Hoarding and a dryer sheet

Hoarding....That word can conjure up some pretty interesting visuals. I have called my husband a napkin hoarder because every time we eat at a fast food spot, he can't resist the urge to raid the napkin container. In fact if you see out pantry we have napkins from Subway, Taco Bell, Mc Donalds, Little Caesars, and the list goes on. It's funny actually, until we have people over and then I promptly replace the fast food paper goods with the more pleasing Bounty or pretty flowered or Holiday themed napkins I have at the ready. Ridiculous really, but true none-the-less....

However hoarding is also something that is really not quite so light-hearted and can actually be debilitating to some. Check out TLC sometime, they have a show dedicated to Hoarders and the horror it has inflicted on their lives.

I found out, in addition to my napkin hoarding Hubby, I also have a small time hoarder in my little Ahbie. You see, I have a piece of furniture that I use to display pictures and various art projects given to me over the years from the kiddos. This particular piece also has three drawers in which I store candles and and various other items, knick-knacks and the like. It has always been "my space" if you will. 

A few weeks ago I went to grab a candle from one of the drawers as I have always done in the past and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a little stash of this and that, that my Ahbie holds so dear. I found a scarf of mine, a headband of mine, several happy meal toys, small pieces of paper in which he practiced writing his name, police stickers he got when we went to visit Daddy at work, and a Tupperware bowl with hard as rock raisins that I recall giving him back in July. He had moved my candles to another drawer and claimed this one as his own. I left his belongings undisturbed, but replenished the raisins with fresh ones. Every few days I would check back to see if the raisins had been eaten, and they had, so the replenishing continues.

I find his act of finding a safe place for things, that for reasons unknown to me, are special to him, to be very endearing. I love that in this new Country, New Home, New Family, New Everything, he was able to carve out a little niche all for himself, as if claiming "this is my home too"....I actually tear up at the thought of this.

My little man also has a new comfort object for bedtime....a dryer sheet....Yep, you read it right, a dryer sheet. He found this dryer sheet in his laundry basket as we were putting away his clothes. I remember seeing him pull it out of the basket but didn't give it a second thought. Last night when I went in to check on him before I went to bed he had it in his hand. Sound asleep my little man was with his dryer sheet. Then again tonight as I was tucking him in I saw that he had it up against his cheek, in-between his cheek and the pillow. A dryer sheet....That just cracks me up, and I absolutely love it. I will keep track of that bad boy and once he tires of it, in the keepsake box it goes.

God you must really like me to have blessed me with the children you have, thank you, thank you, and did I say thank you! Man do I ever owe you big!!!!

Oh how I love my dryer sheet loving, hoarder of this and that that is my Lil Ahbie.