I’m ready for spring. Or maybe I’m just ready for a rest.

Winter came back this week, just when spring was flirting with us. I took Sprout to her ballet class on Saturday morning thinking possibly I had worn one too many layers. JavaMan told me later it had actually reached 20 degrees Celsius.

But when we emerged from ballet class, a sandstorm had blown up, the temperature had dropped and the wind was almost enough to take my feet out from under me—ah the joys of living near the sea!

I put on my reading glasses and pulled my hood on and told Sprout to close her eyes so we could keep the dust out, and I held her hand and pulled her. The rest of the week stayed cold and an even more bitter wind moved in.

But while winter has been especially long and cold here this year, it’s also been busy. Sometimes it’s hard to step back and tell ourselves it’s okay not to be committed every moment of every day. It can be even harder to communicate that to others. I recently made the decision to cut out our Friday night neighborhood ESL class. In our old, smaller neighborhood, where things were more intimate, it felt like we were doing a real service to our neighbors and making friends with them.

In this neighborhood, it doesn’t feel like holding the class has meant getting to know the parents or the children well at all, and we feel a little like a babysitting service at times. In a country where everyone is clambering for English instruction—especially from foreign teachers, the decision to rest can be a difficult one to explain.

But I am certain this is the right move. We have only two more classes before our final presentation to the parents, and then, I will rest.

What do you do to stop and rest? Is there anything you’ve had to let go of to make time for a time out?