This and That

I thought I'd stop to post a little of what is going on here.  We have officially started our goodbyes.  Both of our closest neighbors (moms and kids) have now left for their summer home/village.  Both were hard goodbyes in that we see them nearly everyday.  Their kids are gone from the neighborhood and we miss their voices and faces.  At school Malachi and Sonora have both had goodbye parties for their teachers, both who are returning to America this year.  This Friday Malachi's class will have a small going away party for him.

When we aren't saying goodbyes we are busy with "stuff."  From big (the car) to small (things you find in cupboards here and there), we have things yet to find homes for or throw away.  It isn't the hardest thing in the world when you think of people living in war torn nations, those grieving a lost one, etc., but it does take time and is wearing.  This evening in a moment of purging I grabbed the crafts Malachi and Sonora made for me for Mothers' Day and chucked them.  Sonora found them in the box of trash and in the end I had to take them out again.  How do you explain to kids that you just can't keep everything.  I'm sentimental as it as and probably keep too many things either because they have sentimental value to me or because they are still perfectly usable and something we'd have to replace anyway.  But, when you are packing to move overseas with limited luggage (one suitcase a piece) and expensive extra luggage costs, you just can't bring it all.  Practical, sentimental, whatever the draw to take it, much is getting passed on to others.  And that in itself is a job because you don't want to burden someone with a bunch of stuff they might not even want.  So it is a pile here for so-and-so and a little book there for Sonora's little friend, and a pile to take to the school library, a pile for the art department, a pile of clothes for this neighbor, and that neighbor and on and on.  It takes time!!!!!

I've been really proud of the kids though.  I've given them each one suitcase for all their own belongings and for the most part it is working out.  Sonora's paper/notebook/stationary love is starting to flow over into another bag but what can I say, I have the same weakness so if my special notebooks, letters, and stationary is going, hers should too.  Both of them have been very generous with giving many of their toys away:  scooters, soccer balls, toy computer, stuffed animals, cars, beads, games . . . you name it.  They even seem to have people in mind for their belongings, and that to me is thoughtful.  Our kids have been so blessed.  They have enough toys and games to take back and keep using, and enough to share.  

But all in all, I guess whenever one moves, it really brings to light all the stuff that one accumulates.  Five years ago we were doing this same thing:  cleaning out our home, having garage sales, finding homes for all our things.  I can't remember where much of that stuff went.  We moved to Turkey with 14 pieces of luggage.  We will probably be coming back with the same amount (maybe more because of our love for books).  It seems like a small amount when you consider a normal move in which you take it all.  But on the other hand it seems like a lot.  Fourteen 50 lb. bags is 700 lbs. of stuff!  That sounds like a lot to me.  So, I guess it is all perspective.  Hopefully I'll continue to get the right perspective to be able to let certain things go and know what is meaningful and helpful for resettling.  Stuff is stuff.  Leaving stuff wasn't hard five years ago, leaving behind people was.  It is still the same.

On a last note.  I can't help but be thinking, as we move our luggage and whatever other belongings we have still in boxes at our parents' places to wherever our next home will be, that I want to settle my home slowly and thoughtfully.  I'm not in a hurry to fill it up with.  These bare walls and rooms feel a bit lonely, but there is also a freshness to a home uncluttered.  I'm looking forward to a clean slate again to strike that balance of homey but simple.  Moving seems to help one declutter.  Moving internationally is a clean slate (with a 700 lb. start).  :)