Five Backpacks and No Trunk

I liked our car. It was an excellent place to put all of the things that didn’t quite fit in our backpacks.

We had owned it for years and were very happy with it. More recently, we drove it across the country to the tune of 12,000 miles.

But I sold our proverbial covered wagon today, which means we truly have to fit into our five backpacks from here on out. We did a test pack this morning; it took more than 47 minutes—frustratingly slow to my thinking. But we can work on that (it’s okay, I’m not sure if I’m joking either).

After packing, we loaded up and went for a test walk, carrying everything that we own. We walked 2.5 miles round trip with a stop for lunch. There was some mild discomfort; it turns out that it’s harder to carry things than to put them into the trunk of a car. But, overall, we did quite well. A little more weight shifted from kid bags back to parent bags, which is okay for now. We all know the trajectory—they’re getting stronger every day—and I hope to move the items back in due time. 

We’re still hanging on to some non-essentials, the focus mitt and re-breakable board are with us, but the exercise bands are gone. We still have five kindles, but all the paper books are being left behind. Holly and I still have sunglasses and hats, but the boys—after losing or breaking 372 pairs of sunglasses and 18 hats have beaten us down—we no longer require them to wear hats and sunglasses.

The boys used to have these really cool sling packs, but they were a little too small, and they shifted around too readily when kids did kid things like running and playing and climbing. So, they’ve been replaced by small backpacks with water reservoirs. Holly and I have swapped out our daypacks, too. Holly for one that’s a little more functional and a little less cute, much to her chagrin. Mine for a specialty one, which, time permitting, I will write about separately.

Holly keeps telling me that I’m overthinking the packing thing, that we can buy whatever we need overseas and we shouldn’t worry about it so much now. But somehow my backpack is still lighter than hers 🙂