Homework

For a while now Dan and I have been excited about a big move we think God has for us. We're preparing our house for sale so that we can move back to Southampton County, VA where we hope to raise chickens (among other things) in a sustainable agriculture setting. Over the past year we've been introduced to some ideas and have put some significant time into researching these ideas, and we're excited about putting those ideas into practice. We've been doing that little by little where we are by altering our food purchases, growing some of our own food, and fixing up our house so that we can start practicing these ideas in a big way.

So, now that fall is here and carpentry work is heading into it's annual downtime, Dan has been doing double time around the house. Earlier in the summer he put in a new bathroom. This month he's put up some new light fixtures, replaced the outside fixture, repaired an outside outlet, primed all the bare wood from the windows he put in last year, repaired some drywall in our bedroom, fixed an overhead fixture in the bedroom that wasn't working, and we've done extensive landscaping in the front yard. Phew! That's not to mention the boxes we have packed and all the lovely pieces of junk we've freecycled or trashed. Our goal is to get it looking like a Pottery Barn catalog so we can put it on the market, but the closer we get, the more I like it!

I never realized how much junk we had until we started getting rid of it. The last few times we've been on vacation, we've marveled at how nice it is in the cabin with only the necessities and a week's worth of clothes. There's no excess laundry to pile up or dishes to stack, and the kids never seem to miss all the toys.

So, now we're just trying to create the same feel at home. Why have more toys than they can see at once? The overabundance just means they're never really enjoyed. Do we really need more than a week's worth of clothes? And do we really need to save clothes for later? For when the kids are older, or I've lost weight, or get pregnant again? Clothes just seem to appear at all times, so we're taking that blessing and using the clothes we need and passing on the ones we're not using.

And the rest of our things? We're keeping only the most useful, beautiful or sentimental of items, and passing on the rest to new homes. My new motto is: Just because there's nothing wrong with it doesn't mean there's anything right with it, either! And the things I can't bear to part with are being packed away into boxes in the shed. Hopefully by the time we've moved and begun to unpack, I'll be able to see more clearly which of them is truly valuable and which things just need to go.