Well, we are still in the process of transforming Elijah’s room into a soon to be teenager’s room. The paint is dry (grey walls with a blue stripe around the middle of the room) and at this very moment Elijah and Chris are picking up his new double bed. Elijah, my sweet-sentimental-sensitive-tender boy (just like his Dad) new it was time to clear out his very organized piles, collections, and treasures. And who does he ask to do his dirty work with him? His very unsentimental mom.
You know, I really do love my kids, and their drawings, and their pictures and all that stuff, but just what exactly do you do with sandwich bags stuffed full of baby teeth that have fallen out and been brought to you with a bloody grin? Make a necklace? Eww! Keep them in a mason jar so that when you’ve left this earth and your grown grandkids are going through your things they think you were some kind of serial killer? It just stumps me. So, needless to say, I am the Queen of Reality! I keep a few mementos like their baby bracelets, tons of pictures, a few scribbles and drawings, a couple of recorded cassette tapes with their sweet little baby voices on it. But the rest goes to the garbage man. My need for order just outweighs my sentimentality.
Elijah, on the other hand, is a romantic and a sap. And I mean that with all the mommy love I’ve got. Going through his room, he had a story for everything. I was fascinated by this concept since the only stories I attach to my things are usually regarding the fabulous discount I got at Goodwill. Now THAT can get me really sentimental.
So here is a crazy list of some of the things we had to make tough decisions about.
The Perfect Skipping Stone – a dime shaped flat rock that He and his Dad found on one of our camping trips two years ago.
You know, I really do love my kids, and their drawings, and their pictures and all that stuff, but just what exactly do you do with sandwich bags stuffed full of baby teeth that have fallen out and been brought to you with a bloody grin? Make a necklace? Eww! Keep them in a mason jar so that when you’ve left this earth and your grown grandkids are going through your things they think you were some kind of serial killer? It just stumps me. So, needless to say, I am the Queen of Reality! I keep a few mementos like their baby bracelets, tons of pictures, a few scribbles and drawings, a couple of recorded cassette tapes with their sweet little baby voices on it. But the rest goes to the garbage man. My need for order just outweighs my sentimentality.
Elijah, on the other hand, is a romantic and a sap. And I mean that with all the mommy love I’ve got. Going through his room, he had a story for everything. I was fascinated by this concept since the only stories I attach to my things are usually regarding the fabulous discount I got at Goodwill. Now THAT can get me really sentimental.
So here is a crazy list of some of the things we had to make tough decisions about.
The Perfect Skipping Stone – a dime shaped flat rock that He and his Dad found on one of our camping trips two years ago.
A letter mailed to him from his best friend when they didn’t even know how to write yet. It just has scribbles and semi-words and what might be a drawing of a jedi sword….who knows.
His broken horseshoe set that is completely unusable but “Grandma Karen got it for me and she might be upset if I get rid of it.”
A stack of his Dad’s boyhood trophies that were passed down from Father to Son. (I think, because the Father couldn’t stand to part with them either)
We threw out 2 garbage bags full of boxes of rocks, cut up magazines, slips of paper, and broken toys. I guess he just needed Mom there to tell him it was O.K. to send them off to their final resting place.
“Go into the light, junk, just follow the light.”
And the room is so darn clean it blinds me. But don’t worry. It will be full of all kinds of new treasures in just a matter of months. Oh, maybe things like that special piece of chewed bubble gum that his sister bought for him, or a collection of nails he found while building something with his grandpa. SIGH!
How can you NOT love a boy like that?
Posts
6 comments:
He sounds like my oldest boy. It is very sweet until our little one finds one of K's teeth from his collection and swallows it!
I love that each of those treasures you mentioned was tied to a person he loves.
I'll be painting a more grown-up girl room tomorrow! No gray or blue here, and I'm guessing no hot pink there. :)
You are so like my hubby, and I like yours! I can assure you that I have every tooth that ever grew in their mouths:) How can you throw things like that away?? My husband just Tuesday was wanting to throw away his box of trophies from when he was a boy - imagine that?
You guys sound just like me and Jer. And Elijah sounds so much like Emily. Her room is stuffed full of her "treasures" and it drives me absolutely crazy. Jer had a jar of bebes (sp?) that he toted around for years. They were leftover from his childhood bebe gun and he wanted the boys to have one when they are older. I finally told him that when the time came we could buy them a brand new box of bebes for $2 at Wal-Mart...and chucked the jar. Eesh!
I just laughed while reading this. At least your hoarder has stories behind his treasures. Mine just has ..... well.... stuff. Even he doesn't know what it is. But you never know he "might need it someday"
Sounds like a boy after my own heart, and I am gasping over Emily throwing out their yearbooks! Of course I do sit and look through them and read all the sappy messages that people wrote in them. I'm scared to ask someone to come over and talk some sense into me while helping me clean! But that's what I desperately need or else I'll be surrounded by clutter forever! Sigh!
You're a good mom!
Post a Comment