Wheat disaster

Last Sunday I was getting some more wheat from the basement (we have a wheat grinder and I was making pancakes and we were out of flour) and I tripped on the stairs on the way up. I had this huge container of wheat in my hands and it spilled a ton of wheat. The worst part was that there are cracks on the side of the stairs and I listened to the sound of many little grains of wheat falling behind the many boxes and bins we have stored under the basement stairs. Of course, you can't just leave it there because that's just asking for mice, and while we have cats...it still needed to be cleaned up. I got the wheat off the stairs and got out my mother's rainbow vaccuum looking at the huge job of taking out all the boxes and cleaning in, around, and behind them. My mom came down and told me to just not worry about it until tomorrow. I admit I readily found that an excellent idea. So Monday, I set to work getting all the boxes out. It was actually really fun and the kids liked opening the boxes and seeing what was inside. I'm sure I don't need anything in them, but all the same I only got rid of one box worth of contents and some of that just became play things for the kids. Here are some of the pictures from Monday:

This is a doll that my Grammy made me and I had as a child. Annika is warming the baby up with a sock full of rice that we would microwave and take with us on winter runs.

Here is the first little needlework thing I made (or one of the first). I've saved it, but really, do I ever want to display it anywhere? No. Will my kids care? Not for more than about two minutes after I show it to them and a picture will suffice.

Here is a hat I got at Carlsbad Caverns as a child. I really liked the trip and the cave and I loved this hat. I can hardly believe my mother allowed me to buy it (or bought it for me--can't remember which) since we are the type of family that just does not buy things from gift stores. I was a good 80's child and loved all things bright, colorful, sparkly, and festive. I still do. Good thing the 80's are coming back. :) Yes, I think this hat can go. But it is lovely, isn't it? :)

This is not a result of cleaning out the basement, but this is Caleb playing tinker toys. One of his favorite pastimes.

This is my wonderful, amazing, and I think perfect mother who is my strength and my example.

Annika playing in the boxes.

It feels good to get rid of things. Some day I will go through my scrapbook box and through all my photos. I just looked at one photo album and it was so fun. I thought about tossing my yearbooks, but hung onto them. When my kids are out of school (or no longer care) I will toss them. We have so much stuff! Someday I will downsize more. It's fun to go through stuff and it's fun to let go of stuff. It wasn't such a bad thing afterall to dump all that wheat.

Also this week I spilled rice and dropped an egg carton...yeah...not such a good week in the food department...