Simplicity

Dear children,  It is so terribly difficult not to spoil you.  Yes, we are surround by abundance and opportunities to have more everything.  I enjoy so much giving you something new or seeing you in a brand new outfit.  But simplicity in childhood is a gift. It is a gift you will open years from now when you can relive the happiness of your childhood without having to buy it. You are likely to love the things you have and experience now for no other reason than that "that is how we did it when I was a kid"  And I try to remember this as I fashion our days.

I know that you will love many things just because that is how we did things when you were young. So I give you the gift of loving things that are simple.  I give you freedom from being a slave to things.  So much freedom is given to someone who is content with less.  If  we can be happy in a smaller space, with simpler food,  free entertainment or used clothes,  how much freedom  this gives us!  Freedom to marry someone for love.  Freedom to choose if you want to stay at home with your kids.  Freedom from debt.  Freedom from the competition of always having the biggest, the newest, the best.

I want to fill your childhood with things that you can always have. Laughing, loving, learning and knowing God are all beautiful and free things we can give you which will never spoil. 

I hope one day you will smile when you think of sitting at our craigslist table with our family, laughing and all having beanie weenies for dinner together.  And knowing in your heart that you were happy with the little we had because our house was full of love. And that loving God, others and yourself are the only things worth "having".

The more we tie "stuff" into the love that is mom and dad, the more burden we put on our children to love their children that way.   Simplicity is a gift we give our children and early childhood is the time to give it.  This is the time their brains are building that little place that feels like home later when they go out into the world.  As long as they are getting the basics kids won't feel want.  They don't realize how much "stuff" is out there so how can they miss it?  They enjoy whatever comes from mom and dad.  Because mom and dad mean happy and safe and loved.