Stuff

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe how much stuff one accumulates over a lifetime. I guess that it doesn't help that you have probably two or three events a year that you will receive stuff, with the additional everyday collecting of things for this and that. And if you are a kid, you can probably add four or five more events a year where you receive stuff and thus, it makes the quantities all the more bountiful. If you are a kid like Maggie, who is the only grandchild and, for the most part, the only kid in the family, you can also add in the huge grandparent/relative factor to the equation.

Maggie and I have spent the majority of the afternoon cleaning her room, which just gets so overwhelming. When we first moved to this house, I thought that there would be no possible way that we could ever fill that room. And, low and behold, it is almost looking crowded in there! Unbelievable! To give some perspective, the kid has practically a wing of the house to herself for a playroom. A kids dream room really with a small closet for a secret room, a round window out to the front of the house and a small deck of her own.

Sometimes it gives me a small belly-ache to thing about what she might take for granted, which is why Ben and I try so hard to give her a little perspective. Don't know if our tactics have worked, but we sure do try all the same. I think that taking the toys and clothes to the homeless shelter right before Christmas made an impression on her. I sure hope it did.