Mom Pockets

I'm sure most of you, my lady friends, have a pair of mom jeans lurking somewhere in your closet. Except for my sister-in-law Anne. She probably doesn't own any mom jeans. But she's not a mom yet, so I'll give her time. I have a pair of mom jeans I try to only wear around the house, although occasionally they may venture out on an errand with me when I'm behind (pun intended) on the laundry. They aren't attractive, but really, how many people am I trying to impress while I wash toilets, do laundry and vaccuum?

But this is about mom pockets, not mom jeans. At the end of the day as I crawl out of my clothes (mom jeans or no), I empty out my pockets. I am often surprised at what I find. Crayons, legos and other small toys, hair elastics, and pieces of garbage are not uncommon. Today I thought I'd report the contents of my mom pockets.

3 used dryer sheets (finishing up Monday laundry day on Tuesday)
2 hair elastics, black (I'm surprised this count was so low--sometimes it's as many as 5 or 6)
1 piece of halloween bubble gum--unchewed (confiscated after trying to clean gum off the sofa today and now being chewed by me while blogging)
1 chapstick (I actually started out the day with this and it's going back into the pocket)
1 office clip, black
1 wadded 1/3 sheet (canary) note from school about the lights-on ceremony last night (and what a ceremony it turned out to be)
1 kleenex (partially used and going back into my pocket with the chapstick)
2 bobby pins, black
2 more hair elastics I didn't see before, brown and fuschia (that's more like it)
1 piece of pocket lint string
2 ripped out ads from today's K-mart mailing (Christmas gift ideas)
no money (paper nor coin)

I am sometimes very surprised at what I pull out of my pockets. I almost don't remember putting some of it in there in the first place. When I sort through these treasures, I start feeling like some kind of traveling trash can or storage system. There are days when they are downright bulky. Heaven only knows my pants don't need more bulk. Maybe I should start tucking things into my pockets in a more systematic way--trash in the left front pocket, chapstick and tissue in the right front, and the other various items in the back pockets. Then the pockets in the jacket I wear around in the cool seasons will need their own organizational strategy, too. But knowing me, I'll forget which pocket is for what stuff. Do I label them? Mom jeans with pocket labels. Now there's something. Motherhood is so glam.

One of the People I Missed this Thanksgiving

Even if he is an evil little brother. Missing you, Dally. And we really would have scooted to make a spot for you if you had been here. Party on.