Shifting focus ...

During the 10-year period of 2005 to 2015, we moved seven times.  Most shifts were local but we also relocated from New South Wales to Victoria.  

At one stage I calculated we'd spent 18 months to two years of that ten year period preparing to move.  I couldn't quantify the time we spent unpacking and trying to set up home again - and I didn't want to calculate the financial impact of all those moves.  

Each move involved other acute stress. Family Court, hospitalisation and major medication changes were just some of the extra stressors.  Our life was like a soap opera. We dealt with huge, ongoing drama.  I'm amazed at how much our younger selves accomplished.  We definitely deserved more credit!

As much as my camera and photos provided a respite during our earlier years, computer issues added to my stress.  We had two major computer crashes when Vaughan was quite young and some other close calls since.  I have never given up hope of salvaging some of those lost photos.

In preparing for our 2012 move, we bought a laptop computer.  Vaughan was still doing distance education at that stage, so we needed a portable option for "school". (Yes, I was supervising his lessons amid all the chaos of considerable uncertainty, possible redundancy/homelessness - and then short-notice interstate relocation).

The old desktop was packed into one of our storage units - along with a box of old hard drives.    They travelled down to Victoria and then came with us to Queensland in 2017.  

Nick and I became debt-free last year, more or less on the 17th anniversary of our first date.  We are slowly working through our wishlist, upgrading furniture and computers and basically ticking off tasks that had been put on hold till finances improved.

My recent laptop purchase has sparked a thorough overhaul of my photo archives and better application of my LightRoom cataloguing system (ie. lots of research, learning etc). It's become a rather large project - because of adjusting to new technology, decision-making, file transferring and so on. In my significant culling efforts, I have unearthed various treasure and rediscovered many memories - so while there is a lot of work involved, it's mostly a pleasant undertaking. 

Although physical culling was an ongoing theme for us, there was little time spent on digital clean-ups.  I have a grand plan of dealing with all the digital photo archives (including retrieval of those lost pics from Vaughan's early days), overhauling photo albums and digitising many slides also.  I expect all those missions will keep me out of mischief for some considerable time.