Family Friday: Remember to Check The Pockets!

(Picture source: I’m an Organizing Junkie!)

Last week I took a drive over to Indianapolis for a few days with T.J. and Sarah. We had a fun visit catching up with my sisters,my Mom (Grandma) and the extended family. I even got my childhood birthday dinner; bbq ribs and angel food cake with chocolate whipped cream icing-thanks Jill!

The best part about relocating to the mid-west is that I’m now only a 3 hour drive from my Mom. I had hoped to get over to see her more than once this summer, but since we’ve only had one car here I had to wait for Mike to leave on a business trip. Besides visiting, I wanted to be available to help my Mom around her little home. She lives in a modern 2-bedroom in my childhood hometown while she waits patiently for her new assisted living center to be built.

Mom needed help going through her closet. My wonderful mom tends to save things. She had LOTS of clothes that were either out of date or the wrong size. After a bit of tough love/persuasion, we filled two huge garbage bags with clothes to donate to the Goodwill. As we were folding pants, jackets and suits to bag up my mom kept saying “remember to check the pockets!”

What exactly were we looking for? Well…kleenex. Yep. My mom tucks a tissue in every pocket of everything she wears. We found a boatload. (She also found $5 which was way more fun than wadded up kleexex.)

(Source-http://www.kleenex.com/FacialTissues.aspx

Besides the hunt for kleenex, the other rather humorous event during my stay was when I opened up the hide-a-bed to put on the sheets and discovered a silver tray under the couch cushions. Why was she storing/hiding the velvet wrapped tray that I remember her buying last fall when she came to visit me? Apparently she couldn’t find anywhere else to put it. Hmmm.…

Lessons Learned: Family is precious; spend as much time with them as possible, you’re allowed to be quirky when you’re over 80, no one needs 10 pairs of khaki pants and black clogs, and remember to check your pockets!

“Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.” Proverbs 17:6


Is your Mom a tissue-tucker?

In His Grip, Jane