Hope and Hard Work

A few days before Christmas I got in my closet and cleaned out clothes that don't fit, the ones that are  hopelessly out of style and the ones I shouldn't have bought in the first place. By the time I gathered up the shoes that lined the floor of my side of the closet, I had the back of my car full. That load was taken to the Benton County Thrift Shop, one of my favorite places to find treasures! Then last week, I started gathering up things in the garage that we don't use and filling up the car again. Saturday we dropped those things off at Salvation Army. Today I cleared out 2 closets of purses, I'm making a dent in the things I've been putting off. If you're like me, you probably have good intentions. I think about organizing the closet, cabinets or junk drawers but something always gets in the way. So while I'm in this New Year/Clean House mode I'm going to do a little every week, filling up my car and taking it to Goodwill so someone can get some use out of it. I can't imagine how much stuff we'd have accumulated if we hadn't been transferred so much. This is actually the longest we've ever lived in one house, since 2005. That will be 8 years in May. 

I love the feeling of clean and organized, always have and always will. I'm past the early years of OCD, where I lined up cans in the pantry and clothes in the closet by color. Now I'm lucky to be able to find the extra peanut butter because it's hidden under bags of noodles or rice. The closets are bulging, probably because we have two wardrobes in there... fat and fatter! We are Americans, who have plenty, and for that I'm grateful. Never a day without food or a roof over our heads. That's not to say we never had to pinch pennies. The early years were nothing but lean so now it's a habit and a lifestyle. I buy on sale, choosing off brands and we make do. Years of being careful, I can just hear my Dad's words..."The Poor House is just around the corner!" 

But there's a world of folks out there with big worries that face this New Year with trepidation. Paychecks that are lighter because of heavy taxes, someone has to pay for social security but it still hurts. There are hurricanes to pay for, budgets to balance and deficits to be met. All without falling over a cliff. Little by little, that's how we do it. I know it can be done, our parents went through the Great Depression and with hard work kept their farms and prospered. A little bit of hope and a lot of hard work, we can do it!