Sisyphus' revenge

My kids have really great imaginations. They can play for hours, imaginary games using few if any actual toys.

The problem is, anything and everything in our house is a toy. And you know where toys belong? Everywhere.

I have (had) a green body pillow that theoretically I was going to love. I love to cuddle up with pillows, especially when I'm pregnant. But I've hardly used it because it's too big and cumbersome for sleeping. But Nathan sure loves it.

It can be anything--a road, a boat, a swimming pool, a car... et cetera, et cetera. And so it's constantly lying in the middle of the floor. It drives me crazy. I'll put it away, and minutes later he'll pull it back out.

So yesterday, while trying to get the kids to help me pick up the house, I lost it. All the frustration concentrated into that one pillow, and I rolled it up and quietly left the house. Nathan didn't say anything, so I was hoping he didn't notice. I stuffed it in the garbage can and felt immensely better. But when I got back in the house, he said, "Mom, don't throw my green pillow away. You should not have thrown that in the garbage." And not in a mad way, but in a sorrowful, wise little voice.

And I felt guilty. So guilty. He's had so many hours of fun with that thing. But not guilty enough to fish it out of the garbage.

But they did cooperate in cleaning up a lot better after that.

And this was Alice's revenge. I'm not sure what she's so aggrieved about, but she managed to get two kinds of overflow on me all at once. I hope she was satisfied.