Moving In – The second load

December 30th, 2006

When out at the house I left the windows open to air the place. Whilst in town we had a torrential downpour and I was worried about those windows. As we drove back out with dh ahead in the car we noticed leaves all over the road. As we pulled off the highway dh stopped ahead of me to pull a tree off the road. When we drove up our driveway we were stopped by a massive gum down on our front lawn blocking our way in. Welcome Home. For the first night we managed to carry everything in via another gate, the next morning we rang friends to borrow a chain saw (we get mobile reception on some spots of the lawn)This area was hit by a massive hail storm with hail the size of cricket balls. We have a swath of trees down, just torn off their trunks and twisted and branches torn off.
Fortunately I had arranged insurance and they are happy to replace the iron on the roof which was damaged, the carpet in two rooms which were ruined and the screens which were slashed. They also fixed the TV antena very quickly as they understood that dh wanted to watch Australia thrash England in the Ashes. The tv part was funny, I was getting slow response for the antennae repair, I rang back the company and said to the representative when he asked if anything was urgent that we were happy to wait on everything else but that dh must have the TV for cricket on boxing day, he said he absolutely understood and would ring the antennae business immediately.
Well this was all twelve days before Christmas, by this time I was resigned to a simple Christmas, I figured if Mary had to travel all the way to Bethlehem on a donkey she would have only been able to fit in some basic swaddling clothes and gave birth in a stable then we could also Honour Him simply. Which we did. We had a lovely Christmas day with the children receiving all outside toys (bikes etc)
Now the ‘honeymoon’ is starting to wind down and I am facing the very real conundrum of how to fit 9 people in a house less than one third the size of their previous home My biggest problem is how to fit a homeschooling life into this house. Homeschooling sure comes with lots of ’stuff’. Papers, craft supplies, scissors etc. I haven’t even begun to fit the books in yet. It will definelty only be three bookcases
The kitchen is much smaller too, I am going to have to go shopping fortnightly and I have had to pack away half of my kitchen equipment.
At one stage I thought we could fit in six bookcases but then we decided that we couldn’t keep eating on the verandah the sun and mosquitoes got to us. So I am now trying to fit four rooms of living into one. Which is my conundrum how to fit a study, dinning, lounge and family room into ONE room
We love it out here I know we have made the right decision for us when I sit on the verandah watching the dc ride their bikes and have room to play cricket. When they come to me and say “Mum I’m heading down to the bush”.