the essence

Packing, packing, packing

I stayed home from church this morning to pack. Totally goes against my nature, too, my whole week feels wonky when I miss the meeting! But, IF we leave tomorrow (it's still not a definite) we plan to leave first thing in the morning & if we're going to be packed I had to stay home this morning. I work all afternoon & even if I stayed home from the evening meeting I'd have the kids & then after the evening meeting Ray works & I take care of the kids & get them to sleep. Which means if they're sleeping I can't be in their rooms to pack (& Clay still sleeps in our room).

Anyway, Ray took the girls this morning & Clay & I stayed back to pack. It was definitely a good decision on my part. I do believe I'm nearly done, at least as far as clothes (right down to shoes, socks & traveling outfits for tomorrow!). Now I just need to gather things like the books I want to take with me, hair accessories, & car activities for the kids - we're still one of the few without a dvd player in our van so the kids make-do the old fashioned way. I love those traveling magna doodles!

In the midst of packing I'm also cleaning out - too many clothes that never get worn or that don't fit anymore. We also seem to be brimming over with "stuff" & it's driving me crazy! Part of it is simply lack of space to put the things but, if we don't have the space, do we really need it? I can't wait to find out if my sister is having a boy or girl because I'm compiling some of the extras we have to pass along her way! Babies grow so fast that it seems some things never even get used.



See? See how fast they grow? Clay will be 10 weeks tomorrow!