Work!

That's what I did on my trip to California!

Jason and I flew out to California a couple of weeks ago to help my parents sort through stuff in their house to help them prepare to move to Northern California from Southern California. They have lived in that house for the past 17 years! When they moved in all 5 of us kids were still living at home, but now, none of us are.

3 of my siblings and their families also came to help with the sorting and packing. I think I was expecting to get more done, but it was pretty tiring work and with all of the kids to keep us busy in addition to the other work, not quite as much got done as I was hoping for. We made a dent though. I think we at least got the ball rolling and it will be a little easier for my parents to keep going and get rid of more stuff and get things packed. It will take a while but they don't plan to move until the fall so there is time.

I am so happy I took dust masks for us to wear while we worked. It wasn't so bad in some parts of the house but when it came to dealing with books, old school supplies, and stuffed animals it was quite dusty!

Jason really enjoyed playing with his cousins. Especially Victoria who is just 5 months older than Silas, so she is 6 1/2 now.

We did get to go to the beach a couple of times and spent a day at Disneyland with my brother and his wife, and their 1 year old son. Jason really enjoyed that a lot!

I wish I lived closer so I could keep helping.

After all that work, throwing away many things, giving away many things, selling things at the yard sale, all of that has made me want to go through my own things here at home and get rid of things. I have realized there are so many things I own that I really have no use for! So why keep them? I've already gotten rid of a few things in the last few days since I got home, and hopefully I can keep up the momentum and get rid of some more useless items over the next few weeks and months.

It is true that none of the things we own really matter. We keep things that are useful, things that are sentimental, sometimes we keep things just because we don't take the time to get rid of them, but really, we can't take anything with us when we die, and nothing we own has eternal value. So if its not useful, or particularly special to me, I'd really rather it have a new home. The tricky thing of course is the part where we place sentimental value on things. I need to work on doing less of that.