Recovered

The other day I was doing some straightening/cleaning in the living room. Our couch, like all of our furniture, is second-hand and has seen some better days. Its ugly, blue-and-cream checked upholstery is covered up by a deep blue slip cover--one of those "one-size-fits-most" numbers that has to be endlessly tucked and tugged and scrunched and rearranged to keep it looking decent. (Which is why ours never does.)

Meg and Matthew had been "sledding" on the couch that day (new game!), so the slipcover was even more than usually disheveled. I gave it a big yank, and out of the depths of the seat cushions emerges... a whole lot of junk. I took a picture of it.

I even made a list of it.

-1 plastic star from the bouncy seat mobile
-a fake penny from the toy cash register
-4 broken pieces of pretzel
-5 Trio block connectors
-a fake quarter
-a torn piece of a fake $1 bill
-a Memory card
-2 teething rings
-a foam letter Z
-1 hair clip
-1 friendship bracelet
-a fake nickel
-1 doll's shoe
-wooden spatula from the kids' kitchen
-one of my nice place mats
-a gum wrapper
-a fake dime (Why don't we have any real money in our couch, like normal people?)
-about 4,000 crumbs

Some of you are thinking that I'm completely nuts to inventory the miscellaneous trash from underneath my couch cushions, and you're probably right. But I just find it so hilarious that all of this stuff was there and I had no idea. It makes me wonder what other hidden messes are lurking around my house in places I never think to clean. And it makes me smile, because this mess points to the healthy, active little people who live here, play here, eat here... and turn my couch into a land fill.