Today I am cleaning out cupboards and closets. Not a fun job! The garbage man will surely hate me this next week.

Then the boys started cleaning their rooms. Not the usual cleaning put purging as I was. There are a few things that they don't really want to get rid of and don't use or have outgrown or don't have space for but can't spare them.

Since they were younger I have always kept memory boxes for each of them. As the years go by and they have made something interesting I have kept it, or done some good school work, or a special toy, or a special card they were given, a pretty picture, picures of their frinds that are not in their own photo albums, any wooden things that I thought they would like to give to their kids or some special book they loved and I did not donate, or their school report cards, or even notes their friends have given them and I found them in pockets when doing laundry, or even special rocks or fossils they have drug home. You get the picture.

Today I showed the boys the new memory boxes that I started 2 years ago. They each have one with their name on it. I took each boy aside one at a time and showed them this box and explained there were others in the attic much like this one that I have kept since thier births. I told them that the items that they could not bare to part with could be added to their box and they are kept now in the laundry room on a shelf.

Each boy seemed happy that I had been doing that and that some day they would look over all the things from their past. They were also pleased to have a box to add their keepsakes or toys in this case that they could not part with right now.

What started as an icky day has now turned a little brighter for me since I shared this with them and now you.