New Years Thoughts

With all of the busyness and excitement of the last few weeks...traveling to Indiana for a Wittleder Thanksgiving, staying in Pennsylvania with my family, then heading back here to celebrate the holidays with the 3 of us...I am feeling more contemplative this year about 2011 during my quieter days back in Colorado.

In this New Year, Matt and I would like to be even more dedicated to living a simpler life. Especially after the holidays as we look for places to put our new items, we are reminded of how easily it is to accumulate "things". So much that it takes the joy out of them because you can't find your "things!" As parents now we have to make even more of an effort to simplify. Every other month I am putting away Nathan's clothes that don't fit anymore and pulling out new ones! Each time I have to rearrange and reorganize to find some extra space in our apartment to store the ones that no longer fit. Not to mention car seats that he grows out of, toys, and all of the baby items he "needs!"

We want to raise our son to be content. This means we need to practice contentedness ourselves in our own purchases. So we are striving for that in our own lives. We are blessed to be living in a nice apartment in Colorado Springs and we don't want to accumulate so much that feel we need to be in a house before we are ready for that step. Hopefully, Nathan grows up to be content with what he has...not always yearning for the next best toy, trendier clothes, a nicer car, a bigger house and on and on and on!

We enjoy the freedom and time that comes from not owning a home and having a lot of stuff at this point in our lives. It gives us time to be together as a family, weekends to enjoy and not as much cleaning to do! We know that will change someday, but we want to enjoy this stage of our lives to its fullest while we are in it. And we want to focus on the benefits.

Because you are our dearest friends and family we share our thoughts that you might pray for us on this road to contentedness. Blessings to all of you in 2011!