Declutter #37 - books and gifts

 I'm actually doing a blog entry early! This is intended for October 22, but I have a "home" day and I'm trying to get lots of stuff done. Sometimes I think this is less about decluttering and more about just plain old getting rid of stuff. We have a LOT of stuff.

My husband claims I have many more books than he has. I don't plan on counting all of "his" and "mine" to see who has more . . . but I disagree with him. And I read a lot more than he does! Anyhow, we own a LOT of books. A box recently came out of the garage attic and I was excited to dig in. But they were almost all his SciFi / Fantasy books. Sigh. We currently have SIX boxes of his books in the basement. And a full bookcase upstairs. And books at the lake. And more in the garage attic. And . . . what can I say? We like books!

But as I put HIS books in HIS book boxes, I pulled out some I had rescued from library weedings. I've not read these, but I am trying to remove things from my house that I no longer want. If I ever want to read these, I can get them from the library! (BTW, if you do not know me or my sweetheart, we get along great and tease one another about things like this.)

The other AHA! that I had this week was as I was ordering things to pack into Operation Christmas Child boxes. I ordered a few soccer balls with inflators. But I was using my spending money, because that was what I wanted to buy. I'd love to go shopping for lots of gifts for lots of kiddos! But we're trying to live within our means . . . and only brand new things are supposed to go into the boxes . . . and then I remembered! 

Many, many years ago, I bought a bunch of these little Beanie Baby roosters. The intention was to gift them at a United Cursillo event (now called Unidos en Christo). They are new, they are cute, and they are now going to church for our OCC packing event!

 

I will probably use my next week's spending money to buy more little things . . . I'm so blessed and I want to bless others.