A Good Kind of Tired

Today was exhausting and I'm trying to unwind a little before hitting the sheets.

It's a good exhaustion and was kind of fun.

We took a good look at the amount of stuff in our house, gave some serious thought to what we really needed in our lives...and gave most of our stuff away.

There was some brief discussion of storing it for a big garage sale but it will be at least July before Kevin is up to that kind of effort. The cost to store it and sell it made that idea unattractive.

So we put gave it away. That was the fun part. We set up a couple of emerging home daycares with many new toys and activity supplies. We provided enough baby stuff for 3 young families expecting their first children. We found families who needed some of the remaining furniture. Our girls each retrieved a few treasures.

We wanted Hannah and Andrea to get a chance to say goodbye to the house so we invited them to help with the task of giving away things. Hannah crawled up in the attic with Kevin and handed down toys and treasures to Andrea and me.

By late afternoon we had given away almost everything. After Easter Kate will take our bed and a bookcase and Travis has plans for the living room furniture and kitchen table set.

We are leaving some tools in the garage and barn and some toys in the outdoor play area for the use of the young family who will be our tenants.

It felt good to have our excess of things benefit so many people. I have an occasional twinge when I think about the money we might have earned through a sale, but Kevin is feeling really good about doing things as we did.

He falls asleep pretty easy these days from the demands chemotherapy has made on his body. Tonight, though, he feel asleep fast and hard from the effort of generosity.

That's a good kind of tired. I think we'll both have sweet dreams.