About a year ago my hubby and I walked through a model home...you know the perfect home with everything staged to perfection. We looked at each other and said, "Maybe we should start all over with new stuff!" Then reality hit, we are poor graduate students, how could we ever start over...
But, we have decided to do just that! Yikes!?! We are moving across the country and when we added up all the costs of the rental truck, the tow dolly for our car, and the gas, it would cost nearly $4000.00. Wowsers!?! That is a lot of money to move mostly hand-me-down furniture and odds and ends. So I started thinking could we buy a trailer and tow it for a better cost. Turns out we can...plus the added bonus is that we can sell the trailer once we settle and buy the stuff we had to leave behind.
So...we are in the process of the biggest dejunking project ever. Only the most loved and necessary items will go...my piano, our bed, the bunk beds, clothes, computer, scrapbooks, photos, etc. I started today, well really I started several months ago, with the totally unnecessary items, but I really started today. I got rid of four giant boxes from my kitchen...mostly extra dishes, a basket, coffee mugs (we don't even drink coffee) a rug, a step stool, mixing bowls (why did we have 14?) and some other junk.
The best thing, I found a place that I can donate it to that gives it to families that are displaced from their home for one reason or another. They do not sell it, trade it or yard sale it away, they give it to those that don't have anything.
Here's to starting over.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
#9 Remember Where You Came From
I love my heritage. I can't imagine coming from more amazing people. I count myself fortunate that I had close relationships with my grandparents even though I come from a large family. I always felt that I was something special to them. They lived astounding lives. So in honor of them I will share a few of my memories of them.
My paternal grandmother was an especially wonderful story teller. She told me how it was like to live before electricity came to her town, and how she played the piano at a dance hall for a silver dollar a night. She could make a piano dance. She knew every ragtime, boogie woogie, hymn and classical piece possibly written for piano. She would wake at the crack of dawn everyday to practice the piano, and we never left her house without her sitting down to play something. Her husband, my grandfather, was equally amazing. His sense of humor was infectious to everyone including my grandma, who was often the brunt of the joke.
I never met my maternal grandma. She left this world at the young age of 43 when my mom was just entering her teenage years. I am grateful for the stories and the photos that have been passed on to me, but more grateful that I met her mother when I was eight years old. She lived several states away, and we planned a long awaited trip to visit her on her farm. Amazingly she did not enjoy a single modern luxury besides electricity. No running water, no flushing toilet, not even a machine washer or dryer. This baffled my young mind having never used an outhouse except in the case of camping. Yet she was energetic, moving about her mundane chores with satisfaction. She said once that it was a blessing to be poor in the country, and that she always felt sorry for the poor that lived in the city with only dirty sidewalks and streets to look at.
My maternal grandpa is the only one of my grandparents still alive, and he is almost 90. At 89 he is still active, energetic, and lucid. I was able to talk with him the other day and he reminded me that the most important things in life are free, yet we need to work the hardest at those things. Things such as family, character, and love. He is very strong in his faith, and reminds me to be strong in mine.
As I look at my heritage I feel as though I may be one of the luckiest people in the world. Thank you to all my grandparents for wise, kind, prudent lives; lives that I hope I can emulate.
My paternal grandmother was an especially wonderful story teller. She told me how it was like to live before electricity came to her town, and how she played the piano at a dance hall for a silver dollar a night. She could make a piano dance. She knew every ragtime, boogie woogie, hymn and classical piece possibly written for piano. She would wake at the crack of dawn everyday to practice the piano, and we never left her house without her sitting down to play something. Her husband, my grandfather, was equally amazing. His sense of humor was infectious to everyone including my grandma, who was often the brunt of the joke.
I never met my maternal grandma. She left this world at the young age of 43 when my mom was just entering her teenage years. I am grateful for the stories and the photos that have been passed on to me, but more grateful that I met her mother when I was eight years old. She lived several states away, and we planned a long awaited trip to visit her on her farm. Amazingly she did not enjoy a single modern luxury besides electricity. No running water, no flushing toilet, not even a machine washer or dryer. This baffled my young mind having never used an outhouse except in the case of camping. Yet she was energetic, moving about her mundane chores with satisfaction. She said once that it was a blessing to be poor in the country, and that she always felt sorry for the poor that lived in the city with only dirty sidewalks and streets to look at.
My maternal grandpa is the only one of my grandparents still alive, and he is almost 90. At 89 he is still active, energetic, and lucid. I was able to talk with him the other day and he reminded me that the most important things in life are free, yet we need to work the hardest at those things. Things such as family, character, and love. He is very strong in his faith, and reminds me to be strong in mine.
As I look at my heritage I feel as though I may be one of the luckiest people in the world. Thank you to all my grandparents for wise, kind, prudent lives; lives that I hope I can emulate.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
#8 Accept Yourself--Unconditionally
Ever have the case of the if only this or if only that? I imagine if you are anything like me it happens just about every other day.
So many times I think if only I could trade places with that person, my life would be pretty sweet! I wouldn't have to deal with infertility, job loss, a less than full bank account, or student loan debt up to my eyeballs, and I would most superbly be talented beyond measure and be extremely crafty. But looking from the outside in I cannot see the whole other lot of problems in the mix that do not appear on the surface of another person. As I realize that every person has a specific set of challenges, abilities, and experiences in this life I quit playing I want to trade places with someone else game. Oh the thoughts come to mind every so often of, "Wow, wouldn't that be nice?" but I remind myself that I wouldn't be the person I am today if I traded places because I would have to trade everything not just what I see that I like. And for that fact, I wouldn't trade places with anyone, and I feel extremely lucky to be the person that I am, even with all my faults and challenges.
"You are not just the size of your bank account, the neighborhood you live in, or the type of work you do. You are, just like everyone else, an almost inconceivably complicated mix of abilities and limitations." 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People
So many times I think if only I could trade places with that person, my life would be pretty sweet! I wouldn't have to deal with infertility, job loss, a less than full bank account, or student loan debt up to my eyeballs, and I would most superbly be talented beyond measure and be extremely crafty. But looking from the outside in I cannot see the whole other lot of problems in the mix that do not appear on the surface of another person. As I realize that every person has a specific set of challenges, abilities, and experiences in this life I quit playing I want to trade places with someone else game. Oh the thoughts come to mind every so often of, "Wow, wouldn't that be nice?" but I remind myself that I wouldn't be the person I am today if I traded places because I would have to trade everything not just what I see that I like. And for that fact, I wouldn't trade places with anyone, and I feel extremely lucky to be the person that I am, even with all my faults and challenges.
"You are not just the size of your bank account, the neighborhood you live in, or the type of work you do. You are, just like everyone else, an almost inconceivably complicated mix of abilities and limitations." 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People
Saturday, March 26, 2011
#7 Turn OFF the TV
Turn off the TV!?! When you could watch hundreds of channels and see millions of shows and keep up with more than one show or game in several languages, it can be almost impossible for the TV to stay off. What in the world could you talk about at the water cooler if you don't watch TV? And how can you possibly stay current in a changing world if you don't watch the evening news? Can we truly survive without the boob tube?
Of course we can! Early on in our marriage we made a conscience decision, to not have televisions in the bedrooms of our house and to not buy cable. This may have been a mostly economic based decision, but I think we have reaped the rewards of not watching television all day long. In the past three years not having cable has meant not having television period. We do not get even one local channel, and we haven't missed it one bit. Now we do watch movies, probably too many movies, and our kids have their videos, but as far as network TV we don't have anything. Because of this we have to make concerted efforts of what we watch. We have to look it up on the internet, pull out a movie, or add it to our cue before we watch it.
Some of you might think it is crazy to not have network TV, and that we are missing out on pop culture, news, interesting facts, or quality programming for children. We can tell you we are not missing out on anything; in fact, I think we have gained so much more, more time, more love, and more conversation. And we have lost a few things as well; commercialism, kids asking for every toy or cereal on every commercial, weight, desires to look or be a certain way, sexed up shows that have lost touch with real families and real values, and we even lost ourselves in more than one book. So I guess this means I don't know who was voted off the island, I don't know who the bachelor chose, and I really don't think I know who can dance; but I really don't care.
So am I sad that we have unplugged from cable and network TV? No, not one bit.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Our Little Secret
So our two-year-old found out our little secret of what we do when the kids go to bed...no, I am not blogging about that, this site is PG, our other secret....
You see our oldest child has never questioned bed time or the boundary of his bed. Once he is in bed, well he stays there. If he needs something, he calls out to us and we go and take care of what he needs. This continued until last year and we told him it was fine to get out of bed for a drink of water, go to the bathroom, etc. But, he knows his place and if he makes too many excuses to get out of bed he has consequences.
We knew that brother would be different from the start. He has always tested boundaries. He has tested every boundary we have ever placed, including bed. We will put him to bed and every so often we will hear his thundering feet running around playing and we put him back into bed. I say thundering feet, because he sounds like a 14,000 pound elephant dancing hip hop walking around, instead of a slight 30 pound baby. He really hasn't tested the bedroom boundary at night time until last night. We put the kids to bed and I was on the computer when I hear the thuds of his feet coming down the hall. He peeked in the room and gave me a million dollar smile as if to say, "If you don't tell, I won't." Well, we are not about ready to sacrifice our alone time, so I marched him back to bed and told him that if he got up again he would be in the crib.
I thought that had cured him of the "What does Mommy and Daddy do when I go to bed?" question, apparently not. We had settled into a show and a nice Oreo shake when I looked up at the staircase. Once again I saw our two-year-old's round dimpled chinned face peering around the corner, with an ear to ear grin, he looked at our shakes and said, "wan yum-yum" Oh no, not only did he see that Mom and Dad are not in bed sawing logs, but worse... he saw that we watch movies and eat luscious desserts while he is stuck with a 7:30 bedtime. The worst part, he learned how to walk quietly, he crept quietly out of bed, down the hall, and down the stairs in cat-like formation, our alarm system of kids out of bed, ie thundering feet, turned off. Unfortunately, I don't know where the on button is located.
You see our oldest child has never questioned bed time or the boundary of his bed. Once he is in bed, well he stays there. If he needs something, he calls out to us and we go and take care of what he needs. This continued until last year and we told him it was fine to get out of bed for a drink of water, go to the bathroom, etc. But, he knows his place and if he makes too many excuses to get out of bed he has consequences.
We knew that brother would be different from the start. He has always tested boundaries. He has tested every boundary we have ever placed, including bed. We will put him to bed and every so often we will hear his thundering feet running around playing and we put him back into bed. I say thundering feet, because he sounds like a 14,000 pound elephant dancing hip hop walking around, instead of a slight 30 pound baby. He really hasn't tested the bedroom boundary at night time until last night. We put the kids to bed and I was on the computer when I hear the thuds of his feet coming down the hall. He peeked in the room and gave me a million dollar smile as if to say, "If you don't tell, I won't." Well, we are not about ready to sacrifice our alone time, so I marched him back to bed and told him that if he got up again he would be in the crib.
I thought that had cured him of the "What does Mommy and Daddy do when I go to bed?" question, apparently not. We had settled into a show and a nice Oreo shake when I looked up at the staircase. Once again I saw our two-year-old's round dimpled chinned face peering around the corner, with an ear to ear grin, he looked at our shakes and said, "wan yum-yum" Oh no, not only did he see that Mom and Dad are not in bed sawing logs, but worse... he saw that we watch movies and eat luscious desserts while he is stuck with a 7:30 bedtime. The worst part, he learned how to walk quietly, he crept quietly out of bed, down the hall, and down the stairs in cat-like formation, our alarm system of kids out of bed, ie thundering feet, turned off. Unfortunately, I don't know where the on button is located.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
#6 Cultivate Friendships
This is a good one for us...we are moving in six weeks and it is really hard. We love our friends here and know that this time here has been greatly enhanced by our sweet loving friends. Some we may not cross paths with again. I am so glad that I have a variety of friends from the acquaintances at the grocery store to the invaluable walking/jogging partners to the deep friendships of those who share my faith in God. All have blessed my life immensely and I can't imagine my life without them. I will be so sad to leave my dear friends here, but I am of course excited to build new friendships and rekindle old friendships by moving closer to family and old friends.
This past weekend I was overwhelmed by the friendship that we have been blessed with by our son's stay in the hospital. We had visits, cards, balloons, phone calls, texts, emails, facebook messages, etc. We live in a wonderful age of technology that allows us to connect to so many people.
In 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People David Niven, Ph. D reminds us not to only use technology to expand our friend base, but to become friends with our neighbors. We could spend our whole life on the computer and miss friendships right outside our door.
I have to add that friendship should not be based on age, appearance, or social status. We have much to learn from older and younger people; rough, hardened, not so attractive, or very beautiful, polished, well-dressed sorts; and we should never look at monetary wealth as our source of friendship. Each person rich or poor has something to offer, and beyond has a great need to connect to others. "People need to feel that they are part of something bigger, that they care about others and are cared about by others in return." 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People
Sunday, March 20, 2011
guacamonia?!?
We have been suffering from a pretty bad case of "guacamonia". What's that you say? It is not a severe addiction to guacamole, that would be a whole lot better. We all have bad cases of walking pneumonia. My youngest had it so bad he was hospitalized to be given IV antibiotics. My oldest and I now have it, but luckily we were given antibiotics to take care of it at home. Tonight my oldest told his grandpa, "I got guacamonia!" It actually made us laugh, which has been hard this weekend with all of our sickies.
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