We got through a full month of travelling!
It was a rather FULL month too.... We had sickness, laughter, adventures, boredom, full memory cards, bacon and eggs, beaches, rain, washed up bones, wet clothes, sore legs, strong winds, chocolate, family dinners, platypuses and pushy-shovey elbows.
We've had people scaling a quarry face.
We have had quiet waiting by the lakeside to capture that elusive Platypus.
We have tripped over, climbed over and jumped on so many rocks.
We have eaten cheese and crackers, had beach picnics and rainforest picnics and park picnics, and then had to walk them off!
We have hauled giant, inflatable tubes up a 100m slope, just to scream our way to the bottom in them seconds later.
We had fun.
It wasn't always fun and games, of course. It is still real life. We had disarray, we had niggles and bumps with each other. We had "Are we there yets?", and we had clutter.
It is time for a bit of a reprieve for the next four weeks. We are house sitting, toilet training and teaching our baby to sleep through the night. Given the wild weather that Tassie has faced this week, I am mighty grateful for a house to have been in the whole time! We don't plan to stay in the caravan in August. This is a month for us to just slow down and do the above. But it is also the first time we have had to stop, look back on the things that have passed and see how we are doing. After all, a lot has happened to us in a year! We have had our fifth baby, prepared our house for sale, sold our house, bought a new caravan, quit a job, sold most of our possessions, stored the rest, and finally, walked away from the life we knew into a new and unfamiliar path. Phew....
How do I feel about having sold our home?
What has it been like, being away from my friends?
What worked well in the caravan and what could we make easier?
What are our priorities in life now? Have they changed since we had a more conventional life?
What is important to us as a family?
How do we honour God in our lives, whilst we travel and miss our home church, and the consistency that brought?
How do we make sure that this change is as smooth as possible for our children?
In reflection, there were two major things that I thought would be one way, and turned out the other....
Firstly, I thought we'd get sick of each other and need frequent breaks. I especially thought that sleeping so 'close' to each other would drive me mad. But it doesn't. It is actually quite calming being close to our sleeping children (The baby settling issues, I grant you, are a trial.). It is also very nice having us all together. Breaks end up coming up in small and frequent ways anyways.
The other unexpected is that I underestimated how much I'd feel the absence from my friends, family and church family. Maybe it's just part and parcel with being a woman? But there have been a few days these last few weeks where the heaviness was palpable. I MISSED people. You probably! I can only account for it as being the result of missing lots of people at once. We left lots of families we love all at once and it became a snowball effect.
So, if you are reading this, it is most likely that you were loved and missed! Hope it was mutual, or this is totally awkward right now!? ;) hahaha
Anyways, we are constantly just so amazed by what God is doing in our lives. We are thankful for this opportunity, grateful for His perfect timing in all things, and eagerly awaiting the unknown adventures ahead over the next 2 years.
God bless!
Sara & Duncan, and the Little Gnomads xx
