Junk Drawer Treasures

I must truly be on the mend from COVID because it’s 4:04 a.m., and I’ve not only been awake for several hours, but I’m also hungry. And bored.

I’ve gotten all caught up on my favorite chick flicks from the 90’s over the past few days, including Sweet Home Alabama, cried through Steel Magnolias for the 75th time, and taken about 200 naps because I needed one each time I walked from one room to the next, so help me.

The most productive thing I did, however, was to clean out my junk drawer in the kitchen. How in the world can I have this much junk in my kitchen junk drawer when I have only lived here for 17 months? Lord… the stuff I stuff in that thing…

I’ll share with you its inventory, but please… NO JUDGING!

Let’s begin with the recipe cards. There were probably about 50 – and for recipes I never make. Like never, ever, ever. Tossed.

Then there’s the rubber bands. Hi. My name is Rita and I can’t stop collecting rubber bands. It’s true. Every time I take one off from something at work, or find one on the floor, if I don’t waste it by childishly shooting it at someone (true story – ask Breanna), I save it on my wrist and bring it home, cuz… you know… we might have a rubber band shortage some day. As I kid I remember my parents kept them on all the doorknobs in our house on Hemingway if I remember correctly. And I might not remember correctly, but the rubber band collection now rests on my door knobs.

And! Drum roll please….. I found ALL of the missing marbles from the kids’ marble game in the basement! They are going to be so excited! SCORE!

I also counted 47 pens, pencils, and highlighters, which I took to the basement and added to the bin I have my other 500 pens, pencils, and highlighters in. I’m an RN, so chances are if you are missing a pen, I’ve swiped it from you. We pride ourselves on cleverly “lifting” other people’s pens. I’m apparently better at it than I realized. I’m sorry if you have been one of my victims.

Let’s talk about oyster crackers. Every time I bring home chicken lemon rice soup (my favorite), they fill the bag with oyster crackers. I’m not an oyster cracker girl, because I nearly overdosed on saltine crackers in Honduras when we only received one hot meal a day and crackers were the only thing I would eat from my box of C-rations. I traded everyone on the base all of my boxed meals for their cans of crackers with jam, and even though I’m still a little “crackered out,” even after 39 years, those oyster crackers still make it into the junk drawer just in case of an oyster cracker famine.

I know, I know… they make medicine for people like me.

I also found about 25 jolly ranchers in that drawer. I usually take two or three from a box of them in our coat closet at work each morning and stick them in my pocket for when I can’t get to lunch. That’s another thing RN’s are good at besides swiping other people’s pens. We can live on a diet of jolly ranchers and ice cubes for eight hours. I hope my dentist doesn’t read this because I missed my last teeth cleaning in April and don’t have one scheduled until October. And yes – I know better. Anyhow, I added the jolly ranchers to the candy jar, you know, just in case of a jolly rancher famine in the future.

I also found two staplers, a hole puncher, several paper and binder clips, a book of stamps, and enough change to pay for the parking meter the next time someone in Gross Pointe cares to meet me for coffee after work! Deb?

Now, in the spirit of saving the best for last… I also found the little book of God’s promises that my thoughtful friend Annie made for me a few years ago. She is crazy creative, and never toots her own horn, so I thought I’d toot it for her! She cut out little pieces of pretty paper and put them all together in this tiny little adorable book, and wrote out some of the promises of God in it for me to be reminded. She is quite the artist and you can follow her on Instagram @nanneroo and find her work at www.redbubble.com/people/acbcesarz/s. Show her some love!

I sat down and read through them all and was reminded of what a dear, thoughtful, faithful friend Annie is. I was also reminded that none of the circumstances that I have the opportunity to walk through, including COVID, are taking God by surprise. I can lean in towards Him, and preach these promises to myself day by day, or I can panic, worry, and whine. (Not that I would EVER, EVER, EVER whine! LOL)

I’m glad I cleaned out my junk drawer, and I’m certain God is too, but I’m renaming it my treasure drawer. I think I’ll walk to the living room now, and take a nap.

If anyone needs a pen or 10, hit me up. I gotcha covered 😉

“If then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3