Let go, but Remember

Inspiration ⁄ Category: scrapbooking

Cheers

September 18, 2011

September 17, 2011

awesome idea!! I have a whole closet full of vhs tapes that i need to get rid of but the memories are keeping me from it. I might just scraplift this idea from you. ;D Thank you!

September 17, 2011

What a great, Great, GREAT Idea! I have so many of those VHS tapes in boxes around the house and yes, I think it was more of a "leting go of thier childhood-ism" than anything else. I will have to do this and best of luck to you with the decluttering. Did I say this is such a great idea?! Great job on the journaling.

September 14, 2011

Let go, but Remember

"Take a picture; it'll last longer!" Remember when a kid would say that when they caught you staring at them or looking at them in a strange way? I used to think it was so rude!! Now, I think it is actually pretty wise advice! I take a lot of pictures, and I'm so glad for the memories they induce when I look back through them later! My brain alone could never hold all those great moments without an image to help it remember!

Okay, so, this may seem unrelated, BUT...My goal for today is to go through a bunch of the kids' things and choose as much as possible that they don't need anymore. I have an appointment at the resale shop, and we need to de-clutter our home and our lives! (Who doesn't, right?!) So, I went through Sylvia's and Caeden's spring and summer clothes this morning, and took out all the 5T's and 6/6x's. It was fine...not a lot there. I can part with the sweater poncho Gram gave us 5 years ago. I went through toys and books, but only found a few they aren't still enjoying. No big deal. We don't need the wipe-off book that helps us learn to write anymore. We are moving on and letting go!

Now, I do have admit that I am partially a total yahoo (You got that conflict of terms there, right?) when it comes to going through my kids things to decide what to get rid of... Today, it was the VHS tapes that got me. Oh, I know it's definitely past time to get rid of VHS tapes! The world has almost moved past the next best thing (DVD's), now that we have DVR's, Blu-Ray and streaming Netflix, Hulu, and every TV network posts complete shows online! My family is not up with all those things (We do have DVD's and streaming Netflix, but that's as up-to-speed as we get.), but we have come to terms with letting the DVD's go. At least, I thought "we" had...

I had asked Jeremy last week if he thought it was okay to take all of the tapes to the resale shop. We do still have a working VHS player, but it has been at least a year since we made use of it or any of the tapes. So we decided that, yes, it was time for ALL of the tapes to go.

But today when I went in to quickly pack them up, they looked at me like I was throwing away pieces of my children's lives! Maybe I should choose just a few to keep around for the sake of nostalgia! I mean, Annah wanted that Wiggle Bay video more than anything for Christmas one year! The Charlie Brown tapes are classics! My grandma gave us the both the Arthur and Country Mouse & City Mouse series. Veggie Tales and Larry Boy influenced our belief systems AND made us laugh at the same time; that's priceless! How can I just get rid of these?! They are hours and hours of good friends that have become part of our lives!! I was now in tears thinking about this! (See...partially a total yahoo...that's me!)

Oh no...are their childhood days over if they never watch these again? Okay, get a grip Taryn! We haven't used these in over a year; we're not going to use them again at all, most likely! Time to get rational again. The tapes have to go. It's just time. We still have lots of DVD's. Selling the tapes doesn't equal ending the childhood days. (Thank you, Lord, for sending rationality when I was heading over the crazy edge!)

When I think through it, I realize that I really want to remember are the moments and days I spent together in our home with my children watching while we watched these videos...The way they would snuggle up to me and smile and giggle and sing along with them...repeat the stories and lessons they learned back to me...the tiny versions of my kids sitting in the living room or curled up in my bed watching, learning, growing every second. These videos remind me of those times.

So, how can I remember each of those videos and the lessons and moments and memories they created for us? Take a picture! It definitely will last longer than my mind worrying about forgetting them! AND, the best part is, a picture takes up a lot less space!