How do YOU handle moving?

Random thoughts on moving.....

How do you go about moving?  Where do you start?  We have lived in the same old white farm house for 18 years.  Three of our children were born in this house.  We have homeschooled here for 18 years.  We have collected LOTS and LOTS of books!  I believe we have about 10,000 books.  Many of them are not easily replaced as they are out of print.  They have been collected with love for myself, the children, their friends and future grandchildren to read.  I don't want to part with them.

But it looks like we will be moving.  The second old white farm house is actually on a farm and not stuck in the city.  We will have to down size about 1/3 of our belongings.  This is motivating us to clean things out and get rid of them.  This is a healthy process!  We needed to do that.  But it is hard.

How do you start homeschooling or do you wait for the move to take place?  At this point my children are getting a longer summer break.

But so many books to put into boxes.  So many boxes to store.  We are thinking of finding either a used classroom pod that a school doesn't want anymore or a trailer (either a house or worksite office) to install on the property as my library.  But that won't happen immediately.  How do you select the books you will want to access in the next year.  So many decisions, and I hate making arbitrary decisions.

 One doesn't have to pack up the memories, but it still is hard to leave so many behind.  Fortunately I have lots of pictures and at this time most of them are on the computer, so they are easy to move.  We have done so much work to the house.  It is almost fixed up to the point where we want it,  Except the kitchen.  It needed to be re-done when we bought it and after 18 years of hard use it REALLY needs remodeling  now.  It will be re-done, after we move out, but before we put it on the market.  I won't ever get use a nice kitchen in this house.  That makes me a little sad.  But we have turned out many excellent meals in our worn out kitchen.

This house was a blessing from God.  We have used it well, at least to the best of our abilities.  Many have eaten at our table and many have used our guest room.  The children have grown from babes to toddlers to school age and teenagers, and some have even become young adults in this house.  Life is short.  We are looking forward to how God will use us where He moves us.

If you think of it, pray for us.  The children can never remember moving before.  There is a certain level of stress.  If you live nearby, feel free to volunteer to pack boxes of books!!