After talking with some friends last week about messes and how much crap we have in our houses, I got the gumption to clean and purge over the weekend. I don’t normally go through toys with my kids at home, because OHMYGOODNESS EVERYTHING IS EXCITING AND NEW AGAIN, but there were at least ten large tubs of toys that I had packed up and stuffed in the attic and needed to go through, and I wasn’t going to have any time to do that without the kids around.

Much to my surprise, though, Ivy not only watched me do it, without whining, but she helped me go through the boxes and pack up garbage bags to donate to Goodwill. She even said, several times, how fun it was and asked if there were more boxes to go through. We also cleaned out their closet and mine (I think I loaded up 2-3 garbage bags full of just old shoes).

We ended up taking a van full (12-13 garbage bags) to drop off after supper on Saturday night (leaving 4-5 at home for another trip). I took her by herself since she had been such a good helper, and after unloading everything, we went to Target and celebrated with a Starbucks stop (decaf peppermint mocha for me, hot chocolate for her).

I’m so proud of how grown up she’s become, and hope she learned more of the giving spirit through the process.