Wacky Wednesday (a day late:) and packrats!

 The first grade is doing all kinds of fun daily themes this week, including Top Hat Tuesday, Wacky Hair Wednesday, Think Beach Thursday and Fuzzy Friend Friday!

This is about as "Wacky" as we get around here:) The boys stopped begging me for colored hair spray/dye and are perfectly content with hair-gelled spikes! He looks pretty cute all spiky:) Today for the Think Beach Thursday, the kids got to dress in flip-flops, bring in a special drink, a beach towel and a book and read outside! Zakkai has really gotten into some new series lately, including some of my old favorites, "The Bobbsey Twins" and "The Boxcar Children!" Samuel never really loved either of those so it makes me happy to see these books read by Zakkai. And some are my books I saved from childhood! Z brought a Bobbsey Twin book to school today to read.

The boys are really soaking up their outside time with friends before we go. They play soccer and kick and catch (the "in" game at school this year) for HOURS outside! Samuel's soccer ball finally bit the dust the other day because it had been well-loved:) We had to order a new one for their soccer party next week!

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I have been selling things left and right over here and practically am running my own Craigslist business:) Sometimes you just don't post things at the right time or it may not be a "hot item" and other times, you just hit the nail on the head! My family had better watch out or I may sell anything right out from under them!

We are really trying to lighten our load for our move to make it easier. There is no better time to purge, sell, give-away and toss than when you are moving! And I am on a roll, baby. I've sold a lot of toys that the kiddos have outgrown, just parted with our crib an hour ago (although I had to give that one away for free since it's a drop-side crib) and even sold our couch today! Yep, you read that right. Our couch. We have a super-heavy queen sized sleeper sofa that I worked hard to save up for by babysitting while pregnant with Zakkai and it is the bane of Ben's existence. Well, that and my piano:) (but that ain't for sale!)

The couch has been fine for us and very helpful when family has come to visit but it does have a broken support bar and it's so heavy that Ben really really hates to move it and put his foot down this time and said it had to go! I wasn't sure if I could sell it since it has the broken bar (we just put something under the couch to prop it up) but after no bites the first listing, I gave it one last shot and got 2 offers within a short period of time! Ben was very happy with me. So, as of Saturday afternoon, we'll all be fighting over our one big comfy chair:) Either that or the floor....

Also, my OH family is having a big garage sale tomorrow and we are hoping a lot of our stuff sells then, too. We need to save up for a new couch and a kitty and...eventually a table and some matching, non-broken chairs:) Sometimes I feel really good about all that we have been willing to part with and other times I look around at our stacks of boxes in the basement and corners of our dining room and feel a little overwhelmed!

I guess we're just at a stage of life, with 3 young children, that we have a lot of stuff and I need to get used to it. They do need some things to play with and there are five of us, which multiplies belongings rapidly! I've really come a long way since my old hoarding days!

My name is Heidi and I'm a recovering packrat.....

Mama Machine!

It's been a very busy several days! My mom was sweet enough to come last Friday for the weekend to help me pack. I have been working super hard the past week or two to weed through our belongings and get rid of as much as possible! So far I've come up with a huge garage sale pile, which journeyed back to OH with my mom for an upcoming family garage sale and have sold several things on craigslist.

The very first thing I sold was our Thomas trains set. Please observe a moment of silence with me....thank you!

You probably remember my ridiculously sentimental post about Thomas trains this past year. Hey, parents can get attached, too! I wasn't really attached to the trains, per se, but it was so very special to our Samuel for so long. Samuel dissolved into heartbroken tears last summer when we first brought up the idea of selling them so we put it on hold. He wasn't ready. But even though he was really sad this time around, he thought about it for several days and came to me last Thursday and gave me permission to sell them. He said, "Mommy, you know how we talked about selling the Thomas trains? I think I'm ready now." Such a big kid! I was really proud of him. We let him save out 3 of his absolute favorites (Thomas, Annie and Clarabel) for his memory box.

I kid you not, I posted the ad and within FIVE minutes, I had those babies sold! Wow. I know I listed for a lower price than some people were selling (people are a little crazy) but we do need to let go of things and it's not all about making money. Most of all, we wanted those trains to make a little boy (or girl) happy. And they did! The dad who bought them said they recently moved and their movers lost two boxes. Guess what was in those boxes? You got it, his son's trains. So we made a little 2 1/2 year old boy's day (and his parents!) and we felt good about that!

I sold several other things that day and the next and was overwhelmed with the amount of emails coming and going. Wow! The Thomas trains were by far the most popular and people were seriously disappointed they were gone. Also high on the list were wooden trains and a Lightning McQueen cars set. Guess I had some hot items! We'll see how the rest does....

My mom was a packing machine!  I get overwhelmed by all that has to be done and wasn't quite sure where to start after all the sorting and purging. My mom was awesome! The boys' room is done, except for last minute things and clothes! They have SOOOOO many knick-knacky things and clutter-galore. We were able to save the most important things and toss the rest or put it in our ever-growing garage sale pile. The kiddos really got into the spirit of it and were so good about letting go of things. A little too good sometimes:) Thankfully, my mom double checked with me to make sure I got final say.

Eliana loved "helping" with her brother's room and wanted her room packed up, too. She started putting anything and everything into boxes and claiming she didn't want things that she uses regularly. My mom humored her:) She had a little box filled with shoes that she loves and she told me to give them away because they weren't "special" to her. Ha! When she wasn't looking, I put them back in her shoe basket. She was very offended when she saw what I had done but all is forgiven now!

We made huge dents in the basement also and some other areas. I am trying to keep up the momentum on top of living our daily life, squeezing in get-togethers with our special friends here and planning the good-bye party. Whew!

We are working hard on details and trying very hard to trust that God will provide for our family! One day at a time.