Confirmed: it's an unusual month

Our room. Traditional Japanese hotel room.

Yep, I'm coming to terms with the fact that this is indeed an unusual month. I wrote about our plans at the start of the month here. I'm starting to regret the complexity of our travel, merely due to the number of times I've had to explain our plans for this "summer" to people!

Chocolate fountain at the dinner buffet
each night (sometimes white).

Last week was field conference for five days in Hokkaido. As expected, it was busy and tiring. We were interacting with people most days from 7.30 am to 9 pm, and in a pretty loud environment. It was good, though, to get together with our OMF Japan family. We have many great conversations and interactions. We met many new people and caught up with "old" friends. And I managed to do the piano playing without any major mishap!

At conference, we were part of a small ceremony that recognised our 25 years of service in Japan (actual anniversary is in November). I was reluctant to agree to this because it is only by God's grace that we're still here and the glory (and congratulations) really all belongs to him, not us. We're acutely aware that so many have not been able to stay this long through no fault or lack of willingness of their own. However, it was pointed out to me that it's something of a partnership and that we had to say (and continue) to say yes to God's call in order to stay. But all that aside, it actually resulted in a bunch of interesting conversations with people for the rest of the week!

The conference hotel at dusk. The large windows
lower down on left are the huge dining
room (maybe capacity of 800 or more).

We got home to our own beds on Friday night and on Saturday we did little, just recovering, which was a good thing because Sunday was full of people again and by the end of that I was flagging.

David left for training in northern Thailand on Monday morning and I've been alone ever since. It's weird, actually. Tomorrow I'm flying to Singapore, for a meeting on Thursday and to meet David there on Friday before we fly to Australia on Monday (30th). What's weird is that I'm not used to having no one around while I prepare for an overseas trip, nor being on my own to close up our house for several weeks over summer. I've struggled a little not to overthink things. 

Pancake machine every breakfast.

Packing for a trip like this always makes me nervous...but we're going to Australia, so if I forget something key like underwear then I can at least buy more there (no, just checked, that's packed, but I have forgotten that once before on an overseas trip). But, as always, packing for a different season is challenging: Singapore isn't going to be much different to here (hot and humid), but Brisbane is in winter (19C max and 10C min on Monday).

I think this is the first time I've been on an overseas trip (i.e. not Japan or Australia) something that isn't organised by someone else, like a course or a sporting event. This time I initiated the meeting I have on Thursday and the weekend there is just us catching our breath before we fly to see our kids in Australia.

A lit walkway near the hotel.

Thankfully I've been sleeping well (apart from the night before conference). I hope that trend will continue!

So, my next blog post will either be from Singapore or Australia...we'll see!

Finally the day has come…

Yesterday was the day we've been working towards: it's the day we decided months ago that we would finish our work (i.e. magazine editing, social media managing, and—for David—teaching). It seemed impossible at times, but alas (or much to my amazement) we actually managed it! The only portion of all that that I will retain is an overall management of the magazine team and general "hard question" consultant.

I'm thankful that I was running ahead of schedule last week. That relieved some stress as yesterday didn't go at all as expected—a simple get-medication medical appointment at a hospital (usually takes under an hour) turned into a four-hour ordeal. 

Being ahead of schedule also meant that I could volunteer several extra hours to help the admin team for the magazine with the manual labour of packing, and this month's mail-out had a wrinkle that's extended the time it's taking to packing all the magazines up several fold!

This week has held other unplanned things: 

• Doing my first ever audio recording of a conversation with a colleague which will go with six articles I've written about home assignment preparation (looks like that recording and the articles will be published over the next couple of months, so I'll be sure to share them).
• Doing some serious culling of files on my computer so that I can transition to my new work computer (yep, my computer lied about how much it held, and we ordered a new computer that was too small). Why this week?
• Starting to hand off my plants to others! Just like with my work, I'm splitting my plants up between several people to care for while we're away. I’d planned to do it, but not as soon as this week!
• A pile of mending has suddenly appeared! Really?
• And various appointments that aren't related to us leaving: mostly medical, and dental, but I do need to remember to make a hair appointment.
• I don't remember when I found out, but not long before Monday I discovered that I was invited to a staff-family dinner that night. First time since COVID (for me). And it was followed by square dancing, which is very closely related to the Australian bush dancing we did as kids and was super fun (even if I was very tired).

And expected things:

• I'm starting to struggle with sleep: nightmares about clerical errors, waking up early with my brain whirring, etc.
• Finishing work today, of course!
• My last work meeting (aside from next week, which is basically a whole five days of meetings at our OMF conference).

After my long wait at the hospital on Thursday I was feeling quite off balance yesterday. I'm really glad that I planned ahead and handed things off early, it's really helped that that hard work of thinking things through to be done before this week!

David also finished work yesterday, and last night he pulled out a whole lot of boxes that we haven’t used in 13 years. They’ve been living in our attic. Now our house looks like we’re moving, even if we haven’t actually put much into the boxes yet. But I’m feeling pretty restless about it all. Probably the best way to deal with that is to get off my chair (and this blog) and actually do some sorting myself. Here’s my secret: I leave the actual box-packing to David who is a magician when it comes to 3D puzzles like this.

Boxes full of packing material

On Monday we leave early to catch a couple of trains to catch a plane to Hokkaido for a five-day conference with OMF Japan. So we’ve also got to pack for that…and so, I’d better get going.

Emotional roller coaster—April 2023 edition

This morning, my Facebook memories reminded me of the last time we moved out of a house in Japan to go on home assignment. I wrote this just a few weeks after starting my blog in 2009: Thoughts on packing up to go . . . 9 weeks out

A lot of that sounds very familiar. What's changed? 

Emotions can be like the sight of this
bridge: there's lots of things here
warning me not to attempt going across
it. Approaching home assignment
is a little like approaching a bridge
like this—it looks pretty scary and
full of danger. 

1. My boys are 14 years older, and there're only two of them here. 

2. CAJ's Thrift Shop is no more. 

3. There's still a lot of sorting to do, mostly because we're seriously downsizing this time, however, we can't complete downsizing while we're still living here and I'm still cooking meals for the equivalent of five or six people.

4. I probably don't live as close to the line on exhaustion as I did in 2009! Mostly due to #1.

What hasn't changed?

1. I'm still experiencing those emotions. I'm still not sure about the Right Time to do everything that needs to be done. I'm still concerned (maybe even anxious) about how it will all pan out.

2. God hasn't changed. He walked with us through this last time and we survived, however ragged!

Big transition like this is an emotional rollercoaster that I hate. And apparently, I always have. 

I grew up in a very stable family. We moved once during my school years: when I was 15, and that was just to a neighbouring suburb. I went to two schools, and that was because one was a primary school only and the other was a high school only. I didn't have any experience of a really big transition until I left home at 17 to go to university. My parents are still married and have only recently moved out of the home we moved into when I was 15. They still live in the same town.

But boy, have I had some whoppers since I left home. Nothing prepares you for changing countries. One would think that that, having lived overseas for 22 years now, and having "moved" to Australia four times in there for home assignments, I'd have it figured out. Nope!

Oh, I know the stuff that needs to be done. I'm not a newbie at any of that. But emotionally, and physically, it's still a stretch. And I'm not holding out high hopes either, having seen many missionaries retire from the field after 30+ years of service: all of them are stressed about the transition.

However, as I look back at this post I wrote two months ago, I'm also pleased to see that we've already made many decisions that answer many of the questions I listed in that post. That's maybe why I'm feeling like every night when David comes home, I'm asking his opinion on one decision or another that has come up during the day. It seems relentless! But I am thankful that we're making progress, even if it doesn't feel like it as we continue to be loaded with more decisions to make.

We've got many dates in the schedule up for several months now: moving dates, flying dates, accommodation dates, even when we stop work here and when we start in Australia. Our first two months of work in Australia are filling up. I was talking to two of my best friends on Monday and we're thinking about the three of us doing a retreat somewhere . . . however, my schedule is planned way in advance of what they're able to think about at present. So we shelved that conversation for now!

But back to our weekend. On Saturday we spent all day at another track meet. Our second-last one (and the last one on a weekend). It was good to see our son performing well again. He broke his personal best in discus by 3 metres, a long way! And less than 2 metres behind the winner, his good friend and teammate. He didn't throw a personal best in shot put, but no one threw further than he did. 

The weather was a distinct player on Saturday. We always keep a close eye on the forecast before these events, because the weather is so variable at this time of year. As it was, the night before was quite warm and so when I walked to school at 7.45, I carried my jacket. The forecast was 18C. But, by lunchtime we could feel the temperature dropping and I was soon wearing that jacket. In the morning I put on thin, long socks, but had scrunched them down around my ankles. Around 2 pm I pulled them up to my knees, then a little while later I did the challenging work of putting leggings on under my tracksuit pants in the school toilets (never my favourite place to change). By 3.30 it was raining, on and off, and David and I headed for the shelter of the school bus, really thankful that our son had already completed all his events. Finally, not long before we headed home at 5pm, I put an extra pair of socks on too. 

On Sunday we went to see an apartment that might be available to us next year. It was beautiful, but also shocking. I really hope that this will work out, but it depends on a few factors outside our control. It was shocking because the reality of how much downsizing we'll have to do to fit ourselves into an apartment was evident. 

So I've had this emotional roller coaster running this week: really wanting to jump straight to the point where we move into this new place, skipping all the hard work that going to Australia will mean, but also knowing that isn't possible. Chomping at the bit to get rid of more stuff at home as soon as possible, but I also know that isn't possible, at least for most things (that hasn't stopped me from throwing some books and papers out and selling an ice cream maker).

With all that happening, I started work on Monday and realised I needed to rev up the editing engine and tackle the next stage of the next issue, all while feeling tired after a busy weekend. That pre-HA emotional roller coaster mixed with fatigue and a large list of things to do at work:  it was not a great combo!

Thankfully it's been a week without any meetings or other reasons to have to leave my desk. That meant that by today I'm feeling like I'm currently on top of things (which is part of the emotional rollercoaster, albeit a better-feeling part).

What I need to do, in the midst of riding this uncomfortable roller coaster is to keep going back to some metaphors we find in the Bible:

1. God knows we are but dust (Psalm 103).

2. And he is our rock, our refuge, our hiding place, our shield, salvation, stronghold, fortress, our strength, our rescuer, and our deliverer (Psalm 18).

If I am able to remember these things as I approach the "scary bridge" of home assignment, I'm probably going to manage everything a whole lot better! The challenge is remembering them when I'm feeling all over the place. I'm so thankful that there are a whole lot of people out there praying for us as we do this.

Too much

This week has definitely shot back to the unavoidable reality that we are moving out of our house and actually out of the country (and jobs, even if temporarily) in just five months. That takes a fair bit of planning and decision-making on top of our regular work. We're starting to feel the strain already.

Downtown on Tuesday I had a team
meeting in a cafe off this atrium with an
impressive ceiling.

I sat down with a friend/colleague on Tuesday and she asked me lots of questions like:

• when will you finish your Japan work
• who will take over the work that you're doing now
• what do you have between now and then, what's important and what can be left
• when will you move out of your house
• where will you stay before you fly
• when will you fly
• where will you live in Australia
• when will you begin doing deputation
• who can help you find accommodation and transport in Australia
• when will you take holidays

Phew...it's a lot. And there are a lot of decisions within the above decisions. For example, moving out involves thousands of decisions. This decision tree illustrates that.

Did I mention that we're still doing all our current work? This week that's included working on a particularly intense phase of two magazine issues, as well as the regular social media work I do for OMF. I know of at least two people who have been slightly frustrated with me (at work) for various reasons this week, something I hate, but have to acknowledge that I'm not perfect and that my work is likely to suffer at times like this. I'm thankful that we're just about to head into a weekend and can take a break. Also, that the school now has a four-day weekend (called "Winter Break"), so I can get a bit more sleep in the next few days, which I'm sure will help.

But what is probably good to do at the end of this busy, working week is to look back at Psalm 103, like I did in early January. God's love and compassion for us is great (verses 11, 13, 14, 17). And it's not dependent on how much we do, or how good we are.

And be reminded of these timeless words from Romans:

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35, 37–39 NIV).

Not packing?

As manager of the "larder" I'm feeling quite happy at the great spans of
empty spaces on our shelves. Because we'll be back in six-months, some
of these things will be fine here. For other perishables we've organised
a See-You-Later-Party on Wednesday, which will double as a "Would you
like some ..." give-away party.

People ask at this stage: "So, have you started packing yet?"

The short answer is, "No, not really."

We're not moving out of our house, so not much packing is necessary. Just enough personal goods to make it through the next six months, on top of any work-related stuff that we need.

But, we've had plenty of other things keeping us busy. Here's a few from the last few days:

These shelves are usually very full. Some of the
containers on the bottom shelf are empty.

More empty shelves in the fridge.

• I coached the person who's taken over her job of posting the OMF blog posts as he worked on putting up the first post using Wordpress (I can hardly believe that I'm helping someone else with this...mind you, I just do the same thing every time, what I've been taught; nothing creative to see here).
• I rendered "inactive" one of the email addresses I've "manned" for many years now, the one that answers questions people ask through the oMF Japan website, someone else is doing that for now.
• David travelling to the Vehicle Registration office an hour away to officially change over the ownership (and number plate) of our new van.
• I (tried to) finish off editing a few last-minute things: several blog posts, and proofreading the Summer issue of the magazine.
• We've spent time fine-tuning our deputation material: both our basic up-front talk as well as our display stand.
• I have almost finished the photo album I created for our last three years of life and ministry and will send it to the printer soon.
• Answering questions and applying for houses to rent in Australia (this took more time than we expected).
• We hosted two friends of our youngest son for two nights. One whose parents were away for a few days and the other who is returning to live in Finland with this family next week. This was fun and they helped us eat up more of our food.
• David ordered a new phone and computer for me! Yes, new "toys". My current work computer will become our youngest's bring-your-own-device for Grade 8 when he starts at an Australian school in a month. My current Japanese phone is "locked", and so I'm unable to put an Australian SIM card in it, therefore a new phone was needed.
• On Tuesday, I rode to the park, and a favourite coffee shop: saying my goodbyes to these places.

Scheduling

I've continued to work on scheduling and communicating those schedules with the people that matter most: our family. Which meant creating a Google calendar for our family, especially so our eldest, who won't be moving back in with us, but rather spending some weekends with us, can know what we're up to. 

I've also begun writing "upcoming events" on a blackboard on our fridge so that our boys are a bit more informed about big things that are coming up. Scheduling also meant following up on some appointments and confirming, getting details straight for our diary. At this point we have three medical/debrief appointments in our first ten days in Brisbane.

I also did a bit of scheduling for our short holiday in Sydney for the first few days we're back in Australia. Booked a tour of the Opera House and read some background to it, and the discovery of Australia from a SOSE book we have in the house to the rest of the family.

That's enough of a list for you for now. It's time to switch of this computer and take down-time before bed. I've been quite tired and thankfully have been sleeping quite well. So thankful for that because many of these big transitions in the past have resulted in difficulties sleeping before the transition.

Mixed thoughts on home assignment

It was a lovely weekend. Without an athletics meet to spend all day at on Saturday, we were left with a much slower-paced weekend than we've had since early April. I did some guilt-free relaxing. I started this email, but never got to finish it. Watched two movies and another episode of Downton Abbey. Slept in! Finished a book, started another. Did a little bit of baking. Played games on my phone. Chatted with our eldest son. Tried a little bit of paper craft (but didn't finish).

But with extra time comes time to think. Especially, in our case, time to think about what needs to be done in preparation for leaving for Australia.

Home assignments
I'm working at finishing up things or finding people to hand work tasks over to. I've got a meeting tomorrow that will hopefully sort out some of my OMF social media responsibilities. But work-wise, I'm not yet quite at a place that I've got much spare time for the preparation of materials we'll need only a couple of weeks after we arrive when we start speaking at meetings and churches. However, that extra time is close, especially when our weekends are much free-er from now on.

This is the fourth time we've gone on home assignment. We're getting a little bit of experience under our belts!

The first time we moved from Hokkaido to Tokyo, via a year in Brisbane (2004-2005). That was a huge move as it involved starting over again: new city, new friends, new colleagues, new job, new baby (our youngest was born two months before we moved back to Japan). Moving out of Sapporo we had boys aged 2 and 4). We stored our goods in Hokkaido and it came down via ship to Tokyo when we arrived there a year later.

The second time (2009-2010) we also moved cities, but within the prefecture (yes, Tokyo is a prefecture, not a city). We had boys aged 4, 6, and 9) when we left for Australia. We had to store all our household goods for those 12 months.

The third time (2014-2015) was most similar to what we're doing this time. We were coming back to the same house. But we had full-time sub-letters coming for 12 months, which meant we had to reorganise our house and try to do a very deep clean. Here's a blog post from May 12, 2014. Our boys were 9, 11, and 15.

So this is the fourth time. We have only two boys again (13 and 15) and I'm feeling more relaxed than previous times. Possibly also because it's only for six months, which seems more like an extended trip than a whole year. If we don't get a deep clean done, no one will notice: as far as we know we don't have anyone coming for any length of time to stay. That also means not much packing and reorganising is needed.

But it is still a big thing: to uproot for a while, change many of the routines, and settle in another place, even if we don't really put our roots down there. I can't believe that it's six weeks today that we'll be landing in Australia!

Bits and pieces to organise
We don't have a house or car yet on the other side, but a house will be searched for by a precious friend in June. The spreadsheet about our household stuff is filling up with promises from our home church and others. And we continue to pray for a car.

Give me a home among the gumtrees.

We're working on school enrolment for both our boys (not so easy as it might sound). Also on lining up the "big rocks", for example, a trip to Singapore for professional development for me and then onto meet the guys in Perth for 10 days of visiting supporting churches on the West coast. My flights are booked...the guys, not yet.

Most of our church visits are booked and a variety of other speaking appointments are also in the schedule. We've still got lots of room for mid-week and Saturday events.

One thing, that might seem a minor issue, but I have been thinking about a bit is that I have committed to not taking as much of my wardrobe previous times. It just doesn't seem necessary for only six months. But that leaves me with, eventually, deciding exactly what I will take. Thankfully I can lay aside all my super warm clothes (clothes for day time temps below 10/15C). Queensland is a warm place, with winter equating to a nice mid-spring day in Tokyo.

If you're a missionary  this is an interesting article with practical ideas of ways to prepare for home assignment (or leaving more permanently), some of which you many not have thought of before.

Not to many emotions going on yet. Part of me is not happy about the upheaval and disruption, part of me isn't happy to say goodbye to our friends here. Another part is looking forward to seeing friends and family in Australia, and the freedom for me that comes with living in an English-speaking country. Part of me isn't looking forward to doing a lot of driving. Part is looking forward to the variety of things we get to do while away from Japan, including working much more closely with my husband. And of course a big part of me is looking forward to seeing our son again more often!

So there we are. No, we're not packing, but we're doing lots of other small and not-so-small things to prepare to leave.

A pre-holiday flurry

I'm knocking things off my list of things to do and trying to fend off new things to add. On the list I published on Monday I've done most of the things in the top section. 

It is the last point (editing) that seems to have no end! With three magazines in varying active stages at present, I feel a bit like I'm fencing, I've got stuff coming from various angles and throwing some out there myself as well. Very soon I'm going to have to put an artificial stop to it all and start serious preparing for camping. We leave in only about 35 hours.

Here's some of what we've been up to:

Yesterday I got to play with a cleaning "toy", it did
a good job, but it was tiny and had no handle, so
I was on the floor with it.

Others got to do heavier work, though sitting on the floor for about three hours highlighted that I'm no longer as young as I used to be. 

Things can get tight here. This is moving a washing machine out.

David's been mending holes in the floor of our tent (very important because it doesn't look like we're going to get away without significant periods of rain). Last night I also patched up the tent bag that I made a few years ago.

Tent and tent bag: being mended inside
as we have nowhere outside to do it.

Instead of being grumpy with my family and obsessing
about how much computer work I needed to do, I
picked up my computer and walked to our local coffee
shop this morning (this afternoon I'm at another location).
It was a good strategy, taking me away from all that could
distract me and focused my attention well.

All this activity has been tinged with sadness. The people we helped clean and move yesterday are leaving us "permanently". Their lives have entangled with ours in many ways in the last few years (including using their sewing machine to initially finish that tent bag I mended last night). It will be sad not seeing them around. And we received more somber news about our field director's health this morning, plus news yesterday that the head of school (CAJ) had suddenly resigned.

It will be a relief to go away from the craziness for a couple of weeks, but the sadness won't go away so easily.

Today's bits

This was the view from our room last time we
were there.

I'm racing to get lots done before we leave tomorrow morning for our mission's national conference in Hokkaido (big northern island of Japan).  (See here for last time we did this in 2013 at the same hotel.)

Today after church we celebrated Father's Day (it is Father's Day here and in many countries in the world today, unlike Australia) by going out to a cafe for morning tea. It was fun to get the boys to try to remember stories about their dad.

This photo of my family I took on our way from church to the cafe for our
Father's Day celebration. It lacking clarity. I was riding my bike and
just whipped my phone out of my bag in my front basket and
snapped one shot. David just happened to turn around at that moment!
He didn't know what I was doing and I didn't call his name! Amazing.

We stopped at a hardware store on the way home to get a chicken-type wire to make a lid for our turtle who's been trying to escape his enclosure recently.

We rested after lunch, as usual on a Sunday.

What caption would you add? This was how we transported our
turtle to our friends' house. It felt a bit weird but Tiny was fine!

Then three of us took the turtle to his/her turtle-sitters for the next month. They were very, very excited. With five kids in the house I'm not sure Tiny the Turtle is going to get much peace and quiet.

I then had to make 100 biscuits to take to conference. There's one thing about conferences in Japan (or Asia in general, I guess), is that they don't really do "snack time". Hence we've been asked to provide 20 portions of snacks per person attending = 100 for us!

Then it was heating up leftovers for dinner, eating, and reading the final instalment of our family read-aloud book for a while, Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix. (It's obviously not coming to conference with us). I've since read and sent some important emails and am writing this quick blog post.


Packing has occurred at various times through the day and continues as I write (I'm not quite finished myself...)

It's exciting to be going away (except for getting up at 5am) for the week. The conference has many things we're looking forward to:

• great fellowship,
• fantastic meals (all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast and dinner),
• swimming pools in the basement,
• luxurious onsen in the basement and on the top floor (Japanese public baths),
• networking, and
• more fellowship.

Hopefully we'll get good Bible teaching too. 

It will be nice to doing something different and to not be stuck at my desk and for the boys to be occupied. Oh, and hopefully there will be some nice weather, especially on Wednesday afternoon when we have free time, so that we can enjoy Hokkaido's rural beauty too.

However I am aware that my work doesn't stop just because I've got something like this on. The magazine is hopping on various fronts at present (three magazine at various stages on the go at present) and other matters that will need to be monitored. I'd be horrible at a traveling job: I always find it difficult to keep up with email etc. when I'm away.

But while I continue to sit here and write this, I'm not getting anything else done. So, farewell for now! 

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

We're a little crazy doing family stuff at present, and taking care of ourselves.

Yesterday, the first day of the school's week-long spring break, we left early and drove an hour west (only about 22km, though) to the US Airforce base for another inter school sports meet. This time track and field. I found the meet more enjoyable than I have in the past, perhaps because there were lots of fun people to talk to that I knew and we had two athletes competing, so there were twice as many events to check out with passion.

Our "wrestler" doing discus. It was frustrating that we couldn't get any closer
and that there were two fences between us and him, but I guess remaining
safe was a big priority too. He threw some PBs (as I used to call them, PRs
as they call them). He's only got 4 more metres to qualify for the big meet
at the end of the season. And 50cm in shot put. He came 7th and 6th in
respectively in these two events. A great effort.

Our middle son breasting the line, second place in his 100m heat. He's looked
forward to this sporting season for some months now. It was great to see him
out there going hard at it.

My weather app told me it was 9C when I took this photo.
It was indeed chilly, but much more bearable in the sun,
though the sun took its toll. We're all a bit sunburnt (and
wind burnt too). It was an all-day event, and that much sun,
even at those temperatures, does damage to skin like this.

This is a photo of America and Japan side-by-side.
Only separated by a fence. And we were on the "inside". 

Yesterday we also sent our youngest son off to a soccer camp until Monday. The base was about half-way to the campsite, so David and a friend took him there after lunch. It's a little quiet today without him.

This afternoon, as well as recovering from yesterday, we're preparing to go away tomorrow on our spring camping trip. We're headed up to a campsite we went to in 2012, only weeks after we did that epic trip to Uluru in Australia. 

This break is something we've been looking forward to, especially during those difficult weeks in Feb/early March. We're going with another family, so that's double the fun!

But alas we need to pack . . . not too hard (we've got a great perpetual list), but it needs doing.

So, I won't be here much in coming days, but I might post some photos from the "field". Hopefully I'll be back later this week feeling refreshed.

How's it going?

With less than two weeks left before we move back to Japan people are asking us how it's all going. Here's a summary:

This board is our transition board. 11 months
ago it had lists and timetables as we did the
work of setting into Australia and figuring out
new schedules. Now it has lists of stuff to be
done. The brilliance of the whiteboard is that
many things have been written here and removed
as they were done or resolved. Now it's getting
to the point where most of it is done. That's
great! Especially as David's students do their
final exams tomorrow and he'll be up to his
armpits in marking for a few days.

House
We're gradually packing our personal stuff up. On Saturday we took seven plastic boxes and two other boxes to friends who will store them. These boxes have more precious things like photos that we don't want to put into a storage container.

By next Sunday we want to be living out of suitcases, so this week will be one of gradually moving towards that goal, including trying to eat our pantry, fridge, and freezer bare.

Next week we'll be living with a family from church and finishing up at the house. Final packing for the things we're storing and cleaning too. A cleaning-packing party is starting to form for next Monday (anyone welcome to join in...).

Socially
We're continuing to say goodbyes. They're getting harder. I'm having coffee with a couple of good friends this week to say goodbye. There'll be tears. 

And then there's the "lasts". Our boys have had their last wrestling training. Friday is my last day at our church's ladies' Bible study, followed by a farewell lunch.

Yesterday we officially said thank you and goodbye to our church, even though we're still around next Sunday yesterday was our recommissioning service. It is hard to say goodbye to these people who've become precious to us, but I'd rather that than the opposite: indifference. They care that we're leaving and that is a special thing to take with us. We also know that we'll be welcomed back "home" when we return in a few years.

Saturday we're having an open day in the park where we've invited anyone who wants to come and see us one last time can meet us. We'll be there for four hours doing that.

School
It's assessment season as well as Athletics Carnival season at school. Our eldest finished his last assignment last night (with a lot of scaffolding) and heads into more exams over the next four days. Our middle son also has exams Tue-Fri. Athletics carnivals this week and next too, but I don't think we'll get to see much of them.

We're trying to keep things as stable as possible while they boys finish up these things. But it's hard and emotionally we're not as stable as we'd like at times.

Between Zone
But the Between Zone is in sight (see here) and I'm looking forward to it. Next Friday we'll be finished everything (hopefully). Even all the goodbyes. And we'll retreat to accommodation at the Gold Coast for a couple of nights before slipping quietly out of the country.

Sorting woes

We're packing, but more importantly we're sorting. We've received offers to help us pack, but that really isn't the major thing we're doing. And in fact, it is something that only we can do at this point.

That's because we're not just packing everything to transfer to another house, so it is complicated. We're taking some things to Japan, but not a lot (think a couple of suitcases each). The rest either gets stored, thrown, given away, or sold (not much in the later category). And this is everything in our house, right down to the extra vinegar bottle that I bought but didn't use, and the four lasagne sheets that aren't quite enough to make a whole lasagne from and will probably be given away too.

Yesterday after school we tackled the boys' rooms. It wasn't pretty. This is hard enough for an adult to do. Trying to get boys to make decisions about their own stuff was more painful than getting them to have a shower. Here's approximately the process we had to go through with them with everything in their rooms (we're not quite done, but that's okay):

This morning we had one boy upset because he'd cleared his desk off yesterday and as a result of us doing the above with his older brother's clothes, he'd ended up with another pile on his desk to sort. Yep, a process that none of us enjoy and seems to keep going and going. We'll be glad to have it finished.

Finally packing has begun.

So finally, for all those who want to know: yes, we've started packing! 

Almost empty bookshelf in our bedroom.
Some things that are there now, are for
packing in our suitcases for Australia.
We needed somewhere to put them, so
emptying the bookcase has given us that
space. We do have a largish house
by Japanese standards, but we don't have
lots of spare space for stacking stuff.

Today we've also been cleaning. Some of the downstairs windows are done. Plus screens and other miscellaneous things like upper cupboards in kitchen, cover of the extractor fan (pretty disgusting), blades of ceiling fan, under the chest freezer, top of fridge. Just writing it out makes me feel I've accomplished something today! I continue to be very grateful that we are not moving out permanently. We're having a much easier time out of this the transition than if we were moving. 

But what's been more fun has been discussions around the table the last couple of days. Boys love to discuss food! We've been dreaming of what we'd like to plant in the veggie gardens at our house in Australia. Yes, it comes with empty garden beds! We're dreaming of homegrown corn, beans, sweet potato, pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, and strawberries. Maybe more. Yum! If this takes off it could be a great family project.

The veggie gardens.

Having this advance notice of a house to move into, with photos and details is enjoyable, there's no doubt about that. 

Veggie gardens, just waiting for us.

We're still waiting on a van to borrow and some  furniture, electrical appliances, but it's been exciting to see our friends rallying around to help pull things together. We're looking forward to seeing God's provision, yet again!

How's your packing going?

When people think of missionaries going on home assignment soon, the first thing that comes to mind is: they must be packing. 

Actually we're not really packing, not yet anyway. If we were moving out, we'd probably be packing, but as we're not, we're leaving the packing till later. We are doing a lot of other small things, though, on top of our usual work commitments. Here are some from the last week or so:

This is the grungy carpet that we're replacing. The boys
helpfully suggested that actual wrestling mats would
make a good floor covering for this room... Hmmm.

• Emailing back and forth about an accommodation option in Australia
• Thinking about, praying, and discussing pros and cons of above accommodation option.
• Emailing relevant people about details surrounding our house sitters: owner's approval, permission for the owners to check out the inside of the house before our house sitters move in
• Emails about phones, mobiles, utilities etc. for both here and Australia. 
• A few meetings and several emails about the handover of my various roles.
• Family outing on Saturday to buy a new carpet for the lounge tatami room (old carpet stained and ugly). We also bought a new feeding container for turtle (for whom we've arranged a turtle-sitter for the 12-months), a piece of door frame that needed replacing, more moisture absorbers etc.  One the same trip we took the old oven/microwave back to electrical store who will dispose of it because we bought a new one from them.
• Changed the curtains in one boys' room from car-themed to floral. 
• Went through some old magazines that were piled up. Removed some good recipes, threw the rest of the mags out. 
• Went to OMF prayer meeting across town today with David. They prayed for us as we make this transition, especially because this will be David's last time to meet with them before HA. 
• Scrubbed my off-white winter jacket well, knowing I won't be wearing it for over a year. 
• Thinking about the management of our larder, so that we don't leave too much food behind.
• Continued scanning favourite recipes, so that we don't have to take recipe books with us.

And 

Had many conversations about "how you're g/doing" in our preparation.

Sorry, I know that isn't that fun to read through, not even for me! But it does help me to realise though we aren't specifically packing yet, we're doing a lot towards preparing for leaving.

So, perhaps, a better question than "How's your packing going?" is, "How are you holding up?" Or "Are the details coming together?"