sparking joy

 P and G are away in Pensacola doing hurricane clean up.  I've been having some good time with the little kids.  I have watched a few house shows and 2 episodes of Marie Kondo on Netflix.  I like less stuff.  But I also like my stuff.  It's nice to see people get more peace from having less stuff. 

We plan to move in 3 years so I look at our home with an eye to, what have we used in the last 5 years, what will we use in the next 3, and what do I want to move with.  In 3 years L will be 8.  So much of our small child toys are already gone, and also the small child books can go.  We donate clothes a lots since the boys have filing cabinet drawers as dressers, there's only room for what they need.  

It's hard to balance wanting to teach them to value things, versus, teaching them to never let anything go.  lP and L each have a special little stuffed animal, but the other 30 stuffed animals aren't precious to anyone.  The children seem to come in 2 flavors.  There is M and B, who seem to like order a little more than G, lP and L.  B has recently taken to organizing books.  He has 2 shelves on the big bookshelf in his room and he likes setting up the Magic Treehouse and other collections he likes there. 

I've been moving the children's books to the front room and it's a little like the Kondo method as far as, seeing it all in one place, you realize how much it is.  And actually, we have 3 times as many books in the office/library!  P loves books though.  He never met a book he didn't want to keep.  And I like books too.  

We've been using kindles a lot in the last 6 years, so the P and kids do most of their reading on them.  I prefer a paper book, but am happy to download a book to get it quick from overdrive, rather than wait for it to come through the library hold system.  I feel like we hardly read the books we have, even in quarantine.  We'll maybe need to go through them sometime.  Even if we donate 10%, that would be several shelves of books!

I've been making boudz a lot lately and I decided I needed a new steamer.  The 8 inch one I had used for 14 years (once a year) had swelled and was no longer stable on the pot.  Instead of getting one online, I bought one from the local asia market, and some treats for the kids.  The new ones are 10 inch and will hold 2 times the boudz.  I plan to use parchment paper with them so the steamers don't need to be scrubbed and risk swelling again.