Gratitude

I am a keeper. I can't get rid of things. It takes me at least one year to decide whether or not I throw away some item of clothing - most times. I look at it, put it aside and about 6 months later am capable of doing what I should have done 6 months before - donate. I know, since I am aware of this process, why don't I just skip the 6 months to a year and donate? I can't. I am cluttery, too. Many of you are nodding, especially if you lived with me in college, or growing up, or now, or haven't lived with me at all but come to my house and hear me apologize for how cluttery it is. Want to hear another totally inane thing about me? I so want to clear it out but I literally get paralyzed when I need to. I can't decide what to tackle first. I can't decide what I need to keep and where to put it. I can't decide why I kept it in the first place, there must have been a very good reason. It is making me dizzy right now just writing about it. Give me a minute....

So tonight for family night, we talked about how we have so much and how others may not. We asked the kids to help us fill a box of their toys so that we can donate them. That was an hour ago, I can still hear Eli upstairs asking that we never do family night again if it entails losing his toys. The ridiculous thing, most of what we were putting in there has not been played with in years, if at all. He already has spent 10 minutes in his room because I couldn't take the excruciating whining and crying. I know, I teach lessons so well by getting impatient and snippy. Caroline was useless seeing as she just did handstands and drew up some maps. Joey was quite entertained, we unearthed a bunch of toys that are right up his alley.

Eli comes by this attitude of being overwhelmed when asked to whittle things down a bit naturally, he is his mother's son. I can't stand this personality trait of mine, and believe me I work on it every day. Luckily Dave is not a clutter bug. But I am a clean freak, I liked things washed down, wiped up - Dave is less of this.

We did manage to fill a couple of boxes and I am sure if I let Dave loose, our basement would be quite empty - good toys gone, too. The other day I went through our children's books, filling a box. That was hard because I think most books are priceless.

So what am I grateful for? Abundance. We don't have a lot, we have sufficient plus some. I am grateful that I can donate to others. I am grateful that my children can learn to give to others. I am grateful that I can count among my many blessings a roof over my family's head, warm blankets, food in our tummys, shoes to cover our feet, clothing to cover and protect our bodies (and let's face it, most people look much better without all their stretch marks and jigglies exposed, or at least I do), toys to keep us entertained, a washer and dryer in my home. There is plenty more.

I am also grateful for a husband that at this minute is getting the kids calmed down, Joey in bed, and fingers crossed, doing the dishes.