This year was, as for everyone else, a very challenging one for us. Especially during the first Corona wave, it was very hard to keep the kids entertained at home 24/7 and for Michael to work from home. But we tried our best and we are still thankful for a lot of things:
Michael only had a total of 3 „Kurzarbeitstage“ (days where you are not working, but the government pays you a percentage of the money you would’ve made). A lot of colleagues and also people from other companies spent months in „Kurzarbeit“, so to not have that extra financial strain was a huge blessing.
In order to keep the Kids entertained and also to find a good outlet for their boundless energy we went outside as much as possible (playground were closed during the first lockdown in spring). If you want to see some of the trips we took go and visit journeys.saltoftheearth.de
Originally we had also planned to visit our extended family in London in July but of course Corona made that impossible (airline cancelled our flights and also a lot was closed due to COVID). Instead we spent the days in beautiful Switzerland, visiting Michael’s brother and his wife Michelle in Chur. We were so happy that they were willing to have all four of us over – and we really did have an awesome time there, you can read more about it on our journeys blog.
We are also really thankful for the public swimming pool that is within walking distance from our house. Diana discovered her passion for swimming and therefore spent almost every day swimming her daily mile there. In the afternoon we went there with the kids, so they could practice their swim skills too – with success: At the end of the summer both had successfully completed their sea horse („Seepferdchen“) badge and Nate even got the bronze swimmers badge! We also learned that swimming is one of the few things that really drains their energy 🙂
Another highlight of our year was our vacation on Korsika. Since we had planned and booked the trip before Corona was even a thing we would have lost quite a bit of money if we had cancelled it. So after much deliberating we still went ahead with our plans and chose to go to Korsika – even though it was declared a risk area just two days before our departure. We drove around the whole island in three weeks, for this we had booked 5 different accommodations. On this journey we also discovered a new passion: Surfing! We had brought along an inflatable surf board that we had bought on a recommendation that we tested in the waves on the beaches of Korsika. We had so much fun (and realized we had so much to learn) that we decided to plan a visit to a surf camp in 2021. During the time on Korsika we were also (for the first time) thankful for Corona: There were almost no tourists there so it sometimes felt like we had the whole island to ourselves. Definitely something we enjoyed. You can find more photos as usual on our travel blog.
Looking forward to 2021 we are very curious as to what comes next. We hope that it will be easier and that it will be a bit more „normal“ than the last 12 months. Also in the new year we can put our hope and trust in God, who gives us strength and hope for every day. He is in control and we have absolutely nothing to fear. Thanks to him we will also be able to say after this next year: „Thank your for all the blessings that you have provided for us“
