wasteful? or necessary purging

Random Fact: I kind of like the word purge. It's sort of unpredictable and shocking. I especially like to use it with new friends when we are out to eat, I tell them I'm excusing myself to go purge. I think it's a nice way to get them accustomed to my bizarre and often inappropriate humor. Ryan isn't usually as amused as I think he should be.

Anyways, that's not what this post is about. We've been packing. Moving is a great time to go through your things, get rid of what you don't need and throw away or give away or sell. I'm a recovering hoarder from a long proud line of hoarders. Although, we'd really prefer to be called "savers." Ryan, on the other hand would prefer to burn our entire house down and start over. So, we have learned the art of compromising and cursing under our breath (very seldom, of course)

But, when Grandma Shirley was here, we learned from the greatest hoarder/saver that ever existed. A couple examples: Owen had been given a gift from a friend of mine, the gift came in a handled "gift" bag with the name of the store imprinted on it. Being a hoarder/saver myself, I normally keep gift bags, but not when they have the store name on them. Well, Grandma saw that bag in the garbage and promptly asked me if she could keep that perfectly good bag. It kind of caught me off guard, but I should have known better than to try to throw something with any sort of purpose left. Grandma also can make leftovers last til kingdom come. Graham didn't eat all his meatloaf, so he had leftovers the next day, nearly every meal, then the next day and even the next day!

My immediate reaction was to feel a little embarrassed of my wastefulness and a little annoyed that I couldn't toss out any old food. Then I just decided to be ok with our differences and realize that we live in a different time. The more Grandma and I talked, the more insight I gained into what her life was like as virtually the sole provider for her family in much tighter times economically. The fact that she was able to do that as a woman, and save a little here and there, probably has a lot to do with the ability to make a bite of meatloaf last awhile. She has the most incredible attitude, seldom complaining about anything, just happy to be included and enjoying her great-grand babies. I'm not sure who had the tougher time with stairs, she would barely let me walk upstairs to grab anything, even though she has arthritis herself. It was such a cool time to share with Grandma, I'm so glad she was able to come stay with me. I don't remember the last time we spent so much time together, or the last time we had an in depth conversation. It may have been the first.