The Pockets of Little Boys

Tonight I learned a very important lesson...

ALWAY CHECK A LITTLE BOY'S POCKETS BEFORE DOING LAUNDRY!

I have seen the cute, old-fashion depiction of a little boy in overalls, with dirt smudges on his face, a slingshot hanging out of one pocket and a frog in the other. However...I thought those times had passed. With Sony Play Stations and Wiis and videos and computer games, it seems we've lost the innocent and magical games of childhood that called upon the use of a boy's imagination as opposed to their parent's money. no longer can an old, tattered football compete with Madden NFL for the play station or a stick be magically transformed into a gun...which saddens me. Fantacy football has taken the place of guys getting together at the local highschool field to play a game of touch. I wonder if these guys still have the same "brother-like" relationships as they used to. I know I'm not a boy and I may not have validity enough to speak about these boyish things. But as I did my own little boy's laundry tonight, my mind wandered to these places. This past weekend, Chad went and purchased rocks to line our flowerbeds and a huge mound of mulch to put in them. The kids had a blast "helping". They dug and hid "treasures" and climbed and rolled in the huge pile of dirt in our driveway. Chase had the smudges on his face that i spoke of earlier and for some reason they made me happy. The boys were taking a break from technology and were playing things that required imagination...and were loving it. Well, as I transfered the washed, wet, dark load into the dryer tonight, I started noticing a lot of...what looked like dirt...falling from the clothes. It just kept coming. I could not figure out where it was coming from, but it had filled the washing machine and was filling the dryer before I realized what had happened. Chase had decided to fill ALL his pockets with mulch. It was all over the laundry room, all in the clothes, and all in the washer and dryer. Now, I know I've been accused of being neurotically clean...but seriously. I just washed dirt.