A Whole Bag of Stuff

Because I can’t stay still for very long, I sometimes start random projects. Having been gone the past few nights and looking forward to company this weekend, I thought it was time to fold the two baskets of laundry in my dining room.

Then my hard working husband walked past. Without trying, he lured me away from my task.

I went outside to join Ryan on the driveway where he was replacing a broken back board on the basketball hoop with a new one. I stood for a few minutes while my feet grew weary of standing on a hard surface once again.

Maybe helping Ryan will cause a disconnect between my brain and the pain.

Like I can really be of any help! Clamping the pieces together with my bare hands caused increased back pain, I don’t know where to find his extra battery for his drill so he retrieves it, and while he’s gone doing that, I manage to kick over his jar of supplies which promptly breaks and the pieces go all over hiding themselves in the crevasses of the rough concrete and unwanted plants growing up through the cracks.

I’m mechanical, not a ditz. I love to be outside, not in the house. I accel at things I try. This is apparently not my day.

Since I can’t stand still, I begin to clean out my trusty old van (which has joined the 100,000 mile club). I open the door and find a mess. God, did you make any of my children to be anal organized like me? If you did, they surely don’t show it in here (or anywhere else for that matter). I sort through all kinds of stuff. Some of what needs to be pitched and certainly some of it is my mess too. Like those ipod speakers that have been in my van since April sometime, and those old Arnette sunglasses that are missing an ear piece but I just can force myself to throw away because I paid so much for them… 8 years ago. As I dig around and make piles of stuff to be tossed and stuff to keep, I find an old vonmaur paper bag with handles. Perfect. I can now put my nicely organized piles into the one bag I have (because I’m certainly not about to spend my energy going in the house for a second bag).

As I toss out a crusty old French fry I think to myself: seriously how do three children create such a mess?

When all was said and done, I had a bag full of stuff – some of which needed to be pitched and some of which needed to be kept. Scott now has only two ninja turtle toys to play with while he sits solo in the back seat. I don’t think Bethany and Judah were left with any toys to fight over each morning. I carried the bag inside and sat it down by the front door where all other crap gets thrown. One of these days I’ll have enough time in my day to fold the laundry, clean out the van, and put the stuff away. For now it sits in its place on the 100 year old wood floor next to a variety of other things. I immediately grab my laptop out of its place so I can share this randomness with you. As I peer over to it, a used (and even recent) family fun magazine sticks out the top of the bag and I wonder how many random things were taken from the van tonight. I thought I’d share just a few with you:
- A twin air mattress and pump
- rubber t-rex
- at least 5 childrens books
- toy lantern & binoculars
- two pairs of flip flops
- toy bed from a Dora play set
- miracle bubbles
- old Sunday school handouts
- mini magna doodle
- multiple Mickey D’s toys
- half inflated floating device
And of course there were a few things I had to leave in the van:
- 3 camping chairs because they would need to go in the garage and I’m lazy
- those old arnette sunglasses – you can make them work if need be
- several pull-ups for our little guy
- the ice-scraper because taking it out would just require putting it back in the van in a few months.

As I close out so I can finish folding the laundry… or join my hubby upstairs, I’m curious to know two things about you:
1. What’s the most random thing in your vehicle and
2. What’s one thing that should come out of your vehicle but you hang onto it