Finishing off the first part of our move back to Japan

This morning we got up early after sleeping on a thin mattress in the echo-y room that used to be our bedroom. We ate breakfast on camping chairs in the room that used to be our living/dining room and quickly jumped into the final stages of our clean. Mostly a final vacuum, bathroom clean and MOP. I put this in capitals because it took me nearly two hours to mop our kid-friendly mostly-tiled house. As opposed to the professional carpet cleaner who began at the same time as me and was done in under 40 minutes!

While I finished off the mop my husband loaded our 8-seater van to the roof with all those last minute things you don't get to till the end - the dish drainer, door mats, toilet brushes and rubbish bins. We also had our mattress, folding chairs, kettle and a TV that needed throwing out. Finishing before 9.30 we then went to hand our keys in and found a coffee shop to celebrate our completion of this stage of our transition. We dropped some library books off, got some more (for our book-eating 11 y.o.) and visited the bank to change our address. As a final act before leaving the city we dropped our elderly TV off - so elderly that established second hand stores wouldn't touch it - at the dump.

This afternoon, after arriving back at my parents' house in Toowoomba, we spent the afternoon sorting through boxes we'd packed at the last minute on Monday. We were especially looking for the bolts to put together our queen-sized bed (it serves four out of five years as Mum and Dad's spare bed). It took all afternoon, but eventually the bolts were found, not in a box, but in our lounge which also serves as a spare bed/lounge 80% of the time.

Tomorrow we are left mostly with the task of sorting the stuff we have left and plan to take (most of) back to Japan and begging some extra kilos off the airline. Shifting a family across the ocean requires more than 20kg of luggage allowance! One of my sisters arrives sometime tomorrow, so my family will be together again for the final time in 2-4 years.

Our lifestyle, our calling is not without pain. The physical struggle to shift houses and sift belongings. The emotional pain of saying goodbyes when you don't want to. The balancing act when two different countries claim your passion. The social angst when people don't know how to say goodbye graciously. But on the positive side, in our weakness we get to depend on people, we get to experience receiving the care, concern and prayers of others. We've received that this week and are lifted up as a result. I started Monday in tears due to the careless words of people and within hours was lifted up into encouragement by the actions of people who care. The care I would never have experienced except that I was in need. Praise God!

Moving and cleaning

The last two days we've been shifting stuff out of the house we've been in the duration of our Australian year and cleaning. Here are before and after pictures.

Tonight me and my husband are sleeping here (or rather camping as there is practically nothing left except a mattress). Tomorrow we hang around while the carpets are cleaned, we mop the floor and high-tail it out of here to find the kids again - at my parents' house up the mountain in Toowoomba.

It'll be a relief to have this part of our move over - always the worst. I am quite sad to leave this place behind - it's been the best place! God even blessed us with a "farewell" sunset.

We've had a small, but steady stream of helpers over the last two days. Not just helpful but encouraging too. And great for breaks over a cuppa (cup of tea - for non-Aussies). Two of our helpers also took the hermit crabs home to their their place.

This is the first time we've had our boys helping us move - in almost every previous move since the first was born 11 years ago there's always been one baby or toddler among them, so we've kept them away. As it was, our 5 y.o. seemed to get a (minor) injury every hour at least. Last year in Tokyo we were already on the other side of the metropolis when the move happened, so we stayed away. They were a great help (90% of the time) yesterday. Very keen for some muscle action! We kept them out of the cleaning action today, though.

Now - no kids and nothing in the kitchen. My hubby just has to take me out to dinner. Though neither of us is feeling terribly romantic, it's nice to have some down-time without the kids (who've been something of a handful over the last week). Hopefully we'll sleep okay tonight, the mattress looks pretty thin.

HMT - Home-side Ministry Team

When I mentioned our home side ministry team the other day I realised that I didn't have a photo of them all - and actually it wasn't that we had missed the opportunity, despite meeting several times during our 12 months in Australia not once had they all been together with no one missing. Miraculously, yesterday they were all at our park gathering and we snapped a photo.

Again I want to say how much these guys have helped, loved and encouraged us. It is knowing this group is standing with us that helps us stay buoyant when we feel discouraged by others who don't understand or don't appear to try to understand. We are so thankful for them.

What did you do today?

What did you do today? Well most days as a mum consist of a rather random collection of important and less important tasks. You might think that two days out from moving I'd be packing, but on the contrary here are fourteen of the (possibly) more interesting things I've done today (in no particular order):

• Wrapped a Christmas present
• Shopped for new shoe laces
• Hung out in a park for five hours with various friends and supporters who turned up to say good-bye (see photo)
• Hobbled (or will) together dinner from a few left-over sausages, pasta, a tin of spaghetti and some veges.
• Said "see you later" to some long-term friends
• Did sudoku in bed
• Chatted with a missionary/teacher who works in Cambodia
• Rooted around and found materials for the boys to make a sign so people could find us in the park
• Added a long-time supporter to the email list for our prayer letter and one to our Kids letter too
• Connected two of my friends with each other
• Applied a Bandaid to a knee
• Provided moral support to a husband and three rather unhelpful boys as they sought to deconstruct the swing set prior to moving
• Answered a barrage of questions about Random Breath Tests after we were stopped by police on the way home from the park
• Cuddled a baby girl

We've had a good day - the park time was relaxing and got us out of this increasingly empty shell of a house. We're getting to the business end of moving and are beginning to feel as though we're camping in our house instead of living here. It'll be good to get it all over with on Monday (moving day) and then life gets simpler for a while.

Heaps of emotions?

There are heaps of emotions running around for all of us. To give some context on today, we've just had parent teacher interviews for all three boys for the first time ever. Also that was our final farewell to the school. This afternoon our 11 y.o. is having a final play date with his current best friend. As a 'make-up' treat we're taking his brothers to a park and for a special afternoon tea.

Here are just some of the emotions:

Surprised and relieved - at the teachers comments about our eldest. Very positive - probably the most positive parent teacher interview we've ever had in relation to our 11 y.o. It has been a long road to this point.
Happy -  that all three boys have had a great year and all three received great report cards and comments from teachers at the interviews.
Sad - that we're pulling away from such a good year at school. The boys are sad to be saying goodbye.
Ecstatic - this one is our 7 y.o. who was so excited to be going to school today to see his teacher one last time. Wednesday night and yesterday morning he was highly strung (which filtered through to his brothers). This made dealing with them an emotional experience.
Impatient - this is the boys, but increasingly us too. Impatient to be through all the goodbyes and packing and get on with settling in to the next chapter.
Excited - the boys are excited about this afternoon. But also the whole concept of leaving in 16 days.
Disappointed - this one is mostly me. I'm disappointed that there are some who we haven't seen this year for various reasons (some of which I don't want to dwell on). Tomorrow we have a picnic in the park for people to come and say goodbye, some we'd hope to see once more cannot make it. Disappointing.

Packing has become painful this week - only in that it has had to be painfully slow. A bit like picking bits off yesterday's roast chook. We've been very organised and allowed ourselves plenty of time, so there was no need to pack furiously - and if we had done the boys would be left with nothing to do these last few days before we move on Monday. Hence I have time to blog!

But now I'm off to bake some apple muffins - which will feed the family and get rid a little bit more of the stuff in our pantry.

Footprints Blog tour links

Here are the links I promised in yesterday's post on the Footprints Magazine Blog Tour. Sorry I didn't get it up yesterday, Janet has been ill this week and unable to get the links to me till late last night (after I was in bed).

Fri 25/6 http://worksformehomemaking.wordpress.com/

Sat 26/6 http://heartsoulexchange.blogspot.com/

Sun 27/6 http://michelledevans.blogspot.com/

Mon 28/6 http://proverbs31-woman.com/

Tues 29/6 http://motheringmisadventures.blogspot.com/

Wed 30/6 http://buchanan-beeline.blogspot.com/

Thurs 1/7 http://every1matters.wordpress.com/

Fri 2/7 www.momentsformum.com

Sat 3/7 www.squigglemum.com

Sun 4/7 http://paulassharingspot.blogspot.com/

Mon 5/7 http://beafunmum.com/

Tues 6/7 http://tabithabird.blogspot.com/

 

Footprints Magazine Blog tour

Have you seen a blog tour before? It is like a virtual promotional tour where an author (or in this case a magazine editor) is interviewed on various blogs and the interviews appear across several or more blogs over a period of days or weeks.

Today I have an interview with Janet Camilleri, editor of Footprints magazine. This tour celebrates the 50th edition of the magazine.

 There are a lot of magazines out there. What makes Footprints unique?

As far as I am aware, Footprints is the only non-denominational Australian Christian women’s magazine in print, with nearly 100% home-grown (Australian or New Zealand ) content. And we are run by volunteers as a not-for-profit ministry, rather than as a business.

 Wendy's note:  Christian Women magazine announced recently that they are no longer producing a print version, only an online version.

What is your favourite part of editing a magazine?

Umm … all of it?!  I enjoy writing. I enjoy hearing from our readers. I like doing the layout and sourcing just the right illustration to go with a piece. I love seeing how a heap of separate articles come together to create a magazine, with just the right balance of topics. I like marketing and promoting Footprints.

What I find most difficult is when readers ask me for ideas of what *they* could write. When I have an idea, it’s usually something that *I* want to write about! So it is very hard for me to come up with ideas for others, especially when I have no real idea about their background, talents, interests etc.

Last year we went to Manila together to a magazine editing conference. What was the biggest thing you learned there?

Not to eat salad! Just kidding. (We both picked up a tummy bug and as we were drinking bottled water, I think we got it from eating salad that had been washed with un-boiled water.)

I learnt many things, but probably the biggest thing was how important it is to look after our readers and writers. As Rick Warren says in the first sentence of “The Purpose Driven Life”, it’s not about me (and yes I have made that mistake in the past!). It’s about glorifying God, encouraging our readers, nurturing younger Christians, comforting the hurting and lonely, reaching out to others with the good news of the gospel, and giving writers an opportunity to grow and improve and publish their work, and so much more …

You're a passionate woman (I know, after travelling and rooming with you!). What is your biggest passion for the future of Footprints?

That it reach as many Aussie Christian women as possible, so that they can get the faith lift and encouragement that each issue of Footprints brings. I am forever hearing new subscribers say “I just wish I’d found your magazine sooner” … I wish that too!

I know you have a vision to help rural and isolated Australian women. What have you done towards that goal?

You know, I almost mentioned that to answer your previous question. You must have read my mind!

The internet is a great opportunity to reach that goal, as it’s accessible 24/7. Through our website, blog, Facebook fanpage, email chat group and free monthly ezine, we are able to reach women no matter where they may be.

I have also made myself available to speak at women’s groups and churches in small country towns, and have been invited to places like Childers, Dalby, Emerald, and Yeppoon, to name just a few.

But now that you ask that question – hmmmm. You’ve got me thinking, just what would be the best way to reach the women in the outback! Love to hear from anybody that has some ideas …

What is the biggest mistake you've published?

Trust me, there have been a few! In our early days, I made a typo on a contributor’s name, so that it said “Batty” instead of “Betty”. Oops! There have also been times when the end of an article has been cut off inadvertently when we went to print.

I have made some more serious errors of judgement in the material I have chosen to publish. I’m thinking specifically of a joke which was called “three reasons” – it listed three reasons Jesus was really black, a woman, and I forget the third. I’m hopeless at remembering jokes so I can’t really remember it. A couple of our readers found it a bit offensive, and as an editor I should have thought of that before printing it just because “I” liked it.

And I hear you have a special offer for my blog readers?

Any Aussie readers are welcome to send an email to editor@footprintsaustralia.com with their postal address, to receive a free trial issue of Footprints. (Of course we’re hoping that they will love it so much they will not only sign up, but that they will also tell their friends!)

Thanks for answering my questions Janet. We look forward to seeing many more editions of Footprints magazine.

For those interested in finding out more about Janet and her magazine, here are the Blog tour dates. Unfortunately I don't have the links for all of them, but will post them as soon as I can.



Fri 25/06           Julie Miller “Works for me Homemaking”
Sat 26/06          Kay Weight “Heart and Soul Pursuits”
Sun 27/06         Michelle Evans “Michelle Dennis Evans”
Mon 28/06         Kathie Thomas – which one Kathie??! I know you have several!
Tues 29/06        Lilian Read “Mothering Misadventures”
Wed 30/06        Corallie Buchanan “Buchanan Beeline”
Thurs 01/07       Joni Leimgruber “Every (1) Matters”
Fri 02/07           Narelle Nettelbeck Moments for Mum
Sat 03/07          Catherine Oehlman Squigglemum
Sun 04/07         Paula Whitehouse Paula’s Sharing Spot
Mon 05/07         Kelly Burstow “Be a Fun Mum”
Tues 06/07        Tabitha Bird “Through My Eyes”