The Hilarity of Cleaning Out Closets

I got a wild hair to clean out my closet today. This happens once every Not Very Often, and it was definitely time. Plus there's so much that just doesn't fit anymore, so why even keep it around? My word, people, the excess we have as Americans. I got rid of so much stuff it's just obscene. And I still have way too many choices left in my closet.

So while I purged so, SO much from the clothing line, I also sorted through the memory boxes I store there for safe keeping. Nothing was purged from those (hello, memories!) but gosh, the time spent poring over the past was priceless. The kids each have a box with baby memoribilia. Except Micah. The poor 4th child got shafted. Except he pretty much has a blog to himself right here so there's that. Do you have the hospital hats from your newborns? Have you looked at them lately? THEY ARE TINY BEYOND BELIEF. Impossibly tiny. It's amazing, really.

And then I came across something that almost made me cry. I'm not sentimental. At all. It's shocking that I even have memory boxes in the first place. There were Becky's first fingerpainting attempts. And Mother's Day cards from Becky and Josh made at church to give me, complete with their handprints on them. They were so tiny. But then I found a photocopy of Becky's hand. I know it was hers because it was in her box. There was no date on it, not even a name. Did someone thoughtful teacher do that intentionally as a gift to a future me? Or did Becky play with the church's photocopier and I liked it enough to keep it? Either way, it was by far the best thing I came across today. I nearly cried as I looked at it. The detail on that black and white hand is amazing. Every crease and line shows up. It's so lifelike. And so very, very tiny. I will now photocopy hands of children as gifts to parents. It's like looking directly into the past.

The second best thing I found today was our military stuff in the wedding box. Mind you, we were married in '92, fresh off the 80's, and hair was still big then. And mind you, I never had big hair. Still, Becky was shocked that they actually got all that hair in the photo for my ID card. People, ignore the fact that I looked 15 (I was, in fact, 21), and feel free to laugh at that stuff on my head that looks very much like a wig gone wrong.

You're welcome.