He bought me a book- "Living the Simple Life" by Elaine St. James for my birthday. My birthday isn't until next week, so he took it to work to read before giving it to me. He called me after lunch all excited telling me that he just HAD TO go ahead and give me my present. He gave it to me when he got home and said he had read it on his lunchbreak and was totally into it now. He started giving me ideas and suggestions, and we looked at some web pages together. He said that after reading that book, he made a mental list of the things he is going to work on first: 1. Getting more "fit" physically and spiritually/mentally, 2. Looking for a job closer to home to shorten his commute. He was sitting here holding our baby and telling me that he realized that he drove for 3 hours every day- time wasted in the car that could be spent with us, and 3. Not staying late at work just because someone "expects" it of him and everyone else does it. He stays late because everyone else does, and he says he's going to stop. He'll do what he has to do and go home- nothing above that.
We decided that our first goal financially is to get an adequate savings account in case of disaster. After that, we will stop saving for a little while and pay off the cars as soon as possible so that our only debt is the mortgage.
I feel totally different now having him on board. I *thought* I could do this before, but now I *know*.
So....My house purging is slow but steady. We haven't brought new things into the house, so as long as I continue purging, I'm making progress, even if it is a slow journey.
I worked on the kitchen a little more this morning. We have 4 types of coffee cups- a nice set my mom just gave us, a set my husband brought when he moved in, the set that came with my dishes, and random novelty cups. I put everything in a box except the set my mom gave us and the cute novelty ones. I took all the "specialty" serving stuff (like Chinese soup bowls & a pretty tea set) and put them in a cabinet up high, for use only in special occasions. My kids had 4 sets of plates, I decreased it to 3. I could go further, but they are pretty destructive, so they will whittle away on their own over time. I breastfeed, but I used to work outside of the home and had bottles. I boxed them all up except one, for emergencies. My son refuses babyfood and purees, so I boxed up all the baby bowls. We had 2 sets of glasses. I put one in the box. I have another set in my car that my mom gave me, so I'll be going through that later.
Now I see how much wasted space my kitchen has because of cabinets and storage! After I post here, I'm going back to do these things:
Yesterday I also washed ALL the kids' clothes and started going through it. I matched up pants and shirts and put the rest on top of the dryer. I'm going through that today to see if I can match up any other sets. Everything left will go to Goodwill. Or Shana- do your girls *need* them? It would be mostly sizes 3,4,5. And Kamrin- I still need to send you some unpaper towels! I don't know anything about your kids and what their ages/sizes are, so if yours need anything like that, let me know. My children have a "unique" clothing situation. Their Grandmother has an obsession with shopping. Seriously. When she visits, she will bring EACH of them at LEAST 5 new outfits. At Christmas and birthdays, double that. I once told her I needed some onesies in size 6mos. She sent me TWENTY TWO onesies. All brand new. All namebrand. CRAZY!!!!! So when I offer clothes, I am serious!!!!!!!!! Their Dad has an entire closet of dresses they've never worn.