This is how it works: You peer inside yourself...
Blade has gone out of town overnight, and the Littlest Admiral sleeps a long sleep, feeling a bit under the weather as he is. This has left the Tiny Emperor and I casting about for how to while away a long afternoon indoors, and though I'm ashamed to admit it, we got under each other's skin a bit. Normally he likes to play a bit of Wii games (and the way he plays it, it's an aerobic routine) while I tool around in Warcraft. Sometimes we like to read together and play with his toys.
But we've been far too good lately about making sure the toys go back up to the boys' room, and the wiimotes' batteries have all run down.
Rescue came from an unexpected quarter; wandering back into the office, I happened to notice the many cigar boxes and such stacked on the shelves above my desk, and inspiration struck. Pulling a few down, I asked, "Hey Lovebug, look what I found - treasure boxes!"
We spent a good hour and a half going back and forth between the boxes being on the shelves, and coming to the living room floor, where we opened them one by one to discover the treasures that lay within. The cigar boxes are my answer to desk clutter - I'm a crafter and a collector, and I end up with all manner of minutiae scattered in and around my desk, which in turn makes it difficult to do... much of anything, honestly.
We found such fascinating things that I'd forgotten about, as I've not opened any of these little boxes since we moved into this house. Spools of thread with yarn. Odds and ends of buttons and safety pins. A wee paper bag full of even more wee plastic baggies, and each on containing a semi-precious stone purchased from Many Facets before it went out of business and turned into a bike shop. A fountain pen. An empty contact lens case. A baggie of stone beads for the CBR for my upper ear which I haven't worn in far too long. The red glass pen rest for my red glass pen. My first tarot deck, which made my chest clench to see so very unexpectedly. Stickers. Crochet hooks. An FYE gift card with $.70 balance remaining. A photo envelope with no photos, but all the negatives (Which I think I'm going to try to scan in tonight). A mysteriously unmarked CD-RW.
It was fascinating to pick through all of these things myself, not having seen it in so long... and it was even more an adventure to the Tiny Emperor, for whom this was all new, as when last these boxes were cracked he was barely older than two.
"Sweetheart - would you like to have your own treasure box?"
It's a wonderful boon to a mother's heart, to see such light and delight in her child's face. Christmas cards that were never sent were emptied out of a box (Edward Gorey cards, and if you receive one next holiday season, that is why), and in went new things: a 3/4 full sheet of heart stickers, every one different. Powerpuff Girls stickers, Lisa Frank stickers. A black pen, and a blue pen. A little two and a half inch square blank book that I'd made when I got the yen to teach myself the art of bookbinding. A lined notebook.
I put my college cap on his head and he clutched the box of treasures, told me gravely how much he loves me for giving him wonderful treasures, and we have spent time since in happy near silence, broken with occasional insistences that I look upon this sticker, or help him get that one off the sheet. We sip our tea.
We are content.
But we've been far too good lately about making sure the toys go back up to the boys' room, and the wiimotes' batteries have all run down.
Rescue came from an unexpected quarter; wandering back into the office, I happened to notice the many cigar boxes and such stacked on the shelves above my desk, and inspiration struck. Pulling a few down, I asked, "Hey Lovebug, look what I found - treasure boxes!"
We spent a good hour and a half going back and forth between the boxes being on the shelves, and coming to the living room floor, where we opened them one by one to discover the treasures that lay within. The cigar boxes are my answer to desk clutter - I'm a crafter and a collector, and I end up with all manner of minutiae scattered in and around my desk, which in turn makes it difficult to do... much of anything, honestly.
We found such fascinating things that I'd forgotten about, as I've not opened any of these little boxes since we moved into this house. Spools of thread with yarn. Odds and ends of buttons and safety pins. A wee paper bag full of even more wee plastic baggies, and each on containing a semi-precious stone purchased from Many Facets before it went out of business and turned into a bike shop. A fountain pen. An empty contact lens case. A baggie of stone beads for the CBR for my upper ear which I haven't worn in far too long. The red glass pen rest for my red glass pen. My first tarot deck, which made my chest clench to see so very unexpectedly. Stickers. Crochet hooks. An FYE gift card with $.70 balance remaining. A photo envelope with no photos, but all the negatives (Which I think I'm going to try to scan in tonight). A mysteriously unmarked CD-RW.
It was fascinating to pick through all of these things myself, not having seen it in so long... and it was even more an adventure to the Tiny Emperor, for whom this was all new, as when last these boxes were cracked he was barely older than two.
"Sweetheart - would you like to have your own treasure box?"
It's a wonderful boon to a mother's heart, to see such light and delight in her child's face. Christmas cards that were never sent were emptied out of a box (Edward Gorey cards, and if you receive one next holiday season, that is why), and in went new things: a 3/4 full sheet of heart stickers, every one different. Powerpuff Girls stickers, Lisa Frank stickers. A black pen, and a blue pen. A little two and a half inch square blank book that I'd made when I got the yen to teach myself the art of bookbinding. A lined notebook.
I put my college cap on his head and he clutched the box of treasures, told me gravely how much he loves me for giving him wonderful treasures, and we have spent time since in happy near silence, broken with occasional insistences that I look upon this sticker, or help him get that one off the sheet. We sip our tea.
We are content.