If I only had a brain...

This is the song that keeps running through my head. It shows how marginally functional I am currently feeling. It's as though I cannot hold two sequential thoughts in my head at the same time. Now, I realize this is pretty typical for a mother, but this version is far worse. I've even started talking to myself to help me remember why I entered a room. Several times, children have asked me what I was saying to them, and I've realized I was talking out loud. This is my long explanation as to why there could possibly be a significant decrease in blogging over the next week or so.

Here's our timeline:

Sunday, we drive H., K., Y., G., and L. up to their week-long church camp. My goal is to be done by then.

Monday is any last minute moving van packing, and sorting each room into discernible piles, to make it easier for the movers to know what to take. J. and I will also wander down to our lawyer's office and sign all the papers for the closing of this house.

On Tuesday the 20th, the moving vans pull up and cart away almost all of our possessions. Tuesday night, we all sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of this house.

Wednesday brings the people who are hauling out everything we are not taking, and who will also sweep. I met again with my contact person, and am feeling a bit better about doing this, because instead of the junking everything they take away, they actually find homes for most of it. While they are doing this, I will be packing up everything from the kitchen that we will want with us before the moving vans return, as well as washing all the bedding that came off the beds the day before. I may also need to make a trip out to the storage locker if the pile of stuff we are moving ourselves looks to be too big for a single load.

Thursday is another day of getting ready to actually vacate the house. I will finish any last minute laundry (and for a few hours of my existence everything will be clean at the same time.) We will also start packing up the van, car, and trailer with everything that we are taking with us. After D.'s acting class that he is taking, we will do the final look around, load up all the vehicles, and close the door on the Big Ugly House for the last time. (That still feels very unreal to think about.) We will head to a pet friendly hotel where we will all spend the night.

Friday we will have a leisurely morning while the closing of the first house happens without us being there. (Yeah. This is for the best for oh, so many reasons.) Then in the afternoon, we will leave big people and animals in the hotel, no doubt rotting their brains with cable TV while J. and I go to the closing of our new house. (Somehow, we don't think anyone would be thrilled with four children, 1 dog, 2 cats, and 1 quail appearing to help sign papers. I think that at this time, A. will be driving back to Evanston to pick-up B., and bring him back. When we are the new owners of our new house, we will go to the hotel, pick-up people, animals, and trailer, and head to our new house. We will then quickly unhitch and unload the van so that B. and A. can go drive up to church camp and collect the campers. We will then all spend the night in our new house, in sleeping bags on the floor. (Do you see a theme here?) I need to find a name for the new house... it's going to grow old calling it, 'the new house.'

Saturday will be free, and on Sunday, J. will get up very early with TM and D. and drive them back to Evanston so that the boys can leave for Boy Scout camp.

Monday brings contractors and flooring guys who will spend the week taking out a wall and old flooring and putting down new. They are pretty sure they can get it all done in five days. In the meantime, we will be sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor each night.

Finally, the next Monday, July 3, the moving vans arrive and our furniture will join us at the house. Then we will find out exactly how much more stuff I should have gotten rid of, because I'm a little afraid that once everything is in, we will not be able to move around.

So there you go. It will be sad and exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. I cannot wait to stop having quite so many balls in the air at a time, and plan on spending the rest of the summer leisurely unpacking boxes.

Lastly, for the two people who tried playing my guessing game, as of last Friday, the number of boxes that had been packed was 303, so Carla was closest. I believe the new current tally is in the 340's, and I still have to do two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bunch of framed pictures. (Framed pictures have become my single least favorite thing to pack. I really dislike doing it, and am putting off doing the rest.)

Comments

Kristin Mueller said…
This post makes it all real for me. You're actually moving. I'm really sad! But I also read this and think - you have done incredible work organizing all the pieces of this puzzle. Though you may not feel it, having all the days mapped out is really an impressive accomplishment. I will be praying that all goes well, and that soon you can truly rest!
Lucy said…
We got our new truck in 2006. To this day it is still referred to as "new truck". I don't know what we'll do if we get a newer vehicle someday. You probably have a good 20 or 30 years before you have to find another name for new house.
Amy said…
I find that packing framed pictures with blankets or towels works really well. You take a box a bit bigger than the pictures to pack. Start with a layer of blanket or towel, place a picture in glass side up, add another layer of blanket or towel, then another picture, and keep going until the box is full or heavy. I haven't broken any pictures yet and it saves on packing material.

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