Shifting through the keepsakes

From The Condo to my garage, I have a lot of "stuff" that I have deemed important enough to tear up my entire house, room to room, to organize it enough to find space for all of it.  "Shifting the shit," my mother called it. That phrase has gone through my mind over and over as I look at things like a plastic bowl with a missing lid that was our "popcorn bowl". I carried it to my house, but forced myself to put it into the Goodwill pile. I can't keep everything.

Coupled with The Condo stuff are the plastic bins in various rooms of my house left over from the hurricane. Since returning from Indiana, I have ignored those walking around them or moving them, the thought of digging through those too daunting among the other stuff. Each day I try to tackle a room or a closet incorporating the bins one by one. My last project involved the closet in Madison's bedroom, the largest closet we have in the entire house, and the one where everything odd is shoved.

Tackling that closet, involved also tackling the hall closet and the large chest in my bedroom to combine items in the bins that would then be shoved back into Madison's closet. A lot of that was stuff I had saved for my kids from their birthing books and stories to clothes and school work. Some stuff had to be tossed due to aging, but I got everything combined and stuffed into two boxes for each of them to one day go through it all like I was doing.

I found quite a few keepers. Above is a book that Darcy made of our family. That is Madison's page, with her name missing a "d". (Although she got it right in the next line) It says, and I have not changed spelling or punctuation, this:

"Maddy is a nice, sweet, and loving sister,

She has been there all the time.

When I'm sad she is always right by my side till it's worked out.

I have and forever will love her."

Wrapped inside this note was a Shrinky Dink. This is one of my childhood favorites, along with the Slinky, Lite Bright, and the Little People's house,  that I just had to pass on to my kids. This was one of my favorites that they liked. It says, "I Love you Mom" with stars on the top and the bottom. The note says:

Dear: Mommy Cara,

This stone is a calming stone.

It's suppost to make you really

calm when you rub it.

We gave this to you to help when you

get stressed with Ghrama.

Love,

Darcy, Madison

Not sure why Madison's name, which is written in her handwriting, is crossed out. Maybe she made me something else? Although the handwriting on the "stone" looks like her handwriting. Either way, I love it!

Each year in school from 1st grade through 3rd grade, the children made portraits of their parents. Above is Madison's rendition from third grade, I think. It's written on the back, but I didn't put that in the picture. My picture says:

"My mom is special because she loves me. She is also

special because she is nice and funny."

Madison

That's pretty much the stuff classmates wrote in my yearbook, "sweet and funny". I like to think I haven't changed a bit since high school!

I think this is Madison's and from the year prior to the other. My hair is still red, a shade I would never say was my color, but obviously to Madison it was red.

These are Darcy's renditions. She had another pair where she wrote about Tom:

"My dad's name is Tom. He likes to play."

Darcy

She saw Tom as a bit darker than we thought he was, but he'd obviously done some tanning. She saw my hair as brown. We both have butterflies above our heads, but Tom also has a bee. Not sure the significance of either of those animals.

Of course, I texted all of this to the girls. Darcy mentioned the misspelling of Madison's name. Madison came back with, "Awwww...". Little do they know that I have TONS more of this stuff in their boxes, including teeth and locks of hair, and that one day they too will be shifting through this shit.

Ah, but what memories it will all bring back. Or, at least bring back childhood. The good ole days!