I finally know what is preventing mothers from completing their children's scrapbooks: Scotch tape.
I'm not sure why this is--just trust me. The next time you have a whole day to catch up on your scrapbook you'll be innocently arranging photos on acid-free paper, and you will suddenly think, "I need the Scotch tape." So you get up and wander into the kitchen, trying to remember where you last saw it.
First, you try the catchall drawer, but instead of Scotch tape you find three pennies and the missing button from your lucky shirt, which, by the way, would be perfect to wear to the Bunko Game tomorrow night. So, you try to find the sewing kit that you remember seeing a couple of months ago "somewhere in the garage"--possibly near your Scotch-tape dispenser.
However, you must clear a path to get past the furnace because the garage lacks any sort of organization. Luckily you have some spare time, and you're just the person to whip it into shape. So you spend the rest of the morning sifting through boxes of old maternity clothes and power tools.
Then, as you try to find a place for the wooden table with antler legs your husband made in high school shop class, you decide that things would go a lot smoother if you could just bring his treasures somewhere they would be appreciated, say, a nice charity. And you must bring them today. In fact, this very minute.
But, as soon as the car is loaded and you pull down the driveway, you notice that the car needs gas, but the only station where you definitely know how to work the pumps is five miles in the opposite direction.
While you are there you decide to get the free car wash which comes with filling up the tank. You take your place (fifth) in line to wait your turn.
By the time you finish, all the water in the car wash has made you thirsty, so you stop off at a fast food place to get a drink. While you are ordering, you realize you have nothing for dinner so you go to the grocery store to buy a chicken. Then you decide to add a container of potato salad, a head of lettuce and a box of cereal for tomorrow's breakfast.
Before you know it, you have finished next week's grocery shopping and are struggling to fit it all into the trunk between the wooden antlers.
You finally arrive at the donation station two hours after you left the house. While you are unloading the car you have a nice conversation with the attendant about the great weather, why "no one makes good wood furniture anymore," and the latest episode of ER.
You then look at your watch and mumble something about having to go because your children will be home any minute. As you get into the car you wonder how the day could go by so quickly.
And, if you hurry, you might even have enough time to get another picture down in your scrapbook--unless, of course, you remember about the Scotch tape.
Debbie Farmer can be contacted at familydaze@home.com.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
