Well, the container which we have purchased to pack our house into arrived today. This signals the start of ‘Hell Fortnight’ for us. By next Saturday the 24th of May we will need to be all packed up in the van and the entire contents of our house – 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, shed, deck and garage full of stuff into a 20 foot shipping container – eeeek!
I have heaps of posts I still want to write, hopefully I will get an update out this week on where we are at with our ‘Light Bulb Moment’ – we’re still excited about it but finding it hard now to fit in time for all the research and connecting we would like to do! Please stay with us if you find the Blog posts a little less frequent over the next couple of weeks – we will be back on track once we hit the road!
Only two more days of work left for me which is exciting! I have really enjoyed the last five years at BMR Business Solutions and will miss the lovely people there – if you need a good accountant in Brisbane definitely give Brett a call!! I was so lucky to have such a flexible boss and rewarding role all only 7 minutes from my kitchen to my desk!! However, it will be nice to have a break from tax returns, financial statements and excel spreadsheets for a while!
Last week Matt did the final service on the car, replacing the brakes and fluids – something to do with coolant and diff oil??, put new windscreen wipers on, made a set of longer mudflaps for the car, and a few other things that I forget now – something to do with a secondary fuel filter install I think! He didn’t finish until 1am (thanks again to ‘talktotheroo’ from Prado Point for showing Matt the ropes)and made lots of mess and noise on the driveway! He is feeling very ’empowered’ about learning some new ‘blokey’ skills so I will leave it to him to fill you when he gets a chance!
Matt’s first go at making our own mudflap extensions to avoid having to spend lots of $$$ on buying something to do the job – we’ll see how they go!
Other than that last week was filled with a little more packing, some final purchases, one of which was a cheap inflatable kayak from Gumtree so that we can paddle out with one of the boys at a time in their kayak when we are in ‘safe’ water territory.
Cheap kayak off Gumtree
Matt also got a great bargain of water proof jacket on sale at Anaconda after he finished his shift helping out with the Scout BBQ. Also in the shopping basket on this day were some sand pegs as we didn’t yet have any, a fishing rod (a goal for the trip is for us to learn how to fish), a life jacket for the kids and some mosquito nets to go over our hats, oh and a new sleeping bag for me (to replace my 15 year old one that no longer zips up) and a warm polar fleece liner for Lexi’s sleeping bag. And that about rounds up all our pre-trip purchases – hopefully we have everything we need now to get started on the road!
I have been madly washing all of our sleeping bags and camper linen, but since I hung it out on the washing line two days ago we have had bits and pieces of rain which means they are all not getting that lovely sunny, line dried freshness and smell grrrr! Oh, and Lexi and I have been doing some ‘Procrastination Baking’ too – fun but not helping get the packing done!
Procrastination Baking
Other than that I had the best Mother’s Day yesterday! This year was the first year the kids remembered all on their own! I was treated to a 7.45am sleep-in (6 am is the normal wakeup from the kids usually to an ‘I’m hungry’ or to break up a fight happening in the lounge room!) and was then brought breakfast in bed (albeit a bowl of soggy nutrigrain – but it’s the thought that counts!) and some thoughtfully choosen gifts using their $2 each at the Mother’s Day Stall at school – a candle from Toby and a pot plant for Jack along with a handmade bead braclet and chocolates which had been made in class. I also had a lovely sign made for me and stuck to the kitchen bench!
Happy Mother’s Day!
So grateful most of the time to be mum to these three!!
Now I’m just counting down the sleeps until the BEST mum in the world – my mum, arrives on Wednesday – can’t wait!!
PS. Just had to share this little picture that I took from Toby’s workbook which I was shown during his parent/teacher interview last week – makes us feel like we are making the right decision with our trip!
‘Prep’s had to draw a picture of a person of personal significance to them in their family’
Oh, the excitement!! Good luck with all the packing up and getting ready to roll. You are almost there!!
i can feel the excitement building, can hear the hum of the wheels, see the Emu up ahead you lucky devils—–
PS–the back of the kellogs box in the brekky prep photo very appropriate
ha! Well spotted Dad – I didn’t even notice!!! I hope we will be ready!!!
Wahoo it is nerve rackingly close to D-Day. Packing will bring a sense of finality to the whole preparation journey and your time in Brisbane….bit scary, bit sad….but just think of all the amazing adventures you will have on the road!!
Ha! Procrastination baking. I did a lot of that too!
Good luck for kick off.
That picture is adorable !!!