Sorting It All Out

    Had Mom not told me about drying the fresh catnip leaves on my bed, I probably would not have noticed the faint minty aroma of my pink quilt.  There are, however, a number of other things I have noticed in my first day home.

    The bathroom vanity drawers were the first giveaway of her organizing spree while I was enjoying the week in Oklahoma with grandson number one and his extra-special parents.  The second drawer is mine and is normally a jumbled mess since I jam three drawers worth of stuff in it.  Now it is neatly arranged, items lined up.  Taking out the hair dryer probably helped.  Adding in the blue denture holder didn’t.  Because I don’t remember everything in the drawer, I may never know what has been moved.

    As I started dinner tonight, I realized that the cutting board was missing.  After opening every drawer and cupboard, I resigned myself to using what was at hand:  the tiny wooden cheese cutting board.  Since the green pepper and the onion I was chopping were bigger than the board, it made for some interesting moments.  Later, though, John pointed out that the cutting board was in the dishwasher, the one place I had not thought to look.

    I notice that Mom put dishes away in interesting places as well.  Maybe that is my sign to go ahead and rearrange the cupboards.  Who knows?  I might find the paring knife and my pink Tupperware thermos.

    John said that earlier in the week he saved some dirty clothes in a box with vegetable leavings, paper, and the mail, I believe.  They were on their way to the brush fire.  Oh, and mysteriously enough, there was no mail to be found Tuesday.

    Today’s rainy, cool weather precluded any outdoor work, so Mom has started cleaning up her area of John’s shop.  She seems to be finding some of the items I moved out of the kitchen and tucked away in the shop some months ago: Today her offerings were two aluminum pie pans, a rusted spatula, an ancient spatter lid, an empty picante sauce bottle, and a blue plastic container.  The mosquito netting hat I do not recognize.  Or maybe it is a beekeeper’s hat.

    Next to my spot on the couch were the usual stack of magazines she finished reading this week, including a Time from 2006.  From the refrigerator I rescued the Pam cooking spray and threw away the evidence of deli take-out meals:  a sandwich box with three aging dill pickles topped with two pieces of bacon, and a deli salad container with the remains of a vinegar-based salad and soggy white toast with grape jelly topped with pieces of cooked rhubarb. 

    I believe Mom had a good week while I was gone.  She loves to sort and organize, and it appears she was pretty busy.  Eventually, I will find or replace essential missing items.  I’m just glad that the toilet bowl brush wasn’t in the kitchen sink this time.