sure that new citizens are on their way to becoming ingrained in their new homeland, applicants must pass a Spanish culture & civics exam (CCSE) as well as a language proficiency exam (DELE 2A) through the Cervantes Institute which is endorsed by the Spanish government. Growing up in Sandy Springs, Georgia in the 70s and 80