What to Keep and What to Toss…

The following is a post written by my wife, Michele.

When our oldest started Kindergarten (2 years ago) and started coming home with all different kinds of art projects, self made Mother's Day cards, writing journals and tons of newsletters from the teacher, I decided to keep it all and sort it at the end of the school year. Bad idea! The end of the school year came and I had a 1 foot stack to sort.

1st grade came and I decided I would sort out right from the get go. But what do you keep? Only the art projects? All the perfect spelling tests?

Now we have twins that just started Kindergarten and the process continues x 3. Again the question is what to keep and what to toss?

I have nothing left from my school days except for my report cards. I think I would have liked to see an art project I made or maybe a writing sample from Kindergarten or 1st grade...my yellow blankie that mysterious got lost in a move when I was 6 years old. Those are things that I would like to share with my kids now to show that mom was really their age once and did the same things.

But will my kids want to see those things, too? Will they want to share them with their kids? Will they appreciate it or will they just roll their eyes when I hand them their box of stuff once they're grown up? Will they care that I kept the baby outfit they wore when they came home from the hospital?

I guess for now, until I can figure out what to keep and what to toss, I'll just stick with the beaming smiles I get and the proud look in their eyes when I hang every little scrap of paper they made that says "for mom" on the walls around my desk.

Leave your thoughts on ‘what to keep and what to toss’ in the comments.  

Michele

I want to thank my wife for jumping into this posting idea and sharing her thoughts and what is on her mind.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris and Michele

Technorati Tags: Kids Keepsakes,Family History,Keepsakes,School,kids,parenting

Ice Cream Sundae–Sunday

What can brighten up a miserable rainy day better than finding out it is Ice Cream Sundae day?

All over the world people are counting calories and skipping those all-too-delicious deserts or evening snacks. But, today is a holiday in honor of one of those great deserts and snacks so those calories do not officially count – heck, we can even say they don’t even exist today. Me and the family indulge in the sundae every now and again and we will again today since it is a holiday and we must, right?  With it being sundae day it gets me to thinking of my childhood and the part ice cream played in it.

My biggest childhood memory involving ice cream doesn’t actually involve pure ice cream but instead custard. I don’t really know the difference between the two and honestly don’t care. What I do care about is the memory of stopping at the local custard shop, Custard Time when I was growing up. We used to stop there after our baseball or soccer games. I think I would always get the vanilla cone with the red, white, and blue sprinkles. Delicious! I can almost taste it now.

Although that custard was great, I think it is the combination of events and making it a tradition to go to Custard Time after a game that makes it so memorable, even after all these years. That memory and tradition is so strong within me that I stop at Custard Time whenever I am back in the home town, which isn’t nearly enough.

Custard Time still exists in my hometown of Northville, Michigan and even has their own Facebook page which I just ‘liked’.

Thanks to Geneabloggers for mentioning that today is Ice Cream Sundae Day and taking me for a short trip down memory lane.

What are your childhood memories of Ice Cream? Leave a comment and let us all know. Now I think I’m going to make a sundae.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ up those memories.

Chris