How can a weekend be busy AND exciting you ask? Well, Saturday, Hannah had her very first soccer game of the season. She plays AYSO on the U6 Purple Pixies team with 7 other girls that are about as cute as they get. Even though we are not supposed to keep score, well, uh um, they came out with a 3-1 victory! They were all very excited and rushed to hug their snacks and drinks. What did you think I was going to say moms? Ha! At the end of the game, the only thing that is important is the snack and playground, everything else is a far second! Of course, being the photog that I am, I went to take pictures, lot of them. Have camera? check. Have lens? check. Have digital memory card to capture the pics? NO! I was horrified that somehow I totally left the memory card at home. So sorry, unless another parent there forwards me pics, I have none of her first game of the season. It happens to all of us, right? At least that is what I am telling myself... Let me wallow in my own misery, :-)!
Sunday morning we awake to Christian and his 3rd day of running a fever holding steady between 103.2 -103.7. I never get worried about high fevers unless they break the 104 mark. Our first pediatrician was 95 if he was young and his 5 fathers before him were all pediatricians so when he spoke, I listened. He gave me great advice about many things but one of them was about how Xander would carry a high fever with no other explanation. As a new mom, I would want to rush to the ER to find out what was wrong with my baby but he told me that all kids are different and a high fever, no matter how much motrin and tylenol you alternated or shoved in him, was his way of fighting off whatever virus he may have picked up. So, I listened and sure enough, he was always right. So, now when Christian has had 3 days worth of fever, I alternate meds, keep a cool rag handy and pump him full of fluids. With him not feeling well, mommy decided that we would do some spring/fall cleaning.
Being in Costa Rica was so cathartic and really put so many things in perspective for me. I live in one of the wealthiest areas of the country, this would be "new money" wealthy for most of the people living here and perspective is not something that many people here have. Being a good ole southern girl, I don't buy into all this "I've got to have" and "he who has the most toys..", etc. type of mentality. We live very modestly but yet afford our children most anything they want when it comes to activities, music, travel or education. These are areas that I don't mind spending a bit more. You are probably saying, get to the point....so here it is... When we were in Costa Rica, we lived for 10 days on very little. We enjoyed the scenery, we ate as locals, we played with ticos and we enjoyed our afternoon naps all without email, phones and very little tv. It was absolute bliss. I need that in my life now. We came home, the computer goes on, the tv's blare in the background, the door bells ring and ah, calgon take me away again comes to mind. A vacation worth of rest and relaxation completely out the window within 24hours.
As I look around my home, I see things that we just don't "need" and I know of many people (one who is our waitress, Susanna, at our favorite Mexican restaurant here in town, El Mariachi) who could benefit from our "wealth". I want a simpler life, one without all the excess so I just dove right in and started emptying out draws, closets, cabinets and more. We ended up with 4 garbage bags of trash, 3 bags of donation items, 2 boxes of documents from the filing cabinet that needed to be shredded and that was only out of one room. I felt a huge sense of relief from that purge and plan to do that in EVERY room. I need so little to truly be happy, my children and my husband are everything to me and the rest is just stuff, granted it's really nice stuff but again it's just stuff! I'll let you know how the rest of the purging goes. I start getting 6+ hours all to myself this week because all the kids will be in their own respective schools so we'll see how much I can toss without them even knowing, tee hee hee!
***Okay, let me clarify and spell it out here because I was called a hypocrite by someone who posted a comment yet didn't dare post who they were. For those that don't know me, I am not an extravagant spender, I do not like to just "shop for stuff I don't need", I spend with a purpose for things we do need. During the above said "purge" we donated a double stoller, multiple bags of clothing, shoes and household items to a family with 5 young girls where the mom works 3 jobs. SHe happens to be our favorite waitress at a local restaurant and we take care of her family as much as we take care of our own just because we can. All 3 of our children donate at holidays and birthday before they ever receive one gift. They are generous and kind. My oldest son raised almost $2000 for the Tsunami victims at the age of 9. We do not live in the "wealth" that surrounds us, that is just ridiculous to me. We have good morales, values and a solid foundation on what's important. As far as the comments about tv's, well this one was funny to me since we still watch the 27" tv that my husband bought in college. We do have other smaller units but this is our biggest tv in the house because that is not a priority for us. So before you want to cast stones and comments that you know nothing about, think about your own personal priorities and self and then come back and let's banter. Until then, these are simply rants, raves and comments from a mom who gives as much as she receives!
So, that's how you can have an exciting and boring weekend. The game was exciting (and so was the purge to me) however to everyone else, Sunday was a very boring day.....minus the football games. Go Panthers! Crying over the GA Bulldog upset. That is a big game in our house as Bob and Xander are Gamecock fans and Hannah and I are Bulldog fans. I can't stand the Gamecocks.......enough said about that, wink!
Anyway, I need to pick Hannah up from Kindergarten and work on my mounds of laundry. At some point Bob and I will update all the events and pics from our trip so stay tuned for more!!!
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