The last week of May I went through the tedious process of packing the things I thought we couldn’t live without.  I delivered them to a warehouse on May 30, crossing my fingers that they wouldn’t get dumped overboard or sink in the ocean.  

Fast forward ten weeks and finally, AT LAST our belongings arrived.  A little bit of our old home to make our new home more comfortable and familiar.  We were all really excited.  But more than once the thought occurred to me that soon enough all these things would just mean more messes and THINGS to clean and organize.  And if we survived for ten weeks, surely we could survive indefinitely? 

But lets be honest, #firstworldproblems mean that we don’t just survive.  We get what we want usually, and we indulge, and chances are we will accumulate more THINGS in the next two years while we are here.   But I did read somewhere that being an expat teaches you the art of simplified living. 

I got an email saying our pallet would arrive on August 6th and the deliveries usually take place in the morning, but not always.  I really felt like a kid.  I was looking out the window every ten minutes all day long, especially if I would hear the sound of a truck outside.  By the time Richard came home from work, a little after 5:00, I was sure it wasn’t coming.  There was a sinking feeling, and I was so disappointed.  As I was writing an email to the company asking about the delievery, I saw the truck out the front window.  

By the time I got around to taking pictures, Cameron and Eli were long gone with their favorite things.  Miriam though, unloaded her things one by one until they were in a pile next to her empty box.  THEN she was long gone with her favorite things.  

Our shipment included 12 boxes.  Miriam and Simon were allowed one box and Cameron and Eli were allowed one box.  When I say they were “allowed” a box, I just mean that I put the things of theirs that I wanted them to have in the box.   I’m so controlling as a mother I didn’t really give them much say about it.  Let me rephrase that- I feel that I know my children well enough to determine which things they would most like to have, and then packed them myself in order to best utilize the space.  

SO for goodness sake what was in the other 10 boxes?  Just for my own personal record:

Kids sleeping bags
Blankets
Kitchen supplies
A select few books
Dishes
Winter coats
Scriptures and manuals
Towells/beach towells
Eli’s scooter 
Shoes/boots/cleats 
Board games 
Minimal Christmas/holiday decor
DVDs (that won’t play on our dvd player/T.V. here)
The Wii
Air mattress 
Limited office supplies, craft supplies and kids paints/markers
Bedding (which doesn’t really fit the mattresses and pillows here)

It was really kind of arbitrary what I decided to bring, and a lot of it was sentimental more than practical.  It’s a tricky balance trying to decide what is cheaper to buy than ship.  A few things we didn’t bring

Nearly all electronic appliances (because of the voltage differences) 
Furniture (Besides Mim and Si’s bunk beds which arrived on our pallet)
Most of our toys/books/holiday decor

Everything is unpacked and mostly put away.  We made one last trip to IKEA on Saturday and hopefully be the end of the week the house will be put together enough that I can take pictures and show you what it looks like now that we are living in it.