Next birthday... comin up!

Its true. My daughter is turning one. Fortunately, it seems I've picked a theme that a lot of people can help with! We are having a Luau barbecue to celebrate her year of life. I have had so many people lend and give us leis, grass skirts, table cloths, lanterns... its been amazing. I've even found leis at a thrift store! It is slowly coming together and I'm so excited to see what the end result will be. I even found a grass skirt FOR my one year old! Oh, watch out for those pictures! Goodness.

Anyway, here we are in month four and still sticking to our resolution really well. Its amazing to see how little we need. In fact, we recently purged our house and had a yard sale. We made just over $100 on things we really would have PAID people to take away! The yard sale went something like this:

Customer: "how much for this _______?)
Us: "$5"
Customer: "Oh" and starts to walk away and look around
Us: "But how much will you take it for?"
Customer: "$1"
Us: "Excellent! Its yours!!!!!!!!"

We couldn't be talked down too low. The rest was donated to a local thrift store that I found on accident. The employer was out of tax deductible receipts and I didn't care- I just wanted to get rid of the left over stuff. That's the thrift store where I found two leis. He let me have them for free.

All that said... it seems our hearts are changing with this resolution in some interesting ways. Not only do we not want MORE but we are finding we don't even really want or need all that WE have. We are living on our own excess in so many ways. Its been so freeing to clear a bunch out. I feel round two coming on! Here's what we got rid of (in general): 3 dressers, 2 end tables, diaper changing table, baby video monitor, a bike, 1-2 bookshelves, bar stool, lots of clothes, broken skateboard (gave that away to someone who wanted to buy it!), lots of kitchen stuff... one woman even asked if we had any towels for sale. So we pulled out ALL of our rags and let her pick what she wanted! It was fun to run in our house and try to find things that people were looking for. A lot of it was just gave away too... so its amazing we made any money at all. One family was looking for baby dishes... so I ran in and pulled out my pantry for her to look through.

I pray that if there is anything hindering your freedom in this life, that you would be reminded that this is a HOTEL on our way to our permanent home. Your life is so short in the light of eternity. LET IT GO! :) This continues to be a lesson to myself... honestly, even as I look at my cluttered desk top right now. MOVE IT ON! :)

Blessings to you each as you endeavor to free up your lives however God leads you and to live on the plenty that we have!