Moving to the country.

Crazy week. Exciting week. Flat out week.

It is said that moving house is one of the most stressful events in life. Golly, I can see why! My stress levels peaked this afternoon but they're just fine now, thanks for asking.

Yes, we have made the decision this week to move. But not just within the same town like we did 6 years ago. No, we are moving to a town 5 hours away. That I haven't even been to yet. Yes, I have agreed to pack up our whole family & move to somewhere that I have never seen. Except online. Thank goodness for google maps, where you can place the little yellow man on the street and walk up & down and round & round.

I've been quiet on the blog front for a while now because I was scared I was going to let the cat out of the bag. The job application was submitted a while back. We have been living in limbo, wondering if it was going to come to fruition. I've slowly started clearing out stuff in case we were moving. I haven't committed to stuff in case we were moving. Just 2 weeks ago, somebody (that I know) at a school fete meeting volunteered me to run the book stall in Nov because I do it every year. I deliberately hadn't attended the meeting so that I wouldn't have to say that we may not be around.

But now it's happening. Crazy exciting. Crazy energy. Crazy stress. But all for good reason. When we are in our 40's we need to take offers that we may not get again.

So the BIG cull started today. And will continue every day until we leave. In about 4 weeks. Lots of donations, lots of dump trips, no time for a garage sale. Fed up with people not picking up items that I've advertised for sale online.

Rental properties are scarce where we are going. Nothing available for us to view when we take a whirlwind trip next week. The company is giving us access to a furnished place for a month if we need, and I'm thinking it will be easier to secure a rental once we are actually there. Just trying to get a property manager to return my call is hard enough! I realise they have lots of enquiries but we need somewhere to live.

Grown ups are keen, kids are keen. Even though we are leaving everything we have ever known. I have been in this area since I was 10. Ray was born locally. I met him when I landed in the same class as him in Year 5 in 1980, having moved from interstate. Our kids attend the schools that we went to. Our church is the same one we were married in & our kids were baptised in. We have a big history here.

But we are brave people. We will make friends, we can integrate. I am not afraid of that. I know we are doing the right thing for us as a family. Nobody has given us a negative comment over it yet. We will miss our friends and family of course, but they have phones, they are online, and this is our time.

But that doesn't mean that I won't stress out in the process!

I'm off to find my new village.

Would you ever consider uprooting your family like this?

Karen xx