Start Your Day with a Sprinkle of Love ....OR ELSE!

The LOVE Tin
LOVE Tin Back
LOVE Tin Ingredients
One day at MOPS...I know, don't even start with me, that's another entry....This speaker was selling her stuff and in that stuff was an Ostrich feather duster ("Only use ostrich. The rest are a rip off. Must be ostrich or it won't work right"), a "You Are Special" plate and an empty tin full of LOVE. Intrigued by all three ideas, she got me on the feather duster, which I use a lot, and the tin of LOVE. I thought that was a great idea. Sprinkle it on your food, your guitars, your shoes, yourselves. I made my own "You Are Special" plate. Again, another story.

So, I introduced the LOVE tin into my family and more so to my son. We sprinkled all kinds of things at first and I displayed in prominently on top of the fridge so I would see it and remember to sprinkle love. Well it's as corny as it sounds and the-down-to-earth-tell-it-like-it-is-no-crap-here-Celeste forgot all about the LOVE. Then just a few days ago, Tuesday, Colin was on his way out the door back to school for the first time after Christmas break. He stops mid-threshold and says, "Mom, we need some LOVE today." pause from Mommy....OH! finally it hit me what he was talking about. I said, "Buddy, that's a great idea. I think you're right. We need some LOVE today." So we went back to the kitchen he sprinkled me, I sprinkled him, he sprinkled me again (it's okay, you can laugh. I need all the LOVE I can get and my son knows this, apparently) and we went about our day. It was a great day. So great, I thought to myself, we should move the can to the front door table so we could do this everyday. Needless to say, as you will soon read, I did not move the LOVE but instead forgot to sprinkle for the next two days. As a result, Thursday bit me in the ass.

All of you know I've been slowly getting through the junk in my garage. We finally admitted to ourselves that if we're ever going to use the space we're going to have to have more space - rented, expensive, storage space. We moved all the baby stuff over, and a few other items, leaving just enough room for the Christmas stuff when it was all organized, gone through and packed. Thursday Colin was at school and the garage was on the agenda. So, here I am, by myself, in my own little world getting the garage done. Got ALL the Christmas organized and labeled in clear or red containers. It's perfect. Just need to move it to storage. Also went through a lot of other junk, sorting and throwing out etc. I think one more day out there and it will be done.

Side story pertinent to this in a minute: One day....many many many days ago, Colin knocked over JD's FULL glass of milk on the table. It spilled all over the floor, the food and two of the maroon chair cushions. I threw the wet cushions out in the garage along with everything else no longer loved at the moment. But, while I'm moving stuff around on Thursday, I decided to put the cushions in the washer so they wouldn't get stepped on any longer and I'd get to them later.

Back to story. Worked all day out in the garage. Was dirty but satisfied with my progress. It was time to get Colin. But before I was going to get him, I was going to drop by the UPS store and mail my sister a big box of clothes that Colin had outgrown. BIG box. Knew this would probably cost more that the clothes were worth but oh well, in the name of love and hand-me-downs I'd received I was going to pay it forward. Plus, it got the stuff out of my garage. So, this is the chain of events that happened:

Time to get Colin. Anytime I pick up Colin I have to have a snack because he refuses to eat his hot lunch at school and he's starving. So, make a snack for Colin of apple juice and animal cookies. Throw snack and juice in my purse so I can put my purse on the box and carry it out to the car parked across the street because I'd been cleaning the garage. Don't lock the door because JD broke my key off in the door the night before. If we're robbed, oh well, less stuff. Get to the car, put the box in the back, put my purse in the passenger seat, begin toward the UPS store to mail the box. Realize my mother now lives in a new house, don't know the address, call mom to get exact address. Haven't talked to my mother in several days, begin conversation that takes me from my house to the UPS store and I sit in the parking lot and finish a conversation. Say bye to Mom, realize that I'm just going to be needing my wallet instead of the whole purse because it takes both hands to carry the box plus I have another box from Christmas that I'm sending back. Reach into purse, pull out cookies, pull out the juice cup....EMPTY juice cup....What the crap? Oh NO!!!! Juice is in my purse, my new purse, my Chicago purse, 10 oz of juice is flowing freely in my purse and I ran out of Kleenex three days ago and haven't restocked....what now?! What....what....no used kleenex, no In and Out napkins, nothing to soak up liquid except Colin's clean sweat jacket. I pull the stuff out of my purse, dripping with juice, I put them in the floorboard, grab the CLEAN jacket and shove it into my purse and start soaking up the juice. Now this fancy purse has not one compartment but three and all three are inches deep in juice. Did I mention that the purse is suede? Yeah, so is my wallet. It was a very cool purse with matching wallet. Anyway, slowly the jacket becomes soaked. Now that the juice fiasco is under control I go into UPS. I'm supposed to get Colin at 3:30...it's not going to happen unless this little trip into UPS is quick. NOPE....NOT TODAY! Today we are training a new employee that just started oh, I'd say, five minutes ago. Took a long time, but I was so deflated over the purse as I stood there holding my wet wallet I didn't care. Finish UPS, get to the church to pick up Colin. First thing he says to me after, "Hi, Mom." is "Hey, did you bring me some juice?" Seriously? Yeah. I tell him I did, but it spilled and it spilled in my purse, and I'm sorry and I've got water and cookies. He didn't care. He just wanted juice. Luckily, Pat, said, "I've got juice. Want some?" Yes please.

So we get home, Colin has had juice and cookies and is feeling all right with the world, had a good day at school, etc. I decide that when we get home, I'm going to have to clean up the mess I've made. That momentum along with what I had done already that day bleeds over and I decide to de-crap the car front to back. It has stuff in there from summer, fall, and Christmas. I think I'll get it all cleaned out so I can get it washed and we can haul the Christmas stuff to storage. So, I'm in the middle of this, making trips into the house, on the last little leg of cleaning the juice off the seat (the juice soaked through the suede onto the leather seat) and I hear Colin.

"Mom, can you come here?"
"Just a minute son, trying to clean out the car."
1/2 a minute passes
"Mom!"
"Colin!"
"But Mom, can you come here please....NOW?"
"What's going on Colin?"
"I pooped."
"Coliiiiinnnn! Why didn't you call me?"
"I did."
pause
"I guess you did. Sorry buddy."
"I peed too."
"Great. Let's get a bath okay."
"Okay, but I don't want to wash my hair."
"Okay. Whatever."

So, I get my kid in the bath, then I gather the dark laundry along with the pants that he just peed in and the underwear he just pooped and peed in, the apple juice jacket and throw it all in the washer and start it.

About 40 minutes later I go out to the washer to move the clothes to the dryer. Remember the side story? Oh NO!!!! Anything that was white (inside of the jacket, lining to a couple of pants, pocket linings on jeans, the one pair of underwear) is PINK! I separate those that are scarred for life and put them back into the washer hoping the color hasn't set in. Do you need to ask? Yes, the color set in. I told JD about it. He was calm. Extremely calm considering one pair of his Luckey Jeans were now reduced to "around the house" pants.

That night, after a big glass of wine, I decide to go to bed. The day had been undone. And as I turned on the kitchen night-light that sits on the refrigerator, there sat the tin of LOVE with a "remember me?" look on it's face.

Moral of the story: Sprinkle your day with LOVE. NEVER mix maroon with white in the laundry. And, when you kid calls, run!

And to answer your question. No, I didn't sprinkle today with LOVE and yes the tin is still on top of the refrigerator. Some people never learn.