by: Angie

Well, we are on a countdown of about 5 months left until the trip.  The itinerary is loosely formed, very little supplies have been purchased and we are just realizing how much work it will be to sell our house.  Trip preparations could be further along then they are…

You’d think this trip came out of nowhere but we’ve been prepping in one form or another for a year or more.  We’ve been thinking about this trip for at least the last 5+ years.  All I can say is, life is busy and some endeavors are way more work than we think ahead of time.  (Plus with a certain pandemic – we didn’t know exactly when the trip would happen…)

God bless all the decluttering we’ve been doing the past few years but we still have a lot of stuff and a lot to do. 

We managed to get through Christmas with mostly only buying items the kids will use on the trip.

I’m super glad we had the foresight to do some work on the house last summer and to get a new roof and new gutters.  I wish we had had the foresight to get our windows cleaned (outside).  It’s less easy to do that when it’s 28 degrees outside. Whoops!

Now we are 5 weeks out from putting our house on the market, with a very full list of things to do to get it ready to sell. 

Apparently it’s a lot of work to leave a house you’ve been living in for 17 years?! 🙂

The good news is, the realtor came over and we now have the full list of what needs to be done.  It’s long but we are making progress.  Highlights from this week included listing some furniture for sale, giving away other furniture, calling a fireplace repair company, learning how to better clean shower grout, taking a weekly load to storage and another weekly load to a place to donate.  

All the kids’ toys will need to be packed up soon (or out of sight) so we’ll get creative and store a few in secret places like in the china cabinet.

The kids got a real kick out of watching a couple strap our big tiki bar to the roof of their car last night.  (It took a long time to strap it on and we half didn’t believe it would make it to their house.) 

I’m grateful that Chris thought of getting a storage unit early and that we now have a habit of bringing a trunkful each week over there.

We’ve taken down all family photos and begun dusting places that haven’t been dusted in way too long.  Sprayed down fingerprints and touched up paint.  (Lots more painting to go.)  

The kids are finding moments of fun in the chaos. A pile of boxes that are ready to be used for packing, made a fun bowling game for Asher this week.

Overall the kids are getting A LOT of TV while the grownups get focused tasks done. (It’s cold and snowy out so it’s not like they can play outside all the time.)

I’ve found mental boundaries to be helpful in the last few months.  To be sane at Christmas, I needed to restrict myself from any worrying about the move or the trip.  I should probably do the same now with the itinerary.

Purchases are going on travel credit cards with great sign up bonuses to help accrue travel points we can use later.

Chris asked for and was approved for a leave of absence at work.  The awesome thing is that he should have a job when we come back.  The less awesome thing was that if he would have quit, he would have done so in March, giving us more time for preparations.  This will also limit the trip to be from June to June.  We’re good with that but at one time had planned it to be a little longer.  

Things I’m loving this week: 

• Swiffer extendable dusters – work awesome at dusting ceiling fans, cobwebs and light fixtures. 
• The local Buy Nothing Group on Facebook for taking some of our furniture and giving us moving boxes.
• The sweet man at Michaels who gave my daughter a hand drawn Olaf, just because.
• The roof coils that are helping melt the ice off the roof and then maybe the window washer will be safe going out there.