Preparations galore

We went to an orientation provided by the organization that is, well, organizing all this. I left there feeling like a zombie as my brain tried frantically to find a home for the eight-foot long to-do list we now have. Since then, I've found a home for it. The problem is, for the last six months or so, I've been concentrating quite a bit on living in the moment--being present to what is happening right now. And since that orientation, I've been present in the moment for a total of maybe forty-five minutes over the last week. My life is all about living in the future now. Maybe I could write a self-help book about living in the future: Plan, plan, anticipate and plan some more! And when someone tries to get your attention, like your children, tell them you can't play with them right now because you are working really hard to make sure they will be happy in four months. What I would really like right now is a live-in Buddhist nun who could teach me the fine art of planning for the future and being present at the same time. The best I have been able to do is plan for a while and know that when a small child wants my attention, I have to time travel back into the moment and know that I'll be able to visit the future again soon. The jet lag between then and now can be jarring though.

So back to the future, I'm about to buy our plane tickets--I'll be faxing to our travel agent our consent to spend several months of my income just on getting there. It's a big leap and an exciting one. I've been obsessing, yes, it's true. I've been obsessing on figuring out how best to spend our longest chunk of travel time which will happen as soon as we get there. We'll have about 4+ weeks of free time before everyone (except me) starts school there. So the pressure for this to be a fabulous vacation time is huge for me. Not necessarily for anyone else in my family but for me, I want to use this once-in-a-lifetime period of time as best we can. So I've been working our travel agent for everythings she's worth and spending lots of my own time researching all the options. I can say today that I think we've decided to spend the time in New Zealand and I hope that is what I can report actually happens. But seeing how I've been operating so far, changing my mind every other day, there are no guarantees.

Mark has been working on the school side of things, making sure that all the teaching ducks are in a row. There are licenses to secure and curriculum to share and students to prepare, though he hasn't told them yet. As far as the travel part goes, I think I lost him several weeks ago when my mind was changing faster than his could keep up with. He's let me know that he needs a few days once we land there to settle in Newcastle before we leave for parts unknown and a week or so before school starts for settling purposes as well. What we do in between the settling-in times seems to be pretty much up to me.

While the kids are still highly successful at living in the moment, I can tell that this upcoming change in their lives has sunk in on an unconscious level. They will mention Australia at random times and they tell people they just meet that they are going to Australia for a year. They seem excited, though I don't know if Jordan is truly excited or just happy to go along with whatever her family is doing. I am concerned that when we get there, and she has to go to school without us, she might have another opinion about it all.

If you are hoping to come visit and we haven't talked about that yet, please let us know as the calendar is starting to fill up with everyone's plans! We're so happy that people are going to come see us. It makes the year away from our friends and family seem not quite so long. There is lots more to tell already but I will respect what I am gathering about the blog etiquette and try to keep my posts relatively short for now.

Hope you are all well and we welcome comments and conversations not just about us but much more interestingly, about you!!
Love, Nancy