Our girl turned 11!

and if you are interested in all the pictures and the story of our day

go here

Evie's bday pictures

Stuff

I have been in a shopping mood,

there are a billion birthdays for me to buy for right now, and back to school shopping, well it had me in a craze.We, as Americans, are conditioned to want things. If your sad, angry, upset, mad, well just do a little shop therapy.

The thing is, the amount of stuff we need doesn't come close to equaling the stuff we want. We are conditioned to think that we have to have these things. When in fact they are really just things. My wonderful husband taught me this lesson, oh, about 10 years ago. I, personally like to buy clothes. It's my weakness, I love fashion. Being in the position we are as a single income family, I can not reasonably go out and indulge this weakness. Oh yeah, every once in a while I break down and splurge on something, but not nearly as much as I want to. Sure I could go out and get a job then I would be a little more justified right? Wrong. In the end it's just stuff, and the time away from my family would not be worth the payoff. I had to put in order the things that were essential to our lives and the things that I just wanted to have. The list is a lot smaller than you might think. I see people in stores all the time promising to buy their child something if they just behave. First of all this is wrong on so many levels. Yoo hoo, your kid is supposed to behave!!!(-but that is another subject all together). What they are teaching their kids is that if you are good then you get a treat. That carries on into adulthood, how many times have you said to yourself "I deserve this." and follow with the excuse as to why. I've done it. The problem with this is, we don't need it.

***

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every mans need, but not every man's greed." -Gandhi

***

That's just it, we are too greedy. We are hurting our environment with our greed and want. We are using up resources that can not be replenished. We are not trying to figure out other options. We sit back with our tongues hanging out in the midst of our treasures hoping someone else will fix the problem. Wake up people, your knight in shining armor is not coming. We have to make conscious decisions and then face the consequences when we don't. The only thing is everyone is paying while we dilly-dally.

Do me a favor and take 20 minutes out of your day and check out this video (thanks Jenna).

It is called The Story of Stuff, it details where all of our stuff comes from and the why behind our economy. I found it interesting. I think you will too.

click here