Everything made it unscathed!

Did I really say stuff is stuff, and we can all get by with a little bit less? Well now we have way more than enough stuff, way too much stuff in fact. And it is not even all that we own, considering we have a large storage unit back in Davis.

What I really want to know is how did we acquire all this stuff and what can we live without?

So as you may have surmised, the awaited container arrived. 68 days after it left Davis! The same container that we watched pull away from our home so long ago, squeezed down our new street on Wednesday morning, right after the kids left for school. This was going to be a good day.

The first item off the truck was my much longed for bed. I cannot express how much I have wanted that bed. We have spent so many weeks bed hopping from what has felt like varying degrees of concrete in different groupings of kids and parents, that my bed looked like the best Christmas gift ever.

I was sure that the bed would not make it up the stairs, but if it did, I was absolutely certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the box springs would never follow. Olof said I was just being negative, that I should have faith. I felt I was just being realistic, preparing for the worst. For me this was a lesson in humility and gratitude.

The bed is up, with the box springs, and I am so so grateful for the ingenious and patient German movers. Though they did not speak English and I do not speak German, they knew how much I wanted that bed, and they did it! There is a place in Heaven for those guys.

The day was a steady stream of activity, with 3 moving men methodically going up and down the three flights of stairs, only to break for cigarettes and water. They never hurried, nor shouted nor swore (that I could tell). They laughed when they smoked, then got back to work.

In the meanwhile I was madly unwrapping as many kitchen items as I could, knowing that when the movers were gone, they would leave all the boxes that I had not unpacked, and I did not want to think about disposing of mountains of boxes later.

I did spend a few moments pondering why I had so many cooking utensils and baking pans (I don't even like to bake - no I really don't like making mini-muffins no matter how often I do it). Does a family really need 24 plates? Or Tupperware for freezing food for a year? The answer is no.

We have done without all these things for 68 days, and now I am putting all this excess in boxes to send to those who need it more than I do.

Don't misunderstand, I like my stuff. And most of it we are keeping. In fact we seem to be acquiring more things daily, but the excess is no longer going to be part of our life (at least for now). Keep it simple is my new motto.

Now I just have to figure out the phone and answering machine - so if you call and leave a message, I might not know it for awhile - but now we do actually have a phone so calls are welcome, as are visitors now that we have a few spare bedrooms ready for guests. Almost ready.

Stay tuned tomorrow for details on the first week of school from Noah and Louise.

Happy weekend - we are off to IKEA again to pick up just a few more items...really, just a few.