Too Much Stuff

I've been having a great time discussing the last couple of posts. I'm grateful that there are people that I know and people I don't know that are reading this blog. I started it to teach myself writing discipline and document areas in my family's life that I wanted to improve, but the ways that others have responded, taught me from their own experiences and challenged me to deeper levels of faith in areas I need to grow has been humbling. Thank you for reading.

I come back to the matter of finances again today. I've come to realize something in my adulthood that I never knew as a child growing up in the home of the pastor of a small town church.

You can have too much.

As a child, I never felt that we were destitute or poor. I couldn't even tell you now if we were. We did have to be careful with money. We did live frugally and conservatively. We wore hand-me-downs and once or twice I remember people bringing us boxes of food and we were grateful for it.

I didn't spend a great deal of time pining for things I couldn't have. I know I did the usual whining that kids do, but I never really felt like anything was truly missing from my life.

Then I went from Pastor's daughter to engineer's wife. We are by no means wealthy, and being an engineer, MacGyver has a personality that is practical and frugal, so we don't spend to extremes. We don't spend what we don't have. And the budget we have agreed on is not suggestions, it is the bottom line.

We have everything we need. We have enough to spend extra to have healthier foods and products. We have enough for quality clothing and fun vacations with our family. And I'm thankful for this.

But we have too much stuff. Some days I wish I could just dump it all on the curb. I am constantly picking up the same 17 pairs of shoes, the same 600 toys and game parts and the clothes are everywhere!

So in the next month (before birthdays and Christmas hit us again) we are getting rid of extra toys, clothes, and all the things that just get crammed in corners and set to the side to deal with later. If it doesn't get played with much, doesn't mean anything to anyone, or tends to end up all over the floor and under foot - it's history.

I'm not sure what the Kidney Foundation does with all this stuff. But as long as it isn't my problem anymore - I'll just be happy to dump it on my front porch for them to whisk away.

Oh, and everyone wish MacGyver a happy birthday!