Well, my good intentions of menu planning are going slowly. Life keeps happening, but I will be ready by Sunday to go "old school" with all the cooking. Keeping my focus on the health benefits makes planning easier. Why is that the "simple" in simple meals keeps hanging me up? We already eat pretty simply, I just need to get some new recipes to spice things up. I broke the news to the kids this week that all fast food is gone and that we are going to be simplifying our lifestyle. They took the no fast food much better than the simplifying part. Honestly, that is the part I have the hardest time with too!
Before Mick got out of the Army, we moved around quite a bit. We would change bases, living off base until housing opened and then moving on to base as soon as we could, then packing again and moving on to the next place. All that packing meant purging naturally happened. When you have to box up all the things you own and then unpack it all, it is amazing what you consider fodder and purge. I am a pack rat by nature. I had every paper I ever did or turned in in high school when Mick and I married, and I moved them all to Fort Polk, LA, our first home. When it came time to move to Fort Carson, CO those pages were pitched. With two small children, packing was a chore, even though all I had to do was get things organized since the Army had movers come in and pack everything up. I knew I would be the one unpacking all of this stuff when we hit Colorado, and our 600 sq ft apartment after a luxurious 800 sq ft living space for the last 3 years! Downsizing became a habit. It was purge or be overrun! Fast forward to today.
We have been living in our own home here in Ohio for about 7 1/2 years. I have kept way too much! With out the threat of having to box and unbox, I have left the "stuff" pile up. So, tomorrow after I drop the kids off for their school time, Alyssa, Justin, and I are officially purging. We have a basement full of stuff, and much of it has been sitting there for the last 7 years. I am also a frugal person, so getting rid of things when I may need them again is hard. That I think is from my sin nature, no matter how cute I try to make it sound by calling it practical, economical, or frugal. Where is my faith that God will provide if I hold tightly on to things that would bless someone right now? Yes, the 8 tubs of clothes for the kids in the basement are great for hand me downs, but do I trust God to provide clothing for our children in a year or two if I take them all to the Volunteers of America so that they can give them to someone in need right now? The lines between being wise with what we have been given and becoming self reliant instead of God reliant are blurred in our society. That fact hit me soundly this week, that I am putting my trust in storing up stuff instead of in God. Don't get me wrong, things aren't bad, it is the reliance on them in place of faith that God is going to provide that is the sin. I need to be needy! I need to be a little less comfortable, and a lot less proud that I will provide for our family all that they need. Everything is God's and from God. It's time to give and bless others, knowing and trusting that God will provide for all of our needs. Come Monday morning, I pray that our basement is mostly empty, and our closets seriously downsized.
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