T minus…

One beautiful snow storm, three rounds of the stomach flu, countless errands and daily grinds later and poof! Tomorrow’s departure is upon us.  Whirlwind is a gentle description of what recent life has been like for us, but like a child on Christmas Eve, I stop myself mid-chore and revel in the excitement of what is to come. Pack pack pack… thoughts of snorkeling in crystal clear waters. Gather tax information… lazy afternoons in the cockpit. Haul wood for the stove… slicing through the water on a broad reach with the sun warming our soon-to-be bared skin. So soon we’ll be able to skip the first pesky bits and immerse ourselves in the daydream.

The girls have had their snow fix, hopefully (Mom guilt never ends! Oh the joy.), and we’ve snowshoed, sledded, romped and ice skated, having snatched the opportunities each short window of cold and/or snowy weather has brought to us.

At this stage, we’ve also said our goodbyes, made our way though our lists, and as of today have relocated our chickens, our fish, our cat, our dog and our plants, to six different homes. It truly takes a village for us to get out of here! All but the cat have settled into their temporary vacation homes nicely, and the best we can do now is to hope for their continued good behavior and a swift turnaround from Goose, who is apparently not taking to having other cats in her home life well. Cats, you know? Kinda jerks sometimes.

For the final errand, we picked up the U-Haul trailer that we’ve rented to schlep our junk south. Just hours after pulling it into the garage for space assessment, it’s practically full. While we won’t have neon kayaks strapped to the roof, we’ve still found a way to acquire that ‘Squatley’ look  that we’ve fine-tuned over the years, and for that I’m proud. Junk/not really junk list includes: our new cushions for the salon, a new outboard for Flipper, our dinghy, our new binnacle, our newly varnished cockpit table, galley contents that we brought home with us last spring (it took a while to find oils, spices and cooking sauces and condiments that were the perfect size for the galley shelves, so keeping them together to take back for refilling was a major time saver to the alternative of starting all over again), and the rest are the usual suspects- clothes, craft re-supplies, books, new games and school work. Towing the trailer might mean that we have a wee bit of leg room for the ride, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself with hope. It’s likely that I forgot something(s) that I’ll want to cram in at the last minute.

As I scout for things in the house and clean my way around it, I keep finding wonderful little creations everywhere. As I tucked the girls in tonight, I found that V had labeled her favorite step (stool, apparently?), which I adore. I’ll bet Chickadee is excited to get dressed up again, too.