I was really angry when I wrote my last post. I also felt very used...maybe even abused by my family with rarely a 'thank you' to be found. I started working outside of the home at the beginning of December part-time to make our lives a little more comfortable while Lane wraps up Law School and continues to hunt for a job. Ever since he retired from the Air Force and has been in school, money has been tight. It's a life we chose so that Lane could do something he was passionate about, but it has been really hard adjusting to a different lifestyle. Now with me working, I can't do it all. I never was, never claimed to be and never wanted to be "Supermom". I have never envied moms who can do it all. But my OCD self wants my house clean 24/7. I don't necessarily want one of those perfect houses you see on display in Better Homes & Gardens but I believe everything has a place and it should be in its place. When you're done using something, put it away!! If you take off your shoes, you put them in the closet where you found them. You get my point here.
For years I have talked about decluttering our lives and trying to enjoy more of what we do have than what we don't have. I look back at all the crap that I've amassed. For what? Just so that I can have it in case I need it? Now I will admit, I stopped buying most things unnecessarily years ago. We didn't even upgrade to a flat screen TV until 2010. We had a 27" bubble front TV until then and were perfectly fine with it but it was 13 years old, not always turning off when you turned it off. Sometimes it would turn itself on when you weren't even near it. Probably an issue with the remote but it was time for the TV to go. When you're in the military and moving every 3 years or so, you'll never know what you'll need in the next house so you just hang on to most things just in case. Now we have no more excuses for all this stuff that sits around going unused.
My kids are cursed because of when their birthdays fall...Eriks just a week before Christmas and Emi's just about 6 weeks after Christmas. The kids always get way more than they need and many things often go unplayed with. And I've been trying to come up with ways to deal with what I call the 'Birthday Blues'. It's when in my head I'm strategically trying to plan where I'm going to put all the stuff they get between their birthdays and Christmas. Would their be a kind way to tell people not to buy my kids anything so I didn't have to deal with it? I get highly stressed out and overwhelmed between the kids' birthdays and Christmas. Mostly because I don't want all the stuff in my house. We don't need it. It's not that it's not appreciated, it's just that it often goes ignored.
When I posted on my Facebook page that I had blogged, my cousin posted a link to another blog/website about a mom who had had enough with all of her kids' *STUFF* and she was going to get rid of it. At least most of it. Her article was the lightbulb that I needed. It was my 'ah-ha' moment. If she can do it with her family, then surely I could do it with mine, right?
I figured I'd link the article because I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about all the stuff that their kids have and don't need.
http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2012/09/14/why-i-took-all-my-kids-toys-away-why-they-wont-get-them-back/#Sqw0Pzwtviyw94lL.01
So, come the weekend after Memorial Day, we are having a HUGE yard sale to get rid of all the stuff sitting in cabinet, closets, basement, garage, etc. that we don't need. Some of my nicer stuff will go to a consignment shop - designer clothes that are too big because of the weight I lost, a few designer purses that I no longer use, shoes that I bought and wore once or NEVER, etc.
I know we'll be happier with out all this nonsense and maybe my kids will enjoy what they do have more than what they don't have if I get rid of all the stuff they don't touch anymore. Who knows, we might just use that money to take a family vacation to explore somewhere and learn something.
I really want to experiment and see if we can live a simpler life. Maybe getting rid of all this stuff will help my kids get along better because they're going to have to find ways to play with less stuff.
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