Stuff

When we first decided to go to Costa Rica, the question we received most frequently was "What are you going to do with all your stuff?" We didn't really know - ended up storing some, but selling a lot on craigslist, and lending some things out to family and friends. Corey and I started to kind of chuckle when we kept hearing that question though, cause it made it seem that people hesitate to move forward with ideas or dreams because of their "stuff".

I love the book "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett. I remember one part in the book where he says that stuff drains us of our energy - even if it's just sitting on a shelf or in a box... it emotionally calls out to us to remember it, to account for it, to dust it, to protect it - sapping us of our time and emotional energy. I see that a lot with my kids and their legos. ;) A good deal of their free time is spent searching for legos, gathering their legos, hiding their legos. I frequently hear them call our to another when they have to go to the bathroom, "Watch my legos! Don't let Lily or Abi touch my legos!" I have to remind them "Your sister is more important than plastic!"

So, I've been thinking of our stuff we left behind cause I am missing a lot of it. One of the hardest things for me right now, emotionally, is my lack of clothing. I miss my maternity clothes in storage and my shoes! I am excited to return to the US and find my bins of stuff and breath out a sigh of relief - I've been wearing the same pair of sandals since September. 2 of the 3 skirts I packed for Costa Rica were not with elastic waists and don't fit me now. My already small selection of clothes is getting smaller. I am rotating between 2 shirts and 2 pants too. As for the kiddos, I think I might throw/give away most of the kids clothes here - these clothes have served us well over the past 7 months and it's time to relieve them of duty. I might keep a few of the things that aren't totally worn out and stained. A lot of it though, I wouldn't mind if I never saw it again. I just got excited as I thought about going to make a drop off at the DI. Oh the little things I took for granted in my previous life! This experience has made me more grateful.

Brazil did too... I used to complain at BYU student housing about the laundry - I hated walking it over to the laundromat. Wah wah wah. Then we moved to DC, everything was good there, then we went to Brazil, where I spent a good amount of time washing clothes by hand. I repented of my murmuring at BYU and am pleased to say I have never murmured about laundry since. Even here in Chile, where it's a little annoying to wash whites and try to line dry so many socks. I don't mind shirts and pants, those are big pieces of laundry, but all the little socks gets a little annoying. But I haven't murmured. I am just grateful to have a washing machine.

Shortly after our return to the blesses US of A, I plan on going to buy that flourescent pink box of mexican popsicles from Costco and eat all of the coconut ones. I did that several times to calm my nerves when we were moving out. I ate them as I sat on the couch in the garage. Mmm. I can't remember what they were called. I just tried to find them with a google image search for "costco popsicles coco pina" and was surprised to see the first picture was one of my kids, and there was another kid in row two! The flavors were coconut, pineapple, strawberry, and mango. Go buy some of those if you haven't tried them, hopefully they still sell them. They are yummy.