So I took a bit of a blog hiatus during the Christmas season. Between having house guests for two weeks, various Christmas celebrations, after Christmas shopping, emergency room visits, New Years festivities, and family drama, I've just been a bit too busy to blog. But now that the hustle and bustle is beginning to settle down, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things.
Currently I'm attempting to get the house back in order. It looks like Christmas threw up somewhere between the playroom and the living room. All decor has been taken down (except the tree) but it is merely stacked on the hearth of the fireplace, waiting for Mr Incredible to get the Christmas boxes down from the attic so I can pack them all away. Our house guests left on Tuesday and since then I've been in recovery mode. Not because we didn't enjoy our time with them, but just because when you have guests you always run on a different schedule than normal. Kids go to bed later, the vacuuming gets pushed back, the dishes pile up.....you want to spend time with your guests, not go about your normal, everyday schedule of events. Add in three family get-togethers at your house in a week's time and it will look like a tornado blew through.
Not to mention that emergency room visit that I mentioned above.
On Christmas night, after the gifts were opened, our extended family had gone home, and we paid a visit to my sister's new place, I laid on the couch with pains in my abdomen that began to grow in intensity. At first I thought it was gas pains. When it grew worse and I was left rolling on the bed and the floor, unable to find a comfortable position, I knew it was time to head to the emergency room. Somewhere around midnight, Mr. Incredible stayed with the big kids while my parents and sister took the baby and I to the local ER.
After several hours, some IV fluids, a touch of IV pain medication, and an ultrasound, I was diagnosed with gallstones and sent home with a prescription for hydrocodone. I had just had my first ever (and hopefully only) gallbladder attack. Two hydrocodone later and I was finally able to fall asleep around 6 AM, completely exhausted. Since then, I've been fine. But now I have to schedule surgery to get my gallbladder removed. Joy, joy! Not to mention, when I met with the surgeon for a consultation, he found a loud murmur in my heart and he sent me for an echo-cardiogram with a cardiologist. Thankfully, it's just an innocent murmur and we can proceed with the surgery whenever I set it. I'm not looking forward to that!
Since it's a new year and a new beginning, I've been doing some thinking. Yesterday evening I looked around my home and noticed all the "stuff" that we have. God has really blessed our family. He's blessed Mr Incredible with a great job where we are able to have everything we need, and even a lot of what we want. However, sometimes we take advantage of that and end up with too much "stuff." So this morning I sat the kids down and we had a chat about VALUE during breakfast. My mom mentioned yesterday that she chose a word for the new year. It's something that she wants to try to incorporate into her life a little more. She chose "serve". This morning, as I chatted with the kids about VALUE, I figured that if we made that our word of the year, we could focus on it throughout the entire year.
I told them that with this new word will come some big changes. Birthdays, Christmases, and holidays will all bring less gifts. I explained that if they have less toys and receive them less often, the toys will get played with more often and will be more special. Therefore, they will VALUE them. We will no longer run to the store each week when they receive their $5 allowance (in which .50 goes to saving and .50 goes to tithing, therefore leaving $4 of spending money). They will be required to save their allowance on a monthly basis and then we will sit down and talk about what they may want to purchase or save for. No more spending their $4 a week on a whim for something they will only play with for two days. This also means no more random toy purchases at the store from mommy. This will be particularly difficult for me because I'm a giver. I love picking out gifts for people, bringing home surprises, and showering the kids with things that will bring a smile to their faces. I'll just have to dig deeper and find other ways to surprise them.
I guess that my main goal with this whole scenario is to change the way that they (and we) see value. Instead of valuing money or toys or shopping sprees, I want to shift their way of thinking and help them see the value of experiences, family outings, and intangible items. For example, I had them think back and remember the trip we took to the homeschool convention this past May. The kids were totally enamoured with the fact that we were given a free upgrade to a room with a balcony that overlooked the huge indoor atrium. They still talk about it often, even today. They thoroughly enjoyed opening those doors each morning and seeing all the people milling around. Each night, they sat our there and ate their evening snack. Currently, we'd never pay for that sort of upgrade at a hotel. We usually get the most basic of rooms. I told them that if we cut back on buying toys, unnecessary household items, and clothing that we don't need, then we would be more willing to pay for the "experience" of having a balcony overlooking an atrium. My kids got more enjoyment out of that balcony than they did from any souvenir they purchased that weekend. They remember the experience and not the purchased items. This is how I want it to be for them.
A few months ago when we talked about our upcoming trip to Disney World, Stitch exclaimed "I can't wait to buy something there!" This is exactly the sort of thinking I'm looking to discourage. I don't want her to immediately associate a family vacation with shopping. I want her to think "I can't wait to ride Thunder Mountain with Daddy!"
Another thing that learning about value will entail is a purging (again) of the playroom. If you've ever seen my kids playroom, you could probably compare it to a miniature Toys 'R' Us. Though we've done a great job of purging it over the last few months, it could stand to be purged a bit more. So that's what I've had the kids doing this morning. Right now, the room looks as if a disaster has struck, but that's usually what happens when cleaning out an area. Things look worse before they begin to look better. We discussed what to do with anything we happened to clean out of the house and we came to a conclusion. We're going to attempt to sell it either on craigslist or at a garage sale. The money made will be split into two portions. One portion will go to a yet-to-be-determined cause. I want the kids to help me come up with some way that the money can be used to help others. The other portion will go into an "experience" fund. We can pull from that fund for family vacations, day trips, or any other thing that we deem will be a good and memorable experience for our family.
It will be an interesting venture, to be sure. But I believe it will be highly beneficial to our kids future. Contentment, which I hope will come from learning about value, is an important concept that most of Americans lacks. God teaches us in the Bible to be content and this is exactly how I want my children to be. I don't want them constantly thinking of what's next, what's bigger, and what's better. I want them to live in the moment and be content. This all stems from valuing things. So I'm hoping that in 2012 we can all learn a thing or two about value, as well as have a fun time making memories from some experiences as a family.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seeing as it is nearly midnight and I still have one kiddo to get into bed, I'm signing off. She's been stuck to the TV this evening playing our new game, Skylanders. She sucked me into it and then later she sucked Mr Incredible into it as well. It's a cute game.
And this one just couldn't keep her eyes open to watch another level.
And this one I had to throw in.....just because.
