All the Difference in the World

Sometimes there were so many people in the house that she came up with a plan. Clothespins! With only one bathroom, there were towels everywhere. Kid towels, grownup towels, towels from the slip-n-slide, towels from friends or the myriads of cousins. An utter plethora of towels.

This was all fine, but really. Whose towels were they anyway? she would wonder. Who used that blue one with the white fringe in a heap on the floor? Nobody knew. And so she went into the laundry area and grabbed up a bunch of clothespins, got a Sharpie, and wrote a name on each pin. Voila! Solution.

We came upon a bag of these old clothespins, today. There were a variety of names etched in black in her handwriting, and all of the pins were old. But they still worked. We used them to draw names for heirlooms! She had three sons and so we got out their three names and put them into a basket. One of the kids pulled out a name, and nothing could have been easier. Solutions galore.

Whenever it feels that the sheer number of persons surrounding one is becoming baffling (perhaps even adding a puppy into the mix?), solutions have just got to suggest themselves. The best ideas come out of great need. I think with my mother-in-law it was a need to not be washing and drying towels all.day.long. With children and kittens coming in and out of the house all.day.long, with upcoming meals making their demands (all.day.long!), one little idea made life one step simpler.

The SconeLady is currently resting in a bedroom with the door open, so that she can watch her world going by. It is immensely cozy. People are picking up and carrying boxes outside into U-Haul trailers. They are sifting through remaining items that might - or might not - fit into their living room, or they are just wandering past for no real reason. The SconeLady loves this. Any number of funny things might be overheard and that, my friends, is choice.

Each person wandering by corresponds to one of those clothespins in yonder bag. They are all grown up now, and with sweet children beginning to appear. Soon I will get up and join them all again, or perhaps I'll pad along into the laundry room and sift through that bag of clothespins. Remembering the many summers we faithfully pinned our names onto rogue towels, and hung them up to dry. Such a simple, small, solution.

But it made all the difference in the world.

See you along the way!
the SconeLady