A wonderful thing happened a few weeks ago. I came across an old piece of paper. Simple I know....but that simple scrap had amazing words of wisdom scribbled on it. It was my birth plan for my first child from 2006. My eldest daughter was only a twinkle in my eye yet I had oodles of things I wanted her to know, to feel, to do; I even scribbled down things as mundane as, "wood toys only", "no make-up" and "less is more". Where had this mom gone?! Why had my priorities and my hard-line set of rules taken such a back seat to the mom I had become?
I begain to think hard, to analyze the person I am versus the person (the mom) I wanted to be. Eight years and four children later I want to take back my family and my kids. I remember fondly sitting with the love of my life and essentially creating a roadmap for our future, for our children. We had wants, wishes, and goals. The number one thing we agreed on, "don't allow stuff to become more important that people."
Somewhere along the line we found ourselves swimming in the belongings of our children. Something we promised ourselves we wouldn't do. But after every turn we also found ourselves buying more and more until our home was filled to the brim. After awhile 'stuff' is just 'stuff' but still it is a need so we continued to fill already full rooms with one of a kind 'stuff' and hard to find 'stuff' trying to justify the purchase. We came to a serious realization this holiday. WE were going to take back Christmas! We wanted moments not things. And the things that we were going to buy were going to mean something. We settled on each child receiving four gifts... a NEED, a WANT, a WEAR, and a DO. Actually it shows how little we truly NEED. Not one of the kids received a NEED gift and we actually told them we have it all. We have faith, family, friends and most importantly we have our health.
I actually think this was the best Christmas to date. We took pictures at the mall, baked cookies, drove around the neighborhood to look at lights, we had dinner out, wrapped gifts, and talked about the miracles of the holidays. It may sound too good to be true or like something out of a Rockwell painting and honestly....it's better.
My goal for my children is to be well rounded, respectful, and feel so deeply the love that I have for them. And you know what? I think STUFF just gets in the way.
