Mama always said...

I was an organized Pack Rat.

She wasn't kidding. Ever since I was little I liked to keep things. I'm pretty sure I inherited that from my father. Thanks to A&E I've seen my pack rat taken to the extreme in a little show called Hoarders. At least Victor knows what to expect when my children are grown and out of the house. Kidding babe.
When I was little I used to keep everything but it would be labeled and packed nicely in a box or something. Just a few years before my mom died I went through random boxes I had at my parents house still and I found old letters from friends in Jr. High. ALL of my High School letters from friends. (Cause letters were super cool to write in HS). I found a box full of the most random stuff in it. Each item was wrapped in a sandwich baggy and had a note in it telling me what it was or what happened. I had candy wrappers from a time my best friend Ashley and I had bought candy and eaten it all. Funny when I was 10 maybe? Not sure. I had movie stubs from movies I had gone to with boys. I really had random stuff in my "Memory Box" and it was appropriately labeled. My mom always said I was a pack rat but at least I was organized about it. I ended up throwing that memory box away. It was CRAZY to keep around but funny as hell to see this many years later.

That being said... Alana started pre-school in 2010 and since then she has been bringing home her "work" from school. We are talking at least 5 papers a week. This is her learning her numbers, colors, shapes. Tracing the letters, drawing shapes. All the stuff that she is learning in school. Every time I go to pick her up at school she wants to make sure I grab her "work". She is very proud of it. We talk about it the whole ride home and we go over it so I confirm she is in fact remembering what she just learned in school. After a few months I realized how MUCH she was bringing home. I'm not even counting the fun stuff she makes at church every week and brings home. So what do I do with all this stuff? I've been tossing it all in the desk and trying to figure out what I should do with it. One of my friends was talking about the same thing on FB and people told her so many different things. Some people just throw them away, or pick a few to keep. Some people take pictures of them and then toss them. I wasn't sure how I wanted to handle this either. Will Alana be mad at me when she's an adult for throwing them away? Will she care that I kept them? She still had another year of pre-school to go before she even starts real kindergarten. Then I'm going to have 12 years of keeping work she brings home? Good Lord! There is not enough space in the world for what I'd like to keep.

My solution for now: I bought a binder and some inserts and with her help alphabetized her work and stuck them in a folder.

I don't know how long I'll keep this folder. Maybe next year I'll feel differently about this work. But for now... I'm keeping my pack rat-ing organized.