I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between spending money on experiences versus spending money on stuff. Mainly in regards to our kids. Kids these days have so much STUFF!  I recently reread a favorite parenting book of mine entitled “Simplicity Parenting” which talks about the 4 pillars of Too Much, one of them being “stuff”, in case you’re curious the others are too many choices, too much information and too much speed.  A very interesting read!

I often think about how when I have money I will use it to buy experiences.  I will travel, bring my kids places, show them the world, I honestly don’t like spending money on “stuff.”  Excessive toys, clutter, and knick knacks, drive me crazy.  It’s enough to raise my blood pressure just thinking about it.

Last Saturday we had the most wonderful day as a family.  Just my husband and I and the 3 kids and our dog.  I’m lucky that my husband enjoys being outside and exploring new places and so we headed about an hour away to check out a new hike that was beside a creek where my husband could also check out the fly fishing.

I’m always happy to get out of the house and so the adventure began, all 5 of us, plus gear and a dog stuffed into our little sedan. The kids started off a bit grouchy.  They wanted to go to the water park, they didn’t want to hike in the hot sun, they didn’t want to be stuffed in the car. I was beginning to regret this trip…I kept a positive attitude and reminded them of all the fun we had on our last hike.

At the start of the trail I was of course paranoid about seeing a rattlesnake sunning itself on a warm rock but thankfully they were all probably under the rocks in the shade. We traveled for a little while on the trail until we found a good spot to veer off into the creek.

We spent the following hours wading and traveling upstream as my husband caught fish after fish.  The kids enjoyed holding them and releasing them.

My daughter is a tender hearted kid and started crying while one fish took a while to snap back to life and laid in the water a bit on it’s back.  The fish ended up being just fine.

We saw tons of butterflies, a vertebra from a deer, BEAR TRACKS, BEAR SCAT (aka poop), blue grasshoppers, wildflowers, hawks, a bald eagle and much more.  We found a slow spot and even swam a bit.

Most of the time I was lagging behind, held up by our 3 year old, holding his hand and slowly making our way up the creek after the others.  At one point I looked up and saw my husband casting, the line of the flyrod illuminated by the sun, the dog was bounding up and down the banks from one kid to another splashing them as they squealed.  There were bugs flying in the sunlight and birds chirping and not another soul to be found.  I breathed a long sigh and thought to myself, this is what Heaven must be like:)

The fun we had that day was priceless.  It was far better than anything money could buy. Better than any ipad or new action figure.

What’s the point of all of this?  My point is that, in this day and age we place so much value of STUFF.  What will your kids remember about the stuff they owned…my guess is not much.  Will my kids remember that adventure for a long long time, you better believe it.  The entire way home the kids played and talked in the back seat, we stopped for ice cream, they didn’t ask to play on my phone once and there was also not one ounce of fighting, truly music to a mother’s ears.

My hope is to urge anyone reading this to get out and play and enjoy TIME with your family.  Spend money on an adventure, not stuff that is of no consequence or value. Build memories that will last. Stuff comes and goes, it breaks and causes clutter and stress.  The cost of that adventure for us was some gas and 5 bucks on ice cream.  Some day I hope our adventures will take us all over the world.  For now, they take us just a hundred miles away to a little piece of heaven on earth.