Our house in Australia

It's now been about a week and a half since we moved into a rental house in Brisbane (actually Ipswich, but if you're not an Aussie, you won't know that that is the city just to the west of Brisbane).

We've made a lot of progress and it's starting to feel like ours. We really appreciate all those who cleaned the place, collected and moved in furniture borrowed from others, and moved in our own stuff too (we'd stored mostly sentimental things as well as linen and kitchen stuff, but not furniture). There's nothing like living in a place, however, for helping you to figure out where to put things so that the household runs smoothly and works for your family.

One thing we've done in the four places that we've lived in Australia since moving to Japan in 2000, was put up our pictures on the wall, not many, but some quite significant.

This one of Uluru, an iconic Australian sight, was bought by my husband before we got married and long before we actually visited this remote spot in central Australia. The picture is large and heavy, but does a great job of brightening up a house that's mostly white.

I can't remember where this little guy came from, but I like him very much, and again he breaks up the white. I especially like this position at the end of the short hall to our bedrooms.

This one has a lot of sentimental value. It was my bouquet at our wedding. It looked more spectacular in real life (more red, less gold), but I'm really glad for this gorgeous keepsake that we've had up in every home we've lived together in in Australia.

Here it is, positioned to be seen as you walk into our bedroom.

And a few other sights of our home: the view out our bedroom window. Living here, you can take for granted the gorgeous blue skies we get so often. But when you've lived in a place where blue like this is very rare, it is an absolute treat! Not to mention the gum trees (practically) in our backyard.

We've set up this space with practical goals: notices to be pinned up, recharging stations, keys, library books, games etc. I'm not quite sure what will go on the white board yet. We've got another white board on the fridge that I'm keeping updated with "What's coming up" so as to help with anxiety about future events, not to mention communication within the family (fridges are great places to communicate with teens!). The kitchen is working well too. I'm loving so much bench space!

This was a great step forward this week too. Getting our fourth bedroom into shape as an office, not just a place to dump extra boxes. We've been working on getting our presentation material into shape. Sunday is our first public engagement. This is a cosy place to work, and there's a window right next to my desk where I can see our gum tree in the front yard. 

I'm so thankful for this quiet place to call home for the next six months. It's got several features that I've rarely enjoyed in my adult life: an ensuite, a walk-in-robe, a dishwasher, a kitchen with a lot of bench space, a double-car garage with a remote control door, and a separate-from-the-bathroom yet inside laundry. Oh, a backyard too, but not too big a backyard (last time we had a huge backyard that was hard to take care of).

We have phones, and internet too. So we're all set up, really quickly.

Just thankful. Especially thankful that we can be settled so quickly, that that wouldn't have been possible without some very key people here who worked hard on our behalf before we even left Japan.