Saturday, August 01, 2015

A Prep Week

While Arielle adjusted to living as an adult in Oregon, Stacia attended VBS in California, and Michael went back to work on base - the boys and I continued to sort and toss. The great Full Time RVer Prep Week.  Our goal was to make it through everything at least ONCE before the kids start arriving for retirement.

Sort - Trailer, Trash, Giveaway, Donate or Storage?????

As we sorted, packed up, donated - it hit home - RETIREMENT CEREMONY IS IN TWO WEEKS!!! We'll still be in California for a bit after that - but our last Sunday at chapel is scheduled for the 9th. Retirement is the 14th. Jared and Larissa arrive sometime tonight. The others kids (and my parents) arrive between the 9th - 13th.  It's about to HAPPEN!

TMO arrives for our final military pack out in 3 weeks.

We will become "full timers" (RV) days after TMO leaves our home.

Michael informs us living in the trailer (and studying Japanese) will be boot camp for us. It will make living in a 2 bdr Japanese apartment much easier for us in the long run. I hope the typical Japanese apartment is a bit bigger than "The Caboose." I know they have better closets.

NOW - it means getting rid of about 90% of our "things."  We HAVE hit a few snags. It's humbling to see how easily "things" can grab hold of our hearts and how quick we are to snip at each other over things. It's not always been easy to put things in a pile other than TRAILER.   I've recently read a book on "tidying" - the premise is to touch every item you own and see if it "sparks joy." If it doesn't, you "release" it. If it does, you keep it. The thing is there are a LOT of things that DO spark joy around here that we are NOT keeping.  Will we need it to start a house if we don't go to Japan? Is it easily replaced (why store a cookie sheet that doesn't fit in the trailer's oven?) Does it have sentimental value?

We finished  sorting through 27 years of homeschooling material.....the stuff on the left are things I want Michael's input on. The top shelf (and top of the book shelf) are full of Precept studies I've taken or led, PWOC WILD trainer manuals and such ....I hate to recycle them...but I think that's where this is headed. I take comfort in the fact the Holy Spirit will call to mind or reteach anything I need.....the two shelves on the right are ready to go home with Krista after retirement.
 

I wanted to get all our books to fit on the 3 shelves to the left - Michael and the boys made them. We succeeded. The shelf on the right stores books which were in our room and need to be sorted - ouch. The other two shelves are books that aren't school books, but we simply don't want to get rid of ....Original Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Christian Biographies, Little House on the Prairie Set, Grain Brain Series, Cooper Kids,  Complete works of AA Milne... The BIG tubs house Tapestry of Grace books....one year each....and I have determined we'll need some spot to store a few things (like 3 of these tubs) where we can get AT them. We won't be able to access the things the Air Force pays to store.
 
See the clear tubs under the table? PHOTOS - I need to put them in albums.....I'm not sure it's going to happen and I have several BIG Creative Memory photo boxes of photos to deal with too.....Thank God for blogging and digital photos - and the END of photos to scrapbook!!!!!
 
Are you wondering what we DID with all our homeschool material? We gave it to the Airmen's Attic. They GIVE things away....and I'm hoping this stuff will bless others with kids at home.


The boys said 5 or 6 carts
I went through my closet a third time! ::snort:: It's silly I couldn't do it in one fell swoop - but I couldn't. I am about to toss the Capsule Wardrobe idea for now (I have far too much color) and simply pick out my 10 favorite outfits and donate the rest. 
 
Our goal was to sort through everything before guests came for retirement. We'll pause everything now until after retirement. The Gherkins will be relieving us of some big pieces (furniture, pianos, washer/dryer).  At that point we'll have a week to make the final cut and pack the trailer before TMO arrives.
 
I've gone through the entire house with the exception of:
  • The Garage (YIKES - it's so hot out there; a considerable bit of this will be Michael's to sort)
  • Hope Chest (full of more Bible studies)
  • Michael's closet
  • Hobby Closet
  • I still have to decide about the grain mill, the bosch and grain
Lest you think we are being heartless - the kids can keep anything they think they'll want in the trailer and they can send to storage anything they think they'll want later which doesn't fit in the trailer. We are keeping this...though we have it on Kindle.
 
Nolan has informed me this is a must keep.....and we are. I love it.
 
I think it fair to comment I am being far stricter with myself than with the family. It's fair - I'm keeping my china. LOL
 
Michael continued to work on check lists for out-processing, argued with clinics about referrals, and sifted through his medical records.
 
By Friday - I needed to take a break and go get some snuggling....of the Spurgeon kind.
 
I spent a couple of hours snuggling with Eliana (even Joy gave me a hug). She has the cutest little baby snorts. I'm fortified to keep working.
 
It's a lot of work but in three weeks, we should wake up with a new backyard view, no 0700 appointments and be able to go wherever we'd like.....probably to our state of residence to start a VA claim, register vehicles and such.  Or maybe we don't need to do that until the retirement is official - we should be able to stay in CA while active duty and not get caught in the great CA domicile snare. LOL  (Yes, that is a tease. We are STILL debating the perfect state.)


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