And I’m really enjoying less stuff! We had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. In preparation, I spent loads of time pilfering the cabinets and closets for anything we could do without. I was shocked at how much excess we had, stashed away. Useless. At the end of our one-day sale, we loaded what was left and hauled it away to Goodwill.
With the earnings from our sale, we bought supplies for a little garden box in the yard. There are several more things that I want to plant in it, but I haven’t made it back to the nursery. I could take all the time I’m saving by not going to Target and spend every minute (and then some!) walking the aisles of every nursery and garden center in town.
The other day I watched The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard, which talks about, well, stuff. Where it comes from, and where it goes. Eye opening. And I say this as a person whose eyes were already open. I cringe when I throw things away, knowing that my stuff is rotting away in a landfill. Bleh. But that’s how it is. Some things just have to be thrown away. Things beyond their usefulness, beyond salvage. Things like this:
These were J's shoes. It wasn’t a shock… I knew that we were going to have a shoe crisis. I just didn’t know it would be so dramatic, and so poorly timed. J wore these shoes, in this condition, to church Easter weekend. How embarrassing! I am SO thankful for the grandparent intervention, providing us with several new pairs. Thanks, Nana! I hope the boys appreciate this blessing as much as I do. (They probably don’t. I know.)
Speaking of Easter...
Last week, P had to take a dozen eggs to school, each stuffed with some sort of non-candy prize. I keep a stash of little junk toys in the pantry. They are all trinkets from school and birthday party goody bags. And the boys never even notice that I’ve swiped their new junk toys and put them in my little bag. So, I stuffed a dozen plastic eggs, which we already had, with little toys, which we already had. Wasteful spending averted. Whew!
The boys’ Easter baskets were a bit ironic. They were filled with candy and hygiene items. How random is that? But since we don’t really “do” the whole Easter Bunny thing, I didn’t see any sense in making purchasing exceptions for their baskets. We’ve said from the start that we would allow the purchase of hygiene items and food… candy is, after all, edible. Besides, my kids love to get new toothbrushes and Star Wars Band-Aids, and it's fun to watch Peeps expand in the microwave.
I’m glad that this holiday was easy to navigate within our chosen limits. But best of all, I’m glad that the boys understand that Easter is not about chicken embryos and sneaky bunnies. They know that Easter is a celebration of Jesus, the sacrifice for our sin. They know that because of His triumph over death, we can someday reach Heaven.
And that is worth everything in this world!
