Pockets

Cleaning out children's bedrooms when they are not present is a completely different experience.

One of my boys has a habit of putting treasures in his pockets. Now when he was in Grade 1 the kids did a large project studying the waste and saving of water in everyday practices. It was done solely at school during classtime. We live in drought stricken Queensland so there is a purpose to the study of water usage at age 6. The education department figures if nothing else if your little grade 1'er is badgering you every time you turn on a tap for a year eventually you'll change the water use practices. They are right. It makes washing up and cleaning clothes covert activities. Back to my second son. He has since grade 1 been very particular about cleaning his clothes, they have to be really dirty for to put them in the wash on his own. So concequently I have to occassionally search and rescue the clothes needing a wash from his drawers. Now the kids have been with their dad 8 days now. I have gotten around to the sorting making a collossal mess stage of the getting the house ready for the packers in a week and a half. I was not all that suprized to clean out said sons drawers this morning and find shorts, they did not look dirty by the way, but upon trying to fold them I found TREASURE! A grey plastic medieval knight (like the little green army guys but from Roman times), a red plastic bicycle with rolling wheels, a royal blue pipe cleaner, and a napkin from COLD ROCK ice cream - unused. Now I remember the day he stashed these treasures, we don't go to Cold ROck very often. It was a great day! What fun to find. I am promising myself not to grimace the next time some of these little treasures go through the wash and I open the lid on the machine to see miniscule bits of white flecks all through the wash, because today my heart sang remembering. Now my other son, he refuses to wear shorts with pockets, he's the one I'll need to keep close tabs on in teenagehood, he's already aware of not leaving any incriminating evidence. Yikes.