40 Bags in 40 Days AGAIN

     It's almost that time of year...Lent!  Lent is so special because it's a time for us to think about what Jesus gave up.  A time to prepare ourselves for that sacrifice.  During Lent, our family gives up meat on Fridays, we pray more, we attend special Masses for Ash Wednesday and Stations of the Cross.  A few years ago, I decided that I needed something else along with these.  I knew that our house and my mind was filled with way to much clutter!

     We have a nice sized house with a small limestone basement.  So only the Christmas tree and decorations are in the basement.  Everything else that we own is in our house and in our garage.  That means all of our out of season clothes, extra toys, books, EVERYTHING is right where we live and park our cars.  Honestly, it can get a little (a lot) cluttered quickly.  I also and it seems like my kids have a hard time getting rid of things.  I hang on to clothes, books, and toys because there's an 8 year gap between kid #2 and #3.  That means, the younger two will grow into those things and I just don't see the point in donating to turn around and repurchase things.

     We also like to do a lot of crafts and projects around here, so we have quite a bit of that stuff around too.  Plus all of my teaching and mommy school stuff.  Even though we have a nice sized house, sometimes it seems too small for the 6 of us!  But I know that if we got a bigger house, we'd fill it up with more STUFF!

     The more stuff I collect, the more I get anxious when I try to clean or even organize.  I'm at the point, where once again I need to PURGE a ton of extra things.  Our little ones have outgrown quite a few toys, books and clothes and I'm emotionally ready to move them out.  Over the summer, I donated all of the kids' clothing (I had been saving them for a garage sale- but I just needed it to be gone!)  We also gave our crib away (a very emotional day) but we're in a new season of our life.

     So during this Lent, I'm going to give up our extras, our wants, my stress.  I'm going to do my best to live more simply and be happy and satisfied with what I have.  I'm going to do my best to teach this and share with my family.  This year, I'm going to once again complete the 40 bags in 40 days challenge.  Are you with me?