For The Love Of Toys!

Toys.

I have a love/hate relationship with them, as I am sure lots of parents do. There are just too many toys! I have found that my kids actually play less when there is an over abundance of toys. Not to mention that they don't seem to appreciate their toys, or other things for that matter. Armed with this information, I began searching and praying for what to do.

Then I read this article titled "Why I took all my kids toys away {and why they won't get them back}" It was EXACTLY what I needed! Everything she said made me say, "oh my goodness, EXACTLY!". It was a breath of fresh air and I knew it was what I wanted to do something like this as well.

As soon as I knew I wanted to work up a plan of attack, I started preparing the kids. We have been talking about how we are very blessed and how we are called to help those around us through the blessings God gives us. And so my first step was to ask the kids which toys they wanted to donate. Luckily that step went very smoothy. We donate toys often, but the attitude my children have about it is less than willing and shows just how selfish they can be. When I saw this progress I knew it meant we had to keep up the momentum and go deeper.

Now we are preparing them for the next step, the bigger step. The step that a tiny piece of me is like "Am I crazy? Are the kids going to drive me nuts when I do this? Will it be worth it at all?".

The day after Thanksgiving we are going to bring ALL THE TOYS IN THE HOUSE into the living room. Together we are going to sort every single toy into piles. A donate pile, a pile of "always" toys, and then bin toys.

Always toys are going to be the toys they can have in their toy boxes in their rooms. Lula Mae will get to have her baby doll and accessories. Jayce will get his cars and trucks. They will each get to keep a few more "always" toys, but I will be sure that they are toys that spark imagination and creative play. These piles will be very MINIMAL and will be monitored frequently.

The bin toys will be sorted into 3 plastic bins. We will no longer say "this is his toy" or "this is her toy". The bins are OUR toys, They belong to everyone. I am going to try my hardest to make the bins make since. For example on bin will have the cash register, the play food, the chefs costume, the tea set, etc. so that when a bin is picked they can really play together. 

Each week the kids will pick out a bin TOGETHER that will stay in the playroom. For that week they can play with that bin, along with their "always" toys. They toys from the bins will not be allowed to come to their bedrooms, they must stay in the neutral area of the playroom. I am hopeful that that will help them to realize it isn't "his" or "hers", and instead theirs. 

This is just my overall vision. I realize there are still many details that need to be sorted out. I am confident, however, that this new system will really help my kids. We live in a "stuff" driven world and I am desperate to help them see that "stuff" is not important. I want them to appreciate things and really thank God for everything He has blessed them with.

I won't lie, this will be very hard for me. One of my love languages for my kids is "giving gifts". Part of the reason I want to do this is to help me realize that my kids don't need  all these things I am buying. I think this is really going to challenge me in a big way, and I am very excited about that. 

My kids will have some adjusting to do as well, I am sure of that. I can't wait to see what this does for our family!

Budget Revamp

In May I realized our budget was in trouble. In our family I handle the finances, with support from my husband. I am the more organized one which helps me handle the budget. However, in May, I realized I needed help. I needed my husband to step in and be a second brain. So we looked, and crunched and looked some more. At the end I felt much better about everything and we had a new plan. The new plan has been working so well!

Let me tell you about our old budget first. I had tons of categories and I would have a piece of paper in a binder for each one. Then, I would take every receipt and calculate how much money of each category had been spent. Then I would write that amount on each corresponding page. Confused? Yeah I know. It was incredibly time consuming and very hard to keep up with spending. I found myself over spending in almost every category on a monthly basis. I was so disappointed in myself an overly frustrated that I was not being a good steward. I even felt belittled by my husband a few times when he would make comments about the bank account (he did not realize that it was bothering me, so don't worry. He was only making general comments but since I was already insecure about the budget it made me feel attacked.

So the budget now? Simplified by a million! I combined most of the categories and narrowed them down to the basic. The kicker? We are on the cash system now! Oh my goodness, if you have never done it.... you should! It has been the best budget system for us yet! Each week I get out our set amount of cash, then once it is gone.... we are done spending! This system does require more planing with my shopping but that has been helpful to me. It has shown me how careless I was before. It has also shown me how little we really need to be happy. I am enjoying this new system for lots of reasons!

So what do you and your family do to help with your budget? 

Downgrade

In December our contract with Direct TV is up (Woo Hoo!). This is one time that I am like, "Come on December! Hurry it up!". Father Time please don't take that literally, okay? Today I called and downgraded our package to help lower the bill. Canceling our service before the contract is up would cost us about $500 so we are just trying to ride out our contract as cheaply as we can. I was hesitant to downgrade though, I will be honest. There is only one show my husband watches... River Monsters. There is also only one show I watch (when there is a new season on).... 19 Kids and Counting with the Duggars. The package that I wanted to downgrade to, that just happened to be the most basic package they offer, would mean dropping both of the channels that these shows came on. I didn't know what my husband would say, so I brought it up to him and to my surprise he was all for the downgrade. I wish I could be more like him sometimes. I wish I could just say "that doesn't matter at all" the way he can. I am working on it though. I grew up, not spoiled per say, but fortunate. I kinda want my kids to live a bit more primitive than I did. I don't want them to think that TV is everything, I want them to see TV as a privilege they get. I always thought I could never live without TV, but I am learning that I really really can, and that I really really want to. Cable is just so expensive and just feels like a huge waste to me. I like having PBS and Disney Junior, but I know I can find little clips for the kids to watch on the internet too. Plus we have DVDs that the kids love, and we have Netflix so we can keep new DVDs coming that we think are appropriate for them. So why be tied down to a bill! I feel good about our downgrade, but I really can't wait to be able to cancel our service all together.

I am slowly, and I mean s-l-o-w-l-y, learning that less is more. I am learning that we need to lead a more simple life because it is biblical. At the same time, I am learning how hard living simply can be. Funny how God does that, huh? Making things that are so necessary seem so impossible. When I see my daughter satisfied with the simplest things (empty paper towel roll, a few books, junk mail, crayons and paper, a bowl and a wooden spoon) and my son satisfied with just having my attention and a hand full of toys.... I know living a simple life is necessary and so incredibly possible.

What do you do to help you live a simpler life? Any tips?