I took this photo a few weeks ago and meant to write a post for it but I am just now getting around to it...I had a sort of "ephinay" moment one afternoon...it went something like this, it seemed like for the hundreth time that day I was picking up shoes, dolls, blankets, stuffed animals, any everything else that seems to end up on our floor when it occured to me, if my kids didn't own so many pairs of shoes or each had 5 dolls they claimed (3 girls=15 dolls at least!), I wouldn't spend so much time having to pick up after them or nagging them to do it themselves!
I always wondered how the pioneer women got everything done that they needed to and I think I finally figured it out...each child owned one pair of shoes (if they were lucky), one or two toys a piece, a limited number of clothes, and that was it, hence there were not 20 pairs of shoes between 3 children to get dragged all over the house, even if you had 10 kids it wasn't a big deal because each person only had one pair and they had them on their feet unlike my children who leave trails of shoes like hansel and gretel's trail of breadcrumbs.
Stuff...we definitely have to much of it! I've always known it but now that I am the one trying to keep it all under control it is driving me crazy! So I've started it is a slow process trying to weed through it all and resist the urge to buy my girls another cute dress or the never worn pair of stride ride shoes that I find at the thrift store for $3...(okay I did give in and buy them for Malia, but I got rid of 4 pairs when we got home!) but I am making process, if I could just keep the girls out the bags and boxes of things that I am getting rid of...they go through them while my back is turned and drag in all their long lost treasures!
I recently read a post by friend Rachel who is in Columbia with her husband adopting 4 kids where she reccounts her trip to a shoe store to buy her kids shoes, it was touching and heartwarming and reminded me just how truly blessed I am to have so much STUFF in my life!