Backpacking, Cleaning and Buried Treasures...

Adam took the boys on a backpacking adventure this weekend while I stayed home and took on a cleaning adventure of my own. This time, however, I didn't touch the bathrooms or mop the floors. Instead, I took advantage of the boys' being gone, and cleaned out their bedroom.

I am always amazed at the amount of crap that gets stuffed into their closet, under the bed and beside their dresser. Since their absence from the house meant that they couldn't stand over me and insist that I was getting rid of their absolute favorite toys that have been sitting at the bottom of their toy box for the past year, or argue that they really do wear that yellow shirt that is two sizes too small, I was given the rare opportunity to fully purge the so called 'treasures' from their room.

Among those treasures were:
A large bag of milk tabs (don't ask)
A collection of pencil erasers
Torn Pokemon cards
Girls hair ties (I don't know where those came from)
Random nuts and bolts
An acorn shell
And a half eaten tube of blueberry flavored chapstick (gross)

And speaking of treasures, I heard that the boys spent the weekend searching for more treasures. You know, the kind that can only be found in the wilderness.





Naturally, Caleb was a little bit jealous of the awesome frog that Isaiah found, so he set out to find a unique treasure of his own. After combing the ground and weaving through the bushes, Caleb returned holding what he thought was the coolest treasure ever...a blue something or other!

Wanting to share in Caleb's excitement, Adam eagerly looked at the treasure that Caleb was holding, only to realize - with utter shock and disgust - that Caleb's treasure was in fact a feminine hygiene product.

This raises the question: How do you gingerly say 'throw that in the garbage and pour bleach all over your hands right now!", without your 5 year old child insisting that he needs to know why he can't keep it in his pocket?

All I can think is that if I happened to find a collection of those in their bedroom, Adam and the boys would have returned home only to find me laying on the floor,in a fetal position, sucking my thumb.

Now that I think about it, half eaten blueberry chapstick doesn't seem so bad after all.