The scavenger...

What's that saying.... "One man's trash is another man's treasure!" 

Well in our case, most people's trash is my Michael's treasure.  Michael is my little scavenger.  He loves to scour the outdoors finding different trash treasures.  He then brings them home, calls them his jewels and stores them away like a pirate stores his gold. 

It's actually quite amusing the different things Michael considers his treasure.  He's brought home broken pencils, dried up markers, bouncy balls with chips in the side.  He's found little girl pretty barrettes (which I don't think he even realizes are barrettes), and his favorite treasures are marbles he discovers in the grass at his school playground.  All treasures he carefully transports from school to home, to the car and many times back to school (even though I tell him to keep them at home). 

Today Michael returned home from school with several treasures.  While he casually announced he had pulled his tooth out at school today, what he was most excited about what the new treasure he found.  He said, "Mom, would you like to plant a pumpkin so we don't have to buy one?"  Caught off guard I asked, "What Michael?"  To which he smiled his wide as wide smile, reached into his backpack, and pulled out this...

"Look!  Its a baggie of pumpkin seeds.  Instead of buying a pumpkin we can plant these seeds and grow one!" 

As I reached for the baggie, I immediately realized that what he was holding and what I was soon to be holding was some one's trash.  I"m confident the pumpkin seeds were meant to end up in the trash but somehow ended up in my son's hands.  Michael was thrilled with his discovery and said "Mom, I can't wait to plant them."

And in that moment where I really wanted to say "Ehw, don't touch that baggie, throw it away and quickly wash your hands," I instead joined in his excitement and said "Wow Michael that is pretty cool!  Maybe we can plant it and a pumpkin will grow by Halloween.  We'll just have to plant them soon cause Halloween is coming up!"  Still smiling from ear to ear, he was not only excited about his discovery but super proud that he had done something to help us."

While I never know what he will bring home, there's one thing for sure.  He's happy as a clam oftentimes with the simplest of things.  From a broken pencil to a chipped bouncy ball and even some one's old pumpkin seeds; to Michael these items are all perfect, and in his mind all things to be treasured.

Until next time,
Angie