Happy Little Trees

Needs and wants sometimes get confusing. When planning shopping lists, I usually have a list of needs, but are they more like wants? Can I live without them?

Maybe I should apply the vitamin principle as the answer. Yes, I can live without vitamins, but I would live better with them.

So, in conclusion, I have wants, but if I would live better with the want, then it can be identified as a need. I suppose. I'm still confused.

I am in the cleaning mood with no time to clean. That can be a tough thing.

But I'm also in a movie watching mood. Cleaning moods and movie watching moods don't correspond. Especially when your movie mood involves a theater.

Sometimes life gives us dilemmas like this.

I acquired some new items recently from a recently deceased relative's relative of a friend's husband. Yes, confusing. And yes, a bit strange. The recent widower had too many things left from his wife and wanted to see if someone could use them, so my friend and I sorted through some of the items. I picked out some earrings, shoes, a few jackets, a purse, and some shoes.

It does feel a bit bizarre that I never met this woman while she was living. And it does make me think about the things I buy--and realize that they are just temporary things.

Sometimes when I shop, I try to get a bit mathematical. I use an intrinsic formula to figure up wear time of a item compared with actual cost. Sometimes I also throw in factors like the importance of the occasion.

Once, I accidentally sent someone a text message that I loved them, and the person was of the opposite gender of myself. The original text was intended for my best friend to just state to her that I loved this person, but then somehow in the process of working so hard to spell this person's name correctly, I sent the text to that individual. I tried a post text to cover it up, but knew that it was probably not successful.

I knew the next time I saw this person, I needed to look very good, so it was no holds barred for shopping that time. Luckily, the skirt I bought turned out to be one of my top favorite clothing items of all time.

Sometimes, you get lucky with what could be a once-in-a-lifetime outfit--and it becomes the outfit of a lifetime. Too bad that's not true about bridesmaid dresses. The cost/wear time never balances out correctly for those.

The other night, I was watching a friend's cable and discovered a show that I had heard about, but never seen: Hoarders. The show scared the eebie jeebies out of me.

I prefer to call my own issues by a less obtrusive name: Pack Rat--or collector. I have had the problem since I was a child--or my mother said it was a problem. I never had any issues with it. I just liked to collect things. I had a seashell collection and a sticker collection. And of course, an array of Barbies.

After visiting Africa, I was struck by how the people there had relatively no possessions, and I had an overabundance of them. But what do we do with all our junk? Throw it out? Label it? Store it? Save it for a rainy day for our future children? I don't know.

The show has put me in a mood of bulldozing through my belongings. I am weeding the important from the unimportant. I want to live leaner. I want to be honorable with what God has blessed me with and not hold too tightly to things that don't have lasting value.

...I just did a quick google search of the word "storehouse" and there's several scriptures talking about God's storehouses and storing grain and those good things. I guess the problem with hoarding is that there could be a greed element involved or an overfocus on things providing solutions to problems. I'm not pointing fingers at any hoarders, because there would be nine pointing right back at me that have been painted with one of my 10 bottles of the perfect pink fingernail polish.

I came this close: _ (that close)-- to having a MacBook. My co-worker was selling one for his wife, but she changed her mind. Honestly, it's probably good not to get it right now, since my main goal is to try to have freedom from credit card debt. If I get out of that hump, I can afford to buy a MacBook whenever.

I had big plans for the MacBook like garage banding, doing cool edits of photos, and finally writing the book of all books. But I figure, I can take my creativity and manufacture it the old fashioned way--a girl with a guitar and some pen and paper. It won't kill me. It's a bit more romantic (although less hip) than the Mac way, no matter what Apple marketing tries to tell me.

I did my taxes last night. It takes about fifteen minutes. I put in my W-2 info, add in some charitable deductions, and presto! I have completed the return.

Deductions are a bit addictive. One of my goals in life is to be a better giver (and still be cheerful about it), and I felt really encouraged about giving to 501(c)3s since they are tax deductible. What a perk!

I have friends that keep every receipt throughout the year to get a salestax deduction, but I don't have the patience for that. And I also do not have the patience to keep up with medical deductions since I would be nickel-diming counting my costs for cold meds or something else mundane.

But I do have deductions that, if I am elected your government official on a single-lady platform, I would see enacted as standard single-woman deductions:

1. Shoes and Handbags
2. Ice Cream
3. Make-up
4. Hair products
5. Bathing suits
6. Haircutting services
7. Hair removal services
8. Wedding and Baby Shower Gifts
9. Bridesmaid dresses
10.Sushi

I consider myself pretty conservative with shopping and all the above, but I guesstimate I could have about a $2,000 deduction, if it was adopted by the government. I can't wait to have a woman president!

Psalm 84:11 (New International Version)

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.

I love God.

I'm not getting an iPad. I don't even want one. And I've even seen them. It's pretty cool, but I like my iPhone enough, I don't see how an iPad would completely change my life--and for the money, it should at least provide something meaningful in my life!

I am considering buying a used MacBook. A co-worker, that just bought his wife an iPad, is selling a MacBook, so I might use my tax refund money (after I finally file) to purchase his old one. I keep telling myself that the reason why I've never started writing my book or making movies is because I don't have a good personal computer. Right now, I have a work laptop and a friend's old Mac G4 that is difficult to use sometimes.

When I get the MacBook, my creative juices will flow and my book will almost just magically write itself. I can't wait!