Home Sweet Home

Why is it always so late when I finally get around to writing? I live in fear of becoming known as the former teacher who blogged with glaring grammatical errors; becoming the poster child of America's failing school system, mocked and ridiculed for a comma out of place or a word misspelled.  I'm probably exaggerating, but I do implore you to forgive any errors you may find here.  Inaccuracy and imperfection are merely the byproducts of exhaustion.

I was laying Gracie down for bed this evening and I realized that we've been in Sweden for one week.  In one week God created the entire universe from scratch and found time to evaluate his work and take a day off to enjoy it.  The evidence continues to mount that I, in fact, am not God.  In one week, all I've managed to do is fly to a new country, move into a furnished house, decorate said house (after three trips to IKEA... more on that later), unpack our clothing and shipment of supplies, and purchase groceries.  And I am WIPED. OUT.

However, I do want to show off some of the results of my efforts here.  Our home in Sweden is beautiful. We are blessed to be renting the house of another SAAB employee who has moved his family to The States for the next year.  The house is on a hill in a lovely area of Jönköping, right across from a city park with a phenomenal view of the lake.  We've enjoyed the sights and animals in the park on several occasions (when we weren't at IKEA or unpacking boxes) and I'll share pictures on my next post. 

Enjoy the tour!

This is our house.  Note the open windows.  It was 73 degrees with no humidity yesterday and today.  We're enjoying the weather while we can!

Close up of the front door.  We may be bringing this door back to Florida with us.  Isn't it pretty?

 Entrance

Hall Table

Formal Dining Room

Our library/office.  The window seats in the corner are my favorite.  Today, Gracie and I snuggled there and read three Dora books together. (And I am currently typing this blog from the corner.)

The piano was a lovely surprise!  I set up a play area for Gracie downstairs.  The doll is Pippi Longstocking, a gift from the family we're renting from.

Our living room (featuring my Pottery Barn pillows)

My favorite spot in the house!

Kitchen

Another view of the kitchen.  I'm still getting used to baking in Celsius.

Top of the stairs...

Guest Room Number 1 (Hotel McCutchen is open for business!)

Guest Room Number 2 (seriously, we're taking reservations...)

Master Bedroom (with my bedding from the states and my favorite stuffed animal)

Our windows and closets

My Closet

*Tiny* Bathroom (and just one shower in the whole house!)

Sharing a sink with Matt for the first time in five years...

Gracie's Room

"Kitchen" play area in Gracie's room

She knows where to find her toys!

Our backyard (this is actually just one side, but the other side isn't as interesting)

Gracie on the deck

MY bags are packed...

At the end of every school year we would receive a dreadfully formatted End of the Year Checklist reminding each teacher to do their part to help prepare our school for a summer shutdown.  After reformatting the checklist the way Microsoft Word intended, I would roll my eyes chuckle at some of the reminders: remove and throw away food in refrigerators, turn off lights, shut down computer.  Seriously?  Shouldn't college graduates be able to figure this out without a list to remind them?

You know where this is going.  This college graduate just finished writing a last minute to do list that, yes, includes such subtleties as throwing out food, packing passports and locking doors. I'm hoping that including these menial tasks in my list will help save my sanity as I wait for my plane to depart and wonder if I remembered to lock the front door and pack pajamas and empty the ice from the freezer.

In addition to crafting yet another list, I have also been busy packing our suitcases and organizing carry-on bags. Gracie's bag was packed first, the easiest one to pack since she has all new clothes for the trip.  Next, my ever-faithful Jansport. (Twice repaired and once fully replaced, I fully believe that Jansport stands behind their lifetime warranty.) Now packed with toys, books, games, dolls, snacks, and no less than three kinds of sanitizing wipes, I estimate I'll be lugging at least 15 pounds of distractions through the airport on my back. 

More difficult to arrange were my carry-on suitcase and our checked bag. I had hoped to fit most of my clothes in my carry-on, but the large stuffed beagle I'm taking took up a lot of room.  That, combined with the irritating bulk of warm clothes means most of it ended up in our checked bag. Also in our cumbersome green suitcase: 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese, arts and crafts supplies, a car seat protector bag (for the car seat that has already shipped), and a tiny cornucopia courtesy of my mom.  Not yet packed: Anything for Matthew.  Traditionally, he shouldn't need much, he is a man after all, but he seems to be under the impression that he'll need to bring FOUR pairs of shoes.  Perhaps I can craft some kind of extra suitcase out of his footwear...

We're just about ready to go, and this is probably my last update before we arrive in Sweden.  The most important thing you can do for us is PRAY.  Please add some (or all!) of these requests to your conversations with the Lord:

• For good health before our flight, during the trip, and when we arrive
• For our flight, that we would be safe and that Gracie would be well behaved
• That we would complete all the preparations for the house without feeling overly stressed
• For peace during this transition, that I (we) won't be too homesick or lonely and that we will stay well rested and adjust well to our new home.

Thank you for your prayers!  My next update will come from Sweden!!

A Satisfying Little Check Mark

A day without a list is a day wasted.  At least, that's how I approach much of my life.  Like the smartphone that has replaced my pen and paper planner, I love a good checklist, but even more, I love that feeling of accomplishment I get when I can check the box (yes, sometimes I draw tiny little boxes next to each item), scratch off, or squiggle through the listed tasks for the day. Surprisingly, it took me a long time to actually draft a to do list for our move to Sweden.  While aware of most of the details, I have approached this move with a "big picture" mentality separating my tasks into the categories of Shipment, House, and Airplane. 

Since SAAB so generously offered to ship 660 pounds of household items to Sweden ahead of our departure, organizing our shipment was my first priority.  This meant finding, buying, and packing as many winter clothes, toys, and linens as possible into a 32 cubic foot crate.  It took about a month, but by the end of July I had inventoried our items and sent them to work with Matthew to make their long voyage to our new home.  (Nevermind that I found out this evening, that said voyage is not yet underway.  I'm not worried... oh no, not I!)

Somewhere between getting our shipment organized and tackling the household preparations, seeing and spending time with family became a huge priority for me.  Coming from a military background, I know that six months really isn't a very long time to be apart, and with SKYPE and cell phones and texting and emails and all the other technological wonders I didn't have as a kid living in Korea, I know it will be much easier to stay in touch now than it was years ago. But none of that technology can replace being able to hug and laugh with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. I was very fortunate to spend a weekend with my extended family in Georgia and to spend the following weekend taking family pictures with my extremely talented brother.

For the past week or so, I've been steadily chipping away at our housing preparations.  With the power of the internet I was able to cancel the newspaper, forward our mail, cancel Netflix (probably would have done that anyway), suspend my cell phone contract and internet connection and check off another half dozen or so items from my list all before naptime was finished.  I am on a roll! In fact, there are only a few items left on my list that don't fall into the dreaded cleaning category.  (To clarify: I enjoy cleaning. I do not enjoy cleaning out cabinets, the garage, and under the refrigerator.)  Among them, calling the car insurance company, having my will notarized, printing my travel itinerary, and using up as much of our remaining food as possible.  Piece of cake!

Still to do: Get suitcase out of attic and Febreeze it. Figure out what to pack (and in which bags) for the airplane. Gather toys, snacks, and distractions for Gracie on the plane. Purchase remaining TSA approved tiny travel sized bottles of toiletries.

How I love the feeling of that satisfying little check mark, and I've been enjoying it an awful lot lately. It's funny how a simple check mark and a lot of prayer can help all my anxiety go away...

Boxes and Spreadsheets and Shipping! Oh My!

I'm starting to get a little nervous now.  For the past few months, I've been able to think about my family's impending move to Sweden as more of a "strong possibility" than actual event.  Reluctant to make any real plans (read: spend money) until we were certain that we would actually be shipping out, I was able to romanticize the idea of living internationally rather than face the litany of tasks required to prepare for such an event. 

Well, now we're mere days away from departure and things are starting to look a lot more realistic as they pile up on my to do list.  My strong, calm, patient husband, (who balances my high-strung dependency on spreadsheets in a way that is both comforting and infuriating) dutifully loaded his car and hauled 14 boxes, 4 bags, and the mother of all packing lists into his office today to be shipped ahead of us to our new home.  His next task will be to climb into the attic and dig out our dusty suitcases so they can air out before I begin packing.

That's right.  Packing.  I guess this really is happening!