Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Having the things you Love, Loving the things you have

Jonesy and I are in week Five of the Financial Peace University classes. We had incurred some debt we were not happy about--medical bills and such and really wanting to prepare our family finances to make sure bringing in our new little ones would be a smooth financial transition. We have been kicking some Medical Bills to the curb and saving money, but we also have been selling a ton of stuff to make our goals more obtainable, quicker. We are going to be listing a ton of stuff on craigs list this next weekend, when we can move the stuff to photograph it and we are participating in a FPU yard sale the first weekend of October.

As I have been preparing for these sales, I have looked at my house with fresh eyes. I really love our house although it has current scars from wall removals and a need for some new floors. We have such great plans for this, our FOREVER home, but right now there are a lot of things in this house we don't love. I have thought about this a lot. Why do we buy things and bring things into our home when we don't love them? I think for me, it is impulse and lack of planning. Some things are things I loved once upon a time, but have moved away from loving.

I think I am going to write on my wallet, "Buy only what you love." Or maybe, "Do not settle to purchase something you like, if you can save and wait for something you love." How divine would it be to turn and in every cranny of your home you saw only things you LOVED--not liked, not functionably ok, but LOVED? I imagine you would have a lot less stuff and you would smile about 80% more than you currently do.

Married to this idea is being in love with what you have. Oh how I long to be content. I thrive on change...a gypsy living in middle class suburbia. I think if I surrounded myself with things I love and only the things I love, then I would lose my wandering eye a bit. BUT, I must also work on maintaining my love affair with the things I have. I am incredibly blessed before you get to the stuff in my house by having an amazing husband, children to write books about, a roof over my head and enough food to keep me from being the size I want to be. All the other stuff is just stuff--and why I have to admit I love stuff, I am refocusing my life to love what I have and only have what I love.