1. All the money wasted on junk.
2. The fact that my son thinks every time I leave the house he get a "prize."
3. So much stuff never used.
4. The commercialism of EVERYTHING!
5. Christmas/Easter losing the true meaning.
6. Spending time with our stuff rather than with the ones we love.
7. The clutter physically/mentally/spiritually.
I am really lucky that when I bring up these topics that Hubby does not go screaming out of the house. He is in complete agreement with most of the topics. Sometimes I know he thinks that I am going to extremes, but sometimes I think extremes are needed. In Jen Hatmakers book she writes, "I am an extremist. I don't learn lessons easily, subtly or delicately. I can't be trusted with loose boundaries. If God gives me an inch, I will take a marathon. Dipping one toe in doesn't work for me, it simply hasten's my return to the couch where I can return to my regularly scheduled program. I am a difficult student who is a lot - okay, extremely - bullheaded. Total immersion is the only medium that can tame me." Amen! If I am given a little room I will start making excuses. Also, sometimes the extreme is what is needed. So here is the beginnings of our plan. I am sure it will be updated and changed and I will keep you informed :)
1. No buying anything other than food for one month. (This may be extended, but I thought I would start with 1 month.)
2. No "prizes" for our son with the exception of Christmas and Birthday. (This going to be hard for me. I love to buy him stuff. I just have to remember that he always goes back to the same 3 toys so why bother getting others.)
3. Purge. (Continue the online yard sale http://devonedisaster.weebly.com/purge.html until the house and I can breathe again.)
4. SEE #1
5. Limiting gifts to keep the real meaning in mind. ( We are drafting a letter to family about not buying hubby and me anything and only 1 present per family for son. I think some of the grandparents are going to revolt against this one. We were also talking about finding a good cause to donate the Christmas money to and allow son to choose the "gifts" for the charity. A friend told us how her family buys chicken, goats, fresh water, etc through http://www.samaritanspurse.org/ and allows her children to choose the gifts. I LOVE this idea!)
6. We are unplugging. We are not plunging into total technology darkness but we are installing a dimmer switch. I am a huge FB addict. I found that I was spending more time on there than with son. This had to stop. I love playing games so I started by deleting the games I play. Not it only takes me 2 minutes to get updated and I can go play with son. :) We are also in a testing phase of getting rid of cable. We signed up for Netflix for a 1 month trial to see if we can not watch "regular" tv. I realized after looking at Netflix lineup that many of the shows that I really enjoy are not available. I have to admit that I was sulking for a while, but then I realized that it would give me more time to do other things. It was time to break the addiction. By ditching cable we would save about $80 a month. This makes my heart happy.
7. SEE #1-6
Thanks for playing along :) Check back and see how it is going.