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| Refusing to pose for the camera! |
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| Celebrating one year as a family |
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| Picking up Merone from the Transition Home - June 2011 |
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| One year ago at the Guest Home in Ethiopia |
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
One year with Merone
Igor turns 10!
A friend often says the days are long but the years are short. She is so right.
I cannot believe that Igor has turned 10 yrs old!!! He asked for a very low key birthday party. He had a few friends over for a pizza party and then they went to see Madagascar 3. He really enjoyed his birthday celebration.
I cannot believe that Igor has turned 10 yrs old!!! He asked for a very low key birthday party. He had a few friends over for a pizza party and then they went to see Madagascar 3. He really enjoyed his birthday celebration.
Happy Birthday Igor!
Hit the rewind button please!
Saturday started - Possessions- Part 2- Where we planned on giving away 7 items a day of (non-clothing) for a total of 49 items.
I went into the attic to pull out some items to purge when I came across MORE CLOTHES! ugh... I spent two hours going through the clothing and had to take a break. Here's just a few of boy's clothing that no longer fit. Talk about excess!
This is a good reminder I must go through any hand me downs right away so I can pass on what is excess.
Clearly one week was not long enough to purge all the excess clothing we have! I have hit the rewind button. We are modifying the 7 Schedule- this week we will continue giving away clothing and shoes.
June 23 - 29: Possessions- We will give away clothing and shoes an additional 7 days. Let's see if we can give away another 200 pieces of clothing.
I will update our Summer of 7 schedule later this week.
Interested in how others are doing? check out the blog hop:
I went into the attic to pull out some items to purge when I came across MORE CLOTHES! ugh... I spent two hours going through the clothing and had to take a break. Here's just a few of boy's clothing that no longer fit. Talk about excess!
This is a good reminder I must go through any hand me downs right away so I can pass on what is excess.
Clearly one week was not long enough to purge all the excess clothing we have! I have hit the rewind button. We are modifying the 7 Schedule- this week we will continue giving away clothing and shoes.
June 23 - 29: Possessions- We will give away clothing and shoes an additional 7 days. Let's see if we can give away another 200 pieces of clothing.
I will update our Summer of 7 schedule later this week.
Interested in how others are doing? check out the blog hop:
Friday, June 22, 2012
7 Days of purging
The purge started off strong then was slowed down by my son turning TEN! Days 5, 6 and 7 we purged things but not at the previous rate. I finally purged items from the hall closet! The number of coats, pull overs, rain coats, etc was insane but has been trimmed down. The final three days we purged 42 items. The grand total purged - 247 items. WOW! This total does not include several items in the laundry basket to be purged.
Until I looked in our closet with fresh eyes I had no idea how much we had. Before we were married my husband had this policy- purchase one new item then purge two old items. He has tried to stick with this policy over the years. Now I can see the benefits of doing this. Our budget does not allow us to purchase clothing on a whim or because of a new style but I am certainly guilty of holding on to clothing which "brings back memories", clothing I like that doesn't fit or clothing I like enough only to wear when everything else is dirty!
For me "The Purge" was an excellent reminder that the purge must be done each season AND when I get a bag of hand me downs for the boys I need to go through the items and compare them to what we already have. Otherwise, I will find 12 pair of sweat pants in the closet! Ugh.
Starting tomorrow- Possessions- Part 2- We will give away 7 items a day of (non-clothing) for a total of 49 items. May the purge continue.
Until I looked in our closet with fresh eyes I had no idea how much we had. Before we were married my husband had this policy- purchase one new item then purge two old items. He has tried to stick with this policy over the years. Now I can see the benefits of doing this. Our budget does not allow us to purchase clothing on a whim or because of a new style but I am certainly guilty of holding on to clothing which "brings back memories", clothing I like that doesn't fit or clothing I like enough only to wear when everything else is dirty!
For me "The Purge" was an excellent reminder that the purge must be done each season AND when I get a bag of hand me downs for the boys I need to go through the items and compare them to what we already have. Otherwise, I will find 12 pair of sweat pants in the closet! Ugh.
Starting tomorrow- Possessions- Part 2- We will give away 7 items a day of (non-clothing) for a total of 49 items. May the purge continue.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Day 3 &4 of the Purge- slow going
This morning I went to pull out my swim suit cover up but it was in the dirty clothes basket. No problem, Plan B- I'll go to my tier 2 options except they are not there. I purged them on Saturday. Plan C- I pulled out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Life goes on without Tier 2 and 3 clothing!
Day 3 and 4 were harder to purge than the previous days. I went to the coat closet opened the door, felt overwhelmed and shut the door. We have more coats than we need but prioritizing what we need and what we "want" seems to be harder for me than clothing. I will get back to the closet when I have more energy and dare I say a plan?
It's harder for me to give away Merone's clothing. To give it away means our family is complete. And when my head isn't stuck in her closet we will tell you our family is complete. Giving Merone's clothing away means it's final (gasp!). Or maybe I want her to stay at age 2 for many years to come. So after giving myself a pep talk- I pulled out 6 outfits and a pair of shoes. Then it was on to Igor and Henry's closet.
I went through Igor's clothing. As I looked at each item I wondered, will Henry wear this in a couple years? If I give too much away will I have to buy clothes for Henry in the future? Once I got into the pile of clothing I realized there was much we could purge. Igor owns 12 or more pair of sweat pants (all hand me downs)! No child needs that many sweat pants. After the purge he owns half that and I may go back to purge some more. I also found more of Henry's clothing that no longer fits or I know he will never wear. Boy does it feel good to open their closet and see the floor and have room to hang things.
Last night Rob went through his side of the closet and pulled out 22 pieces of clothing. WOW!
The tally for Day 3 and 4:
28 items from Henry and Igor's closet, including 3 pair of shoes
22 items of baby clothes
6 of Merone's outfits and a pair of shoes.
22 pieces of clothing from Rob's closet.
78 + 127 (Day 1 and 2) = 205
The goal was 245 items but now the goal is to purge items we no longer wear or need. We will easily exceed the goal of 245 pieces of clothing/shoes. Tomorrow I will go through the dresser drawers and the coat closet. We still have a lot of purging to do.
Interested in how others are doing? check out the blog hop:
Day 3 and 4 were harder to purge than the previous days. I went to the coat closet opened the door, felt overwhelmed and shut the door. We have more coats than we need but prioritizing what we need and what we "want" seems to be harder for me than clothing. I will get back to the closet when I have more energy and dare I say a plan?
It's harder for me to give away Merone's clothing. To give it away means our family is complete. And when my head isn't stuck in her closet we will tell you our family is complete. Giving Merone's clothing away means it's final (gasp!). Or maybe I want her to stay at age 2 for many years to come. So after giving myself a pep talk- I pulled out 6 outfits and a pair of shoes. Then it was on to Igor and Henry's closet.
I went through Igor's clothing. As I looked at each item I wondered, will Henry wear this in a couple years? If I give too much away will I have to buy clothes for Henry in the future? Once I got into the pile of clothing I realized there was much we could purge. Igor owns 12 or more pair of sweat pants (all hand me downs)! No child needs that many sweat pants. After the purge he owns half that and I may go back to purge some more. I also found more of Henry's clothing that no longer fits or I know he will never wear. Boy does it feel good to open their closet and see the floor and have room to hang things.
Last night Rob went through his side of the closet and pulled out 22 pieces of clothing. WOW!
The tally for Day 3 and 4:
28 items from Henry and Igor's closet, including 3 pair of shoes
22 items of baby clothes
6 of Merone's outfits and a pair of shoes.
22 pieces of clothing from Rob's closet.
78 + 127 (Day 1 and 2) = 205
The goal was 245 items but now the goal is to purge items we no longer wear or need. We will easily exceed the goal of 245 pieces of clothing/shoes. Tomorrow I will go through the dresser drawers and the coat closet. We still have a lot of purging to do.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Day 2 of the Purge
Yesterday the kids attended two birthday parties so the house was
quiet. I used the time to start the purge. I went through my side of
the closet and started pulling out items that do not fit, don't look
good on me or I would only wear in a clothing emergency. What's a
clothing emergency?? It's when my favorite clothing is dirty so I must
resort to my second tier clothing.. these are clothes I wear if I have
to not because I want to. It's sad that I have several tiers of
clothing. I pulled out 35 pieces of clothing without having to make
hard choices. I decided to see if I could pull out another 35 pieces
and I did. Although the second purge of 35 included 5 pair of shoes. I
did pick more carefully in the second round but all 70 items needed to go
and I still have plenty of clothes to wear. Talk about excess- ugh...
A couple things that struck me:
- It only took me 15-20 minutes to pull out and stack 70 pieces of clothing and shoes.
- While it was not hard to identify the clothes that needed to go I found myself thinking- I bought that when I was with, or I wore that when I worked full time, or that's the suit I normally wear to such and such.
- I associate clothing with people and memories. For me holding on to the clothes I no longer wear is like keeping old friends in my closet... except the reality is there are no friends in there- just clothes.
My next stop was Henry's closet. I knew he had clothing in his closet we could purge. I was surprised at how much we could purge. Most of the clothing was clothes that no longer fit him or I knew he would never wear. This process took me much longer than 20 minutes because I wanted to match up the clothing sets. The clothing in very good or good shape was being handed down another family. Everything else is being sent to the thrift store or made into rags. The count in Henry's closet- 57. Serious excess!
The current total for day 1 and 2 is 127 items. WOW!! Who knew we had so much?? We are half way to our 245 goal and we still have Rob, Merone's and Igor's closets to go through. Now, it's not about meeting the goal which I thought was set very high (HA!). It's about removing the excess clothing and shoes.
Interested in how others are doing? check out the blog hop:
7- The goals
Rob and I read Jen Hatmaker's book-
"7 : An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" - 7 is the true story of how Jen took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.
For while I've been uncomfortable with all our "stuff" BUT I love our stuff. I know, I have a problem if I LOVE my STUFF!! So we are participating in the Summer of 7…several other bloggers have started and I think I (we) will be more accountable if we write down our goals and share our experience. For the next 7 weeks we will get rid of the excess and live with less.
So, we will be sharing the next 7 weeks of the changes we are making, our victories and challenges of our 7.
Here is our list of 7
June 16 - 22: Possessions- We will give away 7 items of clothing and shoes per person (35 items) a day for 7 days (245 items).
June 23 - 29: Possessions- Part 2- We will give away 7 items a day of (non-clothing) for a total of 49 items
June 30 - July 6: Media - We don't have cable or Netflix or any gaming system so this will be Internet related. The cruel details are to be determined (I'm thinking a facebook fast? shudder..)
July 7 - 13: Clothes- We will wear just 7 articles of clothing - items and exemptions to be determined.
July 14 - 20: Stress- We are going to do a modified version of the seven prayers from the book. It will probably be five pauses for prayer.
July 21 - 27: Spending- This may be modified but for now we will not purchase any items this week. (exceptions would be any medical emergencies and RX's that may need to be filled)
July 28 - Aug 3: Food- We will eat 7 foods which is currently being negotiated.
This isn't Jen's list because we modified it for our family. For those wondering where recycling is on our list- no fears- We recycle every stinkin' thing that can be recycled. We a have a garden and belong to a CSA. We buy many things locally so we thought the list above would be a good start. May the adventure begin!
"7 : An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" - 7 is the true story of how Jen took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.
For while I've been uncomfortable with all our "stuff" BUT I love our stuff. I know, I have a problem if I LOVE my STUFF!! So we are participating in the Summer of 7…several other bloggers have started and I think I (we) will be more accountable if we write down our goals and share our experience. For the next 7 weeks we will get rid of the excess and live with less.
So, we will be sharing the next 7 weeks of the changes we are making, our victories and challenges of our 7.
Here is our list of 7
June 16 - 22: Possessions- We will give away 7 items of clothing and shoes per person (35 items) a day for 7 days (245 items).
June 23 - 29: Possessions- Part 2- We will give away 7 items a day of (non-clothing) for a total of 49 items
June 30 - July 6: Media - We don't have cable or Netflix or any gaming system so this will be Internet related. The cruel details are to be determined (I'm thinking a facebook fast? shudder..)
July 7 - 13: Clothes- We will wear just 7 articles of clothing - items and exemptions to be determined.
July 14 - 20: Stress- We are going to do a modified version of the seven prayers from the book. It will probably be five pauses for prayer.
July 21 - 27: Spending- This may be modified but for now we will not purchase any items this week. (exceptions would be any medical emergencies and RX's that may need to be filled)
July 28 - Aug 3: Food- We will eat 7 foods which is currently being negotiated.
This isn't Jen's list because we modified it for our family. For those wondering where recycling is on our list- no fears- We recycle every stinkin' thing that can be recycled. We a have a garden and belong to a CSA. We buy many things locally so we thought the list above would be a good start. May the adventure begin!
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Summer of 7
Rob and I read Jen Hatmaker's book: "7 : An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess"
We are going to spend the next 7 weeks purging and modifying our life style. We are also going to share our challenges and victories along the way. We have created a new page "Summer of 7" on our blog if you would like to follow along OR join us!!
We are going to spend the next 7 weeks purging and modifying our life style. We are also going to share our challenges and victories along the way. We have created a new page "Summer of 7" on our blog if you would like to follow along OR join us!!
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