Purging

In our quest to prepare four little ones for a new school year, we spent last weekend purchasing glue sticks, pencils, and the other 1,321 items on the supply lists provided by our friendly local education establishments. I walked into Wal-Mart, stopped and picked up my jaw and tried to move like a normal person after ignorantly mistaking it for Christmas Eve. There were so many people with exactly the same idea...trying to save $2.11 in sales tax during our "Tax Free that covers all school supplies except Kleenex, plastic bags, baby wipes and the 101 other household items that you are expected to buy for a classroom that makes you think you are sending your child to a third world country for the next 8 years Weekend." Anyway, I digress...sorry.

For the past 4 or 5 years, we have had a sock basket. It was a complete accident caused by my laziness in folding clothes and blatant refusal to match socks. Instead I chose to dig frantically at 7:30 each morning desperately trying to find decent socks for my kids to wear to school...much smarter choice. (Do you see a trend here?) Anyway, during our savings fest last weekend, we bought the kids new socks. Trek said "Dump the basket and throw them all away...we are starting over."

In my "I am cheap, I can't possibly..." world, this is so foreign an idea that I thought I felt the beginnings of a hives breakout at the mere suggestion. Stubbornly, I spent a movie and one half, sitting on the sofa next to Trek, sorting 5 years worth of stained, torn, worn, and just plain disgusting socks. Trek would occasionally whisper, like the devil on my shoulder, "Just throw them...pitch 'em...you can do it..." When all was said and done, I had about one half of a Wal-mart sack of usable socks. What a waste of time.

Thus the picture of the mountain of socks from my recent sock purge. I took the pic for my bff C because I knew she would be proud of my accomplishment. It felt so good to get rid of the basket. This exercise has provoked me to think, "What else needs purging?" It's a little crazy to compare my life to a pile of socks, but it struck me that I do the same thing with a lot of areas of my life...hoard a bunch of old, ugly socks...take each one out...examine carefully...instead of just throwing the whole lot out and moving on...hmmm.

I looked up the definition of 'purging' to make sure I used the right word.
"Purging" come from the Latin "to purify" I think I need to do more purifying...the sock basket was liberating!