Christmas

I don't decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. I like to leave my decorations up at least a week after New Year's. Sometimes I leave them up even longer. I have been known to still be taking them down in February. As much as I hate getting them out to put them up, I also hate taking them down and putting them away. Heck, time goes so fast these days, I think we should all just decorate for Christmas year round. No muss, no fuss. I usually start decorating around the first week of December. Well, I guess, to be more accurate, I actually start thinking about it then. It takes me another week to decide which things I am going to use. I used to put things in every single room of the house. That was when I was young. I had energy and time and less stuff. Now I use those things that appeal to me as I look through my boxes and mostly only decorate the living room and sometimes only decorate the tree. Sometimes I feel just a little bah! humbug!~ This year I am going to put my tree up around December 10th and then have my grandson's over for the weekend and let them decorate it. I will enjoy that and so will they. We will have to put only kid friendly ornaments on the bottom this year. Daelin is almost two and I know he will want to help and touch. Maybe I will just do the tree this year. Everything has been somewhat chaotic at my house for several years now. I can't keep up with things and I feel overwhelmed by stuff. Part of this is due to the fact that my stuff can't be where it belongs because my spaces are taken up by other people who are using those spaces for their stuff. I am not complaining. I am stating the facts. Just saying. When kids are moving in and moving out it is not always easy to just have your spaces. My house is not tiny, but it is not a huge castle where we each can have our own wing. Stuff can really start to become a problem sometimes. I have watched Hoarders. I don't want to be a hoarder. But it's complicated when you have stuff around that isn't yours and space that should be yours but isn't. I don't mind getting rid of stuff. But first I would like to have my own place so I can see just which of my stuff I really want and which of my stuff can go bye-bye. Even with that, I still give stuff away constantly. Bags and boxes of stuff leave this house monthly. But I still never run out of stuff. I have finally decided that the stuff is obeying a simple biblical law that I have forgotten to remember. "You reap what you sow." I remember back when I used to give away appliances. I somehow ended up with a surplus of certain things and so I gave them away. Big mistake. I was getting appliances for years. I finally realized I had to quit giving appliances away and I stopped. Now I only get given a few appliances now and then. The same thing happened with the boys's t-shirts. It was like they multiplied in the drawers at night. They would go to bed with a few t-shirts and in the morning you could barely open the drawers. Where did all those extra t-shirts come from? I realized I was always giving away their extra shirts. With five boys you just end up with extra shirts that either no one likes or they don't manage to fit anyone. So I gave them away. As soon as I quit giving them away...no more multiplying. It's a simple law really. If you don't sow, you can't reap. So now my question is...what do I do with all that stuff I want gone. I hate the process of selling it. I keep saying I will have a garage sale. Sigh. But that seems like so much work. I hate throwing good stuff in the garbage. And if I keep it to avoid sowing it, then I will just become a hoarder, right? Sigh. There is no easy solution. So I will start decorating for Christmas and in the meantime I can figure out how to get rid of stuff without getting stuff back. Wish me luck. (but not stuff).