Today I made one of my desperation dinners. You know, those dinners you make from what you have on hand rather than braving the weather and the crowds of weekend grocery shoppers.
The boy and I had gone to see The Jungle Book, with the intent of hitting the grocery store afterwards. When we left the theater, it was beginning to storm. As we drove past the store, we could see that the parking lot was packed, and cars were lined up against the curb while wet shoppers unloaded their carts. I did not want any part of the Sunday grocery madness.
As we headed home, I began to mentally check off what ingredients I had on hand and what I could do with them. I finally settled on chicken and dumplings. I had chicken in the freezer and a quart of broth in the pantry. Sigh of relief! I could avoid the dreaded weekend shopping trip!
While seasoning the broth, I used the last of my jar of thyme. I stared at the jar for a minute. I thought about whether I could reuse it. I wanted to reuse it. I wanted to keep it. I am not a hoarder; I swear I am not, but I have a thing for small containers. Jewelry boxes, small glass jars, decorative boxes, metal tins, like the kind tea, spices, and cocoa powder comes in, I love them all. I would like to keep them all, but I am not a hoarder.
Let me say this again, I am not a hoarder. I just like little containers. I do throw them out, because like I said, I AM NOT A HOARDER. (I just want to make sure that I make that perfectly clear.) It pains me to throw them out. I feel bad about tossing them in the recycling bin, but I do it. I secretly want to keep them though.
I suppose it is one of those leftovers from childhood. Compared to today's children who have a plethora of plastic playthings cluttering up the playroom floor, I had a nominal amount. We were not poor by any means, but kids in the 70's just did not have the number of toys that today's kids possess. My mom would often give me ordinary objects to use as toys. I would get the plastic egg from her hose, or the cardboard insert from inside of a dress shirt to use for drawing. My favorite though, was any type of container because YOU COULD PUT STUFF IN IT! I know it seems silly, but I loved having a place to store my treasures.
As an adult, my treasures are not the type of things that will fit inside a small box. They are kept close in my heart. My kids, my family, our home and pets, are what I hold dear. To me, nothing else matters. People may come and go throughout our lives. Our jobs and the house we live in may change, but what is housed in my heart will remain the same.
