It's Too Heavy

I was in the kitchen getting ready to make lunch when I heard my little boy in the family room huffing and puffing, "It's too heavy.  I can't carry it." I went into the room and found him trying to carry a box full of stuff that was way to heavy for him to carry.  I looked at him and said, "If it's too heavy, just put it down.  You don't have to carry it by yourself".

How many times have I heard those words in my life?  So often I find myself burdened with so much stuff.  Stressful days, tough situations with my kids, rough patches in marriage, baggage from my past, news of sickness in a good friend.  It seems like everyday more and more "stuff" is added to my box of life and sometimes it gets overwhelming trying to carry it all.  But just like I eased my son's burden by helping him carry his little box full of treasures, God is just standing by waiting for me to ask him to help carry my box of stuff.  I don't have to be supermom.  I don't have to carry the weight of the world and all the awful things that go on in it on my shoulders.  I can lay it at his feet and ask him to carry it for me.  His shoulders are big enough.  His love is strong enough.  All I have to do is ask.

After a few items were emptied out of my sons little box he picked it up and said, with great confidence, "It's not too heavy.  I can carry it now!"  Today I am going to empty a few things out of my box.  I am going to lay them at the feet of the one who is strong enough to carry them for me.  I am not called to be perfect.  I am called to be his child.  I am called to trust him.

If this doesn't make sense to you, ask me about it.  I'll be glad to share how you too can get rid of your heavy box.

The Year of 52 Blessings

Today on my way home from clearance sale shopping for next years snowsuits I went through the McDonalds drive through for a peppermint mocha.  I will admit that first sip made me feel a little sad.  Christmas really is over.  A week ago I was thrilled to pack up Christmas and get back to "normal" life but today as I was taking that pepperminty sip I suddenly felt a longing for the colorful lights, the adorned tree, and the excited shopping.  Now that I am home that feeling has certainly passed but I remember years past where I felt a very real sadness after the holiday season was over.  I'm sure I am not alone as January can be a very depressing month with the dark days and freezing cold.  But this year my little L and I decided that we were going to make 2014 into the year of 52 Blessings.  Every week we will be finding something that we can do to bless others.  This was our first week.  The challenge is finding things to do that are relatively easy to accomplish with three kids in tow and something that L can easily help with.  This week L decided to draw some pictures that we could mail to brighten someone's day.  L drew three lovely pictures and we mailed them to some of my great aunts and uncles and my grandma.  We wrote a little note that said we were thinking of them and hoped the picture brightened their day.  L is super excited to put them in the mailbox today after school and I must admit that seeing her excitement makes me feel pretty proud.  Looking forward to seeing what blessings we can come up with throughout the year.  Any suggestions?

Toy, Toys and More Toys!

My kids are blessed.  They have more toys then they know what to do with.  We try to make sure we are always giving some away as we get more for birthdays and Christmas but they seem to keep piling up.  I have a friend who is good at packing some of the toys away and rotating them on a regular basis.  I really like this idea but I struggled with how to do it.  I forget about the toys I pack away until the kids noticed them in the laundry room so then I take them out for the kids to play with and then never put any others away.  Sigh.  Then when I want to try to put some away again I struggle with which ones to put away.  The kiddos really do play with most of their toys.  When I notice a toy hasn't been played with in a while then I toss it in the donation bin and away it goes.  So, when it came time to figure out which toys to put away I couldn't make up my mind. 

Then Christmas happened.  My parents were very generous this year and gave L a beautiful (large) doll house and the boys got a train table.  Both great presents but I joked that they must be getting the hubby and I a house addition for Christmas.  Alas, no house addition was unwrapped and once the toys were put into our tiny basement toy room which also serves as a TV room and the home of my new treadmill (oooo, I'll have to blog about that soon.....), there was barely any room to walk.  And then it happened.  I went downstairs after the kids had been playing and I found toys everywhere.  It took forever to clean up and I thought to myself, "we waste so much time cleaning up toys!".  So, I came up with a plan.

I packed away all the toys.  Literally.  I put them all in storage bins and baskets (thank you Superstore for the coupon for free bins this week!) and I put them in the front of our crawlspace.  Every Sunday the kids get to go in and pick two things they would like to play with that week.  The rest stays in the crawlspace.  Every Sunday the kids can exchange their toys for different ones if they like.  We kept out the train table, doll house, books and teddy bears and a few odds and ends like some trucks for T and some Barbie dolls for L but it all fits in a few little fabric bins we can fit in our little cube self.  The rest is put away.  It feels SOOOO good.  The house seems less cluttered, the kids don't miss most of the toys, and we spend way less time cleaning up.  Now, lets see if we can really keep this up for the rest of the year ;)

The tea party, cookies, and cake set all have their own bins.

 

The little people are all grouped according to what set they belong to.

All the toys tucked away in the crawl space.