Treasured Possession

I don't know about you, but it's harder than usual to find time to clean my house now that we are in quarantine. What used to be challenging with the mere presence of a four-year-old, has multiplied in difficulty with the added duty of overseeing an easily distractible 5th grader's at-home school routine. It has been going on for 6 weeks since my house has been reasonably cleaned. This week I resorted to cleaning sections of my house daily in order to make getting it done.

So, the scene has been set. Every day, I sort through piles of 'stuff' in every room. I not only clean but organize, sort, and re-home objects back to where they belong. Among the items, I found most were these tiny, plastic gems that belong to Asher. He was once fascinated with gems, jewels, and rocks of all kinds. He got this jar of gems as a gift several years back and it has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since.

He plays with them often--arranging them into pictures, decorating Lego creations, and filling tiny chests with pirate treasure for his little brother. As often as he plays with them, I am not surprised to find them in every room as I clean up. Some were in couch cushions or pushed under furniture. Some were laid on window sills or tucked behind picture frames. Many were dislodged from pockets in the washer only to be reclaimed by me from the dryer. But most often, they are simply missed in the cleanup process--left behind to be found by none other than MY bare feet as I walk through the house on my mission.

If you've known me for any length of time, you can pretty much assume my life's motto is "a place for everything and everything in its place." It didn't necessarily bother me to collect them in my pocket to return them to their rightful home, but the sheer volume of them got me thinking... "Not many people would bother with these tiny things. Most would likely toss them in the trash or suck them up in the vacuum, glad to be rid of their annoying presence."

And as I stood there in the bathroom collecting a scoop of gems from the trinket dish, it hit me like