Hello all and welcome back to “real life” after the best vacation seeing my brother in Wisconsin (so gorgeous!) and Penn’s Cave in PA (Might be my favorite cave yet-boat ride through a cave?!)
I am always astounded by how little we need on a vacation to keep us entertained. We haul books, a few toys, and, yes, our tablets in limited and monitored fashion. We have a suitcase and a go bag each. We listen and debate audiobooks (Magic Misfits #2 and School of the Dead this time) and have the BEST conversations.
This vacation, however, inspired me toward what may be my next round of craziness. Downsizing. Cue the fearful children’s faces. No! Not the sentimental nothings that I don’t even remember getting or play with anymore! Don’t take them away! I suddenly need them!
Before we left, I found FOOD in both my children’s bedrooms. And, I mean OLD FOOD. Eww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now they are not allowed to have food in their rooms anyway but old food pushes us into gross out territory. Realizing my asthmatic/allergy suffering son has been “kid dusting” around objects (and skipping his fan and tall surfaces) his room tipped mom into rampaging mode. Rampaging mode often means rearranging furniture. It is just how I am made.
Serious conversations with equal amounts of consequence and concern later, I have boxed up his toys and we wet dusted everything in his room. Little sister looked on smugly (her day came today). We leave for vacation with everything still boxed up. And he missed none of it.
We talked about minimalism-light as a stress reliever and the stress of having too many things crowding us. We discussed valuing those things which are precious. We talked about busy schedules and making cleaning easier. We talked about Christmas plans that involve more activity based gifts than dust catchers. They were good and, moreover, easy conversations.
I kid you not people, we have been home 4 days. My children have willingly unloaded two runs to Goodwill and have dusted and sorted keep/donate piles for everything. I have cleaned out all the old blankets, clothes, and sheets to donate, we purchased and assembled a new ikea book shelf/folding desk/video gaming thing, moved old furniture into little girl’s room, and let her start plotting a wall floral mural thing she and I will do together. We have picked up groceries that fit an actual meal plan (which we never do) and hosted a sleepover.
Truthfully, I have annoyed my husband a bit by cleaning while watching clutterbug (#clutterbug). Clutterbug is an amazing source for organizing styles but usually prompts the aforementioned rampage. My husband is still working downstairs building me a side table, bless him. I have listed, given away, and sold furniture that simply didn’t work for us and celebrated a belt test advancement with a dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.
And we are still smiling-even if the icy hot has made an appearance. Post vacation euphoria, I suppose. The more I thought and read and talked while we were traveling, the more I was struck by the weight of stuff which serves no purpose. When our stuff is so all consuming we cannot enjoy it. We can’t ever get to cleaning because we are ALWAYS TIDYING. I will even admit that I was surprised by how much I was hanging on to-just in case. I watched those Marie Komo shows and thought I had listened fairly well. I suppose I had not.
Breathe Deep Books 