My little family has moved twice
since February of this year. I’ve
learned a few things in those experiences:
- Our “stuff” multiplied exponentially after we had kids.
- We have WAY too much “stuff.”
- I have stellar spatial reasoning skills and can pack a box like a sardine can with way more than you might think would fit. :)
- You should always pack a suitcase of what you and your family will need immediately—changes of clothes, toiletries, and night-time essentials for your kiddos (we have special books and snuggly toys for bedtime). I also packed a special box of things I would need for my job, or my hubby would need for school, since he is a fulltime college student.
- Always…always label what is in your boxes. If you don’t it will come back to bite you in the rear—learned this during move #2 of this year.
- I hate the task of going through everything I (and my family) own and deciding what stay and what goes.
- I hate moving…period.
Before these past two moves, we
had lived in our home since 2005, so other than the home I grew up in as a
child, the almost 8 years we spent in our first house as a married couple is
the longest I’ve lived in one place. You
accumulate a lot of stuff when you live in the same place. Once we had children, it’s as if it
doubled. Where does all this stuff come
from? We were in need of a major purge
of the things we owned before the first move, however, it just brought it to
light, and what an overwhelming experience that was.
Aside from all of that, as I
said in point #7, I hate moving. Each…and…every…part. I hate having to deal with what you’re giving
away or selling; I hate boxing things
up, and taking them out, and trying to decide where they are going to “live” in
the new place. More than anything, I
despise the chaotic feeling I have, not being able to find exactly what I need,
when I need it, and having to spend extra time searching for stuff after a
move. It’s the displaced feeling I get
that unnerves me, and not being surrounding by the things I need to
function. I know, I know, first-world
problems.
During our first move this year,
our children were 3 and 16 months old, and they would literally come behind me
after I had filled a box, and take it all out.
It was two steps forward and five steps back. Unpacking with small children is quite the
same—you can’t accomplish much at once. Perhaps
this is just me. Back to the first move:
We moved in a whirlwind and just
moved the things in our home, and were not able to deal with our storage unit
in that town. We moved 2+ hours away and
thought we would be able to move everything out of the unit soon. So, when we arrived at the first new place,
being totally overwhelmed by the number of boxes in our home, I was looking for
anything that did not “have to” be with us.
We had move from a house to a duplex, and although it was a fairly large
place, it was still quite smaller than our house so again, I knew something had
to go. Therefore during one of our trips
back to the original house to get more stuff out, I told my husband to load up
all of our Christmas decorations and we would put them in storage since we didn’t
“have to” have them right now. All the
while thinking we would not still be dealing with a storage unit come December.
Fast-forward to present day and
a second move later: Still haven’t been
able to clear out our storage unit, and our Christmas decorations are still 100
miles away. Only problem now is I need
them…and don’t have the money to make the trip to go get them. As December was approaching and I came to
this realization I was heartbroken. This
is the first Christmas we have had since the two moves. We are in a house now, and I was so looking
forward to decorating this place from top to bottom. It was hard for me when I realized that would
not happen. However, I am humbled that
God cares about the little details of our lives. I remembered last week that when we first
moved to this house in August, one of my sisters asked me if I wanted an extra
Christmas tree that her mother-in-law was giving away. In my head, I was thinking ‘yes—I’ll put one
up stairs and one downstairs,’ however, as it turns out, this one will be our
only tree this year, and I am oh so grateful.
Christmas is about Jesus, pure and simple, but it just doesn’t feel like
Christmas to me until our tree is up.
I purchased some shatterproof
ornaments and we decorated it on the 13th. My children were enamored with the
process. There were lots of “ooo’s and
ahh’s” when they saw the lights and had the chance to put on ornaments. My children are now 2 and 4, and so there
were a few chaotic moments...but what sweet memories. My little man helped Daddy get the tree out
of the box and danced around to the Christmas music playing; the princess
dumped all the ornaments out on the floor at least twice (notice I mentioned I
bought shatterproof lol). She also kept
stacking ornaments on the tree branches before I had a chance to put hooks in
them…then once they were on the tree she wanted to take them off and do it
again.
It is by far the most simple and
barely decorated tree I’ve ever had. It
does make me a little sad that our special ornaments (such as the one we have
from the year we got married—or the kid’s first ornaments) are not on there,
but again, I am so blessed that God knows everything. I am blessed that in August, He knew I would
not have access to my Christmas decorations in December, and that He provided
what I needed. I am blessed that He
cares about my little heart, and the happiness it brings me to sit in our
living room that is lit only by our tree.
It will be a Christmas different from any other…being in a new place for
the first time since 2005…but I’m thankful for the simple reminder that
Christmas is not “things” and that in most every situation, it is what you make
of it. I can be upset about things not
being exactly the way I would like them to be, or I can choose to see how it
worked out better than I could have imagined.
What has made this Christmas season special for you?
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