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?"