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| homemade goodness from a friend; game night; rain, rain, rain; sleepover; new project underway; peyton organizing his closet. |
I love that last photo. Peyton took to cleaning his room and organizing his closet like he was going to get a bonus for doing so (he didn't. neither did I for that matter). A child after my own heart.
Both kids enjoyed shedding the burden of too much stuff this weekend, but I also discovered how difficult it can be to part with the little things we grip onto for unknown reasons. Watching each child carefully weigh the value of a small spongey dinosaur or a handmade beaded bracelet with a broken clasp opened my eyes to my own habits.
A little background: We've been trying to sell our house for the past two years, on and off, with no success (more on this in a future post).
After a flurry of showings in January, I was feeling overwhelmed. Our basement was still in recovery from Christmas, as was the kids' rooms. Clutter, clutter everywhere.
Then there was the issue of repairs. Our roof has a small leak (source to be detected when it actually gets a little warmer here), and some of the drywall in the garage needs to be replaced. OH and the fan vent on our water heater makes a noise so frightening it would scare the living daylights out of any prospective buyers. When the fan kicks on, it sounds like someone fired up a snowblower in the basement. (This noise stopped two weeks ago suddenly, and the fan was working like a charm again. Last night it reappeared and the cats jumped a mile out of fear when it did. I jumped a mile out of utter disappointment.)
We temporarily unlisted the house, hoping it would be for two weeks until I could clean out the junk - the easiest piece to tackle and most obvious to buyers.
Um, it's been five weeks now. Welcome to my warped reality.
But hey, great news to report: Over the weekend, I finally did it. I overhauled 3 closets and 2 rooms and lugged bags of garage sale bounty (1 of them already tagged!) to the basement.
And it felt Glorious. With a capital, underlined, bolded G.
Yeah, I know ... it's just cleaning. But somehow wiping out the accumulated junk of the past year(s) has made me feel free. Like I'm traveling this world with only the essentials, with nothing else to hold me down.
Scott and I have been ignoring the "how the heck will we move all this stuff" concern during the time we've had the house listed. One problem at a time. But it's nagged at the back of my mind for awhile now. Although I've always been one for pitching and selling unnecessary items, it often takes me a long time to part with certain things. I'm sure I will need them. I need to cover my bases. I will miss that item when it's gone. I know this is a fairly normal thought concept in many American households, but I wonder: if God provided an opportunity that allowed our family to pick up and go tomorrow, would it be that easy? Could I let all this stuff go? Would I try to take it with me ... and how would I choose? And what is it I think I need that He might not provide?
I wonder.
A weekend is as good of a time as any to ponder such thoughts since often we have time to take action on decisions made. So that's what we did. I like that we all made strides to release the material items from our grip. Still a long way to go, but wouldn't it be revolutionary to have a basement with nothing in it but the essentials?
Glorious.
Someday.
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