Our Big Book of Wishes and Dreams

We are simplifying and downsizing as much as we can. I am convinced that our emotional well being will improve the more we eliminate the clutter in our surroundings. I am finding that the one person who is struggling the most with the new changes is my oldest who is almost six. I am trying to teach him (them) quality over quantity, and how the best toys are the ones that are open ended and become a million and one different things. I want them to find play and excitement within their imaginations and not keep turning to the stories that other people have written. What I really want is them to write their own play, to find the wonder and excitement that should be found in childhood. But, in the attempt to teach these things, I keep seeing the "give me" monster poking through trying desperately to wreak havoc on our peaceful playroom. The "I want's" keep finding a whining way into our conversation. I'm tired of these monsters and I decided to create a tangible solution. We made a family wishbook. A place to collect our wants, our wishes, our dreams.

It's that time of year when we keep getting an insane amount of catalogs that I don't remember asking for in the mail. The kids love turning the bright colored pages and telling me about all the things in these pages. And then they see it. That one thing that is oh.my.goodness. so much something that they want. It is something they love. They have dreamed of it forever (or at least the last 4 minutes!). So, now, we cut it out and tape it to their page in the book. Later, we can go back and look through and they can decide if it is REALLY something they want/need/desire or if it was just something neat at that time.

The things that stay in the book for a while, the things that they just.keep.desiring we can try to add to our life. We can upcycle and recreate things, we can make and watch thrift stores we can find a way to let them have that dream. Leah dreams of having a bed that looks like the Princess and the Pea. I would :love: to give her this dream. We already have a ladder tucked away...but several mattresses are out of the budget for now. But if she still wants it someday, I say let's do it!

Dreaming is a big part of childhood. Capturing dreams is something that I think is super important. A list of things we want, written down, can be revisited time and time again. We can look back and laugh at what we wished for or just keep wishing until our dreams come true.