The summer after I completed kindergarten my mother introduced me to a new summer project—“purging.” It began in my bedroom and focused on removing all of the unnecessary items, from school and Sunday School papers to outgrown clothing. She packaged it as a “party,” suggesting that we were making room for the new clothes I would need for fall as well as the papers that I would accumulate throughout the approaching school year. Since I was now “a big girl,” what started in my room spread throughout our home as we went through each room purging the unnecessary items and reorganizing those that remained. This practice continued until she stepped into eternity and has followed me into my adult years.