T-minus 8 days.

(that looks really strange written out, hu?) maybe it should be "T-8" ? anyway...

what i really meant to say is: the countdown....it's begun.

we are in full packing mode.

boxes are strewn about in every direction. misc accoutrements reside on every surface...and it's driving me crazy!

i've found out it's a full time job just keeping my control issues under control...and my hyper anxiety level at bay. i'm one of those strange half breeds who love and hate change all at the same time. my husband is all about the change. he dreams about it. being disheveled doesn't seem to phase him...afterall he's used to coming home to utter destruction when i've had a long, exasperating day in which cleaning was surpassed by survival.

so, i'm hiding. blogging. random google surfing. backing up pictures on picasa. making a few lists and avoiding that which is inevitable...more packing. 

the longest and most laborious part is the weeding through. the parting of things for keeping and trashing and goodwilling. it takes forever. and dare i start just throwing stuff in bins, i will forever hate myself when i am forced to unpack bin after bin of random junk. so i'm trying to keep some semblance of organization...although not my strongest suit of skills.

i haven't touched our bedroom, bathrooms, linens or any of our clothes. the spare room still looks like a showroom, and the boys room is untouched. thankfully the kitchen is almost all boxed thanks to my amazing sister in law, who also helped finish the laundry room. other than that, i'm at a loss for what to do next. we leave for our fabulous vacation 2 days after our closing (which was planned long before our last min decision to sell our house) so somehow i'm trying to pack for the beach whilst packing everything else. we are going to live with family for a few months, so i need to pack up things to live with, enough toys for the kids, but not so many as to overload the inlaws. some items we need in storage but i know we will need them in a month or two, and then some things we might need so i can't pack them into oblivion. my sewing factory is fairly organized already, but the 8 jumbo bins packed to their brims need to be whittled down in a way so as no to overtake the world. and then there is everything else.

all this and i'm getting orders all the time (which i am so so thankful for) but my evening-middle of the night time that would be spent packing (or better yet sleeping :) has been spent sewing. sometimes i look at it as sleep deprivation training so i don't forget what it is like to go without sleep...a skill every mom must master, and i think i'm getting closer to a black belt :)

not to mention the pile of adoption grant paperwork i need to devote 10 or 12 hours to but i can't seem to wrap my brain around where that time is going to come from.

can you tell i'm stressed?

i keep trying to remind myself this is a season. a hard one, but a season for a purpose.

i have caught a glipse of it, for sure. as God orchestrated so many things in our lives all at once, we could not have planned it this way...it is God led...so i'm taking refuge in knowing we will look back with thankfulness.

and in knowing we will be at the beach in a few short weeks, sunning ourselves into oblivioun and i won't ever remember all this packing non-sense :)