A Homegrown Family

Today our family went to Baton Rouge to the temple and it is always very spiritually refilling. When we have the kiddos with us we take Yguy to Bass Pro in Denham Springs he loves tieing flys for flyfishing. So we go by that section and let him drool and then walk around and head on home.

Today as we walked around and looked at the gigantic snapping turtle in the indoor pond (and I mean gigantic it could take down our boarder collie dog), the ducks, the small turtles, cat fish, Donnie the raccoon, and of course the flytieing stuff many thoughts came to mind.

Santa was there decked out in all his country glory along with his elves with Bass Pro name tags. They had a 30 foot tree with a turkey for the tree topper, fishing poles, stuffed wildlife, and many other things that make men drool. People were Christmas shopping going all out like we all do with alot of things not just christmas.

As I looked around, while the boy child teenager drooled, I thought of all the money that was being spent on things that will be outgrown, destroyed in some frivalous way, or just plain tossed when it is of no use or not really liked in the first place.

Lately I have had many things running thru my mind when it comes to spending money and having things. Are things really so important, no not really. I just have to move it and dust it anyway. Or toss it, or store it, or well you all know what we do with our stuff.

My favorite is paying to store stuff you don't use anyway. Whoever invented storage units is very rich right now and those who have that as a bussiness probably do pretty well. Storage unit warehouses are like grave yards a waste of good real estate. Coming from someone whose husband is a grave digger...Hes heard my opinion on this alot.

Yes, I have used storage units and now I wish I would have just yard saled or thrift stored it all. They do come in handy like when your moving and have nowhere to put your belongings, or say a death in the family and nowhere to put their belongings as you slowly go thru it all. Someone once said you never see a uhaul following a hearse, cause you can't take it with you. Oh and yes I have family members buried in graveyards. :0)

But as I have been going thru my mind and thinking about where our money goes I have started seeing everything as money. I have always looked at diapers as a waste its like wrapping a dollar bill on them and then tossing it after they've used it. I used alot of clothe diapers when my kids were in them, yes I used plastic too sometimes. And they were so much easier but they are still in a landfill somewhere and the money to buy them isn't helping me or that landfill but the person I bought them from.

Or the food we buy the more packaging it has, the less you get, and the more you spend. Oh and lets not forget the vitamins and minerals your not getting because of what you just ate and the empty calories that just stuck to your hind quarters oh wait those are mine they stuck to....

Its not easy to brake away from the disposable life, do we work hard day in and day out just so we can have convience when it has added inches to our measurments, blood pressure meds to our morning routine, and a bigger number on that scale. But are we actually working as well as taking pride in what we do instead thinking its drugery.

We are a fickle society with lazy and weird notions on what happiness is really all about, I think. I am just as fickle I like a soda pop sometimes OK, I crave the sugar in them all the TIME! I have to much stuff, I like to veg sometimes on this mind numbing thing called cyber space, and we have far to much disposable income. That shouldn't be!

But as I am TRYING to change and become a better person, it is SO hard, those faults in myself are coming clearer and clearer. I need to take that step and Keep Calm and Carry On.

Maybe these thoughts and ideas are coming for a reason they are making me see what I do in another light is the time I am spending really productive, the money I am spending really being spent on healthy, helpful, uplifting, and lets not forget a good deal.

One day I will see everything in the light its suppose to be seen in but for now I keep my paper bag handy for those hyperventalating days that overwhelm when some new thought is trying to come to fruition. That light comes on and yet another area I need ALOT of work on comes to light. I will take a slow deep breath and think....

Keep Calm and Carry On.