I am an admitted mess. Or should I say, messy.  You can always tell when I’ve passed through a room, because I’ve left a trail. My coffee mug. My shoes. My discarded bra. My book. The pair of scissors I was using that I put down and now can’t find anywhere.  (note: check dining room? bathroom? porch??)

It drives Adam crazy. Frankly, it drives me crazy.

But despite my history, we’ve met a new milestone of messiness.

Three weeks ago, I went weekend camping with friends in Berkely Springs, WVa. Read: loaded car of food-clothes-more food-more clothes, had fun, came home, laundry, laundry laundry. Unpacked the bags most of the way, sort of, and stuck in a corner to “finish later.”

Last week, I joined 20+ other families for Beth El Family Camp, a festive outing and a laundry-generating one. One that requires every sheet and blanket in our linen closet to be pulled out, slept on in layers to separate bodies from bugs, washed, etc. I would say folded and put back. But that has only half-way happened. (Same corner as that half unpacked suitcase.)

So although I really hadn’t ever fully completed the UNPACKING, it was also time to continue to PACKING. We leave exactly two weeks from today on our trip to Africa, and if that’s not enough to pack the family for, I also have to have my kids fully packed for Camp Ramah New England before I go. That’s because only Adam will fly home with the kids in late-July to bring them home and get them to Ramah. I’ll be staying in Africa and will take advantage of the month they are away by backpacking and volunteering at an ecolodge / school / community center in Malawi.

So I am unpacking from my busy life, and packing for the next round of trips.

Here is an insight to the chaos.

Packing for Africa:

Packing for camp: