Four-and-a-bit weeks away - aka - Time to Ramp Up
Okey dokey folks. This is getting serious. We need to move away from pre-packing to full-on PACK mode. We needed to wait until today, you see, due to needing to spend one night overnight at camp with the kiddo, which our middle-aged backs survived.
We shall pause to just see how awesome Canada can be... good to remember while getting ready to waltz off to Europe. This was our after breakfast 'excursion'... and it was amazing. And, well, free.
Anyhow- the camp stuff is in the laundry (so much stuff for one night! It horrified the child - had to explain that even camps with cabins don't provide things like food, sheets, towels, etc., and no, his parents were actually purposefully embarrassing him).
This 4+ week mark (for us, it's 4 weeks from Monday that we leave, vs. just a day under 5 weeks that we board) is definitely time for actual putting of things at least NEAR suitcases, and for the lists to be whipped into shape.
Fear not- we've been busy. In the last few weeks, we have:
A) Obtained cash from 5 countries (US- for tips, UK, Iceland, Norway, Denmark)
B) Revisited our rain gear collection and updated appropriately. Bonus in that most of it can be bundled into little packages/bags. (Slightly bigger thn 2 Tsum Tsums)
C) Procured most (but not all) of our FE stuff.
D) Started tossing things in an empty laundry hamper that we'll need on the trip, but not in the next 4 weeks.
E) Contacted the cat sitting folks and booked them for the 2 weeks we'll be away, and sat the kittens down to prepare them (ha!)
On the work front, this is when I start the master To-Do list to ensure I get things done before I leave. This is the main plan for this weekend, actually. It seems extreme, I know, but it does allow me the delusion of control, and it means that when I'm on vacation, I'm officially off-line. Since my job requires a lot of prepping for the new academic year, well, a 2 week trip in August is a bit of a challenge... but hey, what is life without a challenge?
(Gotta love it when my weekend to-do list includes ... make a master to-do list...
)
I'll update more this weekend, but I am currently awaiting the last load of laundry from our one-night trip.
Up next:
Lists
Lists
and
More Lists
And, things I often forget, but I'm trying not to forget this time.