Oh, clever pun! Shifting gear… haha. I finished school for the year yesterday so the real work starts in earnest now. Hence, it’s a bit like shifting from first gear into second gear… it’s also the time when we start packing stuff and moving things around, quite literally “shifting gear” from one place to the other. Oh well, I thought it was clever anyway!The last few months and weeks have been a bit of a blur, where we have forgone many of the things we would normally be doing like going away on weekends or 4WDing, and getting smothered in stuff at work which I know have to be finalised before I leave.

Donna is also very houseproud and insists on the house being left in a state that we would be proud of and the Graces will be pleased with, so we have been doing tons of work getting it ready. In the last month or so, I have pulled a wall apart to install a cavity slider so that a new wardrobe can be built in Alex’s room, we bought and installed a second TV and had to get the antenna hooked up, we have painted several rooms, bought new rugs and accessories, moved furniture, replaced things that were broken or in need of repair, and done quite a few trips to the tip to dump old junk that we really don’t need. The garage and office have been tidied up, the garden has had a makeover, and on it goes. We have had a few “discussions” about the need to do some of this stuff – It sometimes drives me mad that the list of things to do keeps getting longer not shorter, but that’s just what Donna is like and I wouldn’t have it any other way (as much as I might whinge about it sometimes!)

Of course there has also been all the school-related stuff as well, finalising registers and programs, placing last minute orders, trying to help Stuart get up to speed with the IT role, and the hideous task of clearing out my desk.We have four very simple rules that we are attempting to apply to everything in our house… Pack it, Take it, Leave it, or Chuck it. It makes things a lot easier as you go through every item and decide, do we leave it for the Graces, do we store it till we get home, do we take it with us, or do we never want to see it again. You really realise just how much crap you accumulate! I have to go into work on Friday just to sort out some new computers and a few other things, but then I’m handing over to Stuart and I’m going to try not to think about work too much again.

Just got to get through Christmas now, and then we will shift gears yet again I’m sure!