We almost made it

Damn this Corona Virus! This week should have seen us in final packing and preparing and hitting the road to start our adventure. As it turns out, our adventure just took a detour and we have no idea for how long. It's been a busy couple of weeks as we worked towards getting the house empty for our new tenants to move in, with the added emotional turmoil of the increasing COVID-19 threat and the restrictions that were increasing every day.

Last Sunday we were making our final push to empty the house for the cleaner who was due to come in on Monday morning. We then heard the news of the borders closing everywhere. I was stressing out about being stuck in the caravan, stranded somewhere for who knows how long or trying to start our trip and being turned back with nowhere to go. Thankfully the universe was looking out for us. We got a call on Sunday afternoon from Dave's Mum, telling us they had an investment property that was empty and we could stay there as long as we needed, huge weight lifted.

Monday was a majorly emotional day for me. Working on 1.5 hours sleep (thanks brain) and being up at 5 to finish emptying the house (we gave up the night before) I was facing sending the kids to school on now their last day without being to pop in to say goodbye and thankyou to all the amazing staff and specifically their teachers. Thankfully I was granted permission to start an hour late so I could take them to school. I cried as I said goodbye to many of our friends and then headed to work where I continued to burst into tears every time someone asked me if I was ok.

On another positive, our Scout group pulled together on Monday night before Scouting shut down the next day to be able to invest Charli as a cub alongside her fellow linking joeys, and several Scouts being invested too, present her with her Promise Challenge award and present Elly with her Grey Wolf award. While it wasn't what we had planned for, it was still a wonderful evening and our last opportunity for a while to see my Mum and Aunty who came to celebrate with the girls for the night.

By Wednesday night, I had had 2 days at home preparing to move (and getting increasingly frustrated with how difficult it was to cancel services to the house), Dave was officially unemployed (as per our plans) and we were loaded up and saying goodbye to our home and our lovely neighbours. It was surreal being in this new house as it is actually the same house that Dave and I lived in when we first moved in together 15 years ago and it hasn't changed much.

So, where are we at now? We had to unpack a few items from the shipping container to make ourselves a bit more comfortable for the next few months. Dave has taken on the reigns of house husband and head of homeschooling. I am now working full time in my job and everyone is rapt that I am staying on longer than planned and I am loving the shorter commute. We experienced our first weekend in a long time where we had absolutely nothing we had to do, this will take some adjustment. Our tenant pulled out at the last minute so annoyingly our house is empty but we are hopeful we will have a new tenant soon.

I guess this will now become a blog about how we survive self-isolation as we wait for the borders to re-open and our big adventure to begin.