6 Days and Counting

We leave in 6 days. Emma's last day of school was yesterday, Jake's is today. Emma's friends are having a little going-away celebration at a nearby park today. We plan to visit London once more tomorrow and then Erik will spend the next four days with the kids while I pack. We won't see him for the next 5+ weeks, which is the longest any of has been away from him (oh, however will we survive...) He will have a quiet and peaceful month, however, enjoying our spacious flat and eating all his meals for free at Reed's. I can't quite figure out how Erik managed to weasel out of both cross-Atlantic plane trips with the children, though...

I am currently surrounded by luggage, clothing, toys and a scale (to make sure no bags go over 50 lbs...the newly implemented charge for an overweight bag is $100!) and despairing of ever fitting in the things we want to bring home. It will happen, though, just like I managed to pull it off 9 months ago coming here, and it will be such a relief. (To add to the muck, the basement of our house in Salem flooded this week, due to a broken water heater--mostly fixed now, but required a plumber to install a new water heater and flood-damage repair people to pull up and dry out the carpet.)

This year has been, well, an experience of a lifetime--I think I need some time and perspective to discover how I actually feel about it all. Living it is different than that frame of reference you get once you're not doing it anymore. So for those of you are are waiting for an Ireland update, I'll try to get to it sometime within the next two weeks. As for a post-trip wrap up, I'll post once more on this blog after we're home and settled. Until then, I'll stay immersed in wrapping up our life in the flat and concentrate on getting us home in one piece.