Day 233

I’ve always been a collector. Growing up, I collected sportscards, stamps, coins, and rocks. Pretty standard stuff. I also collected paperback comic books like Peanuts, Hagar the Horrible, and Dennis the Menace. As I grew up a bit more, I started collecting bobbleheads and other sports memorabilia. When I had kids, I ended up getting rid of many of these things. I use some of the coins and cards in my classroom. I ended up selling most of the comic books and bobbleheads. 

For a while, I started a little collection with my kids. We collected what we called suncatchers. I am not sure what their official name is (or if they even have one), but these solar-powered plastic figurines act like little bobbleheads when they are in the sun. When we saw them out on our shopping adventures, we usually grabbed one or two (or three). It got to the point where we weren't allowed to bring them back anymore unless we were replacing one we had already had on display. We enjoyed setting them up in our windows and watching them bobble back and forth. We had one which was a little butterfly on a flower. One time, one of our released butterflies went missing and we met him fraternizing with the butterfly suncatcher.

Eventually, we donated them to Goodwill, sold them at a rummage sale, or broke them in transfer.

We were no longer a suncatcher collecting family. However, our days of collecting were not finished.

More often than I’d like to admit, I take my cherubs to a certain fast food restaurant with a clown as a mascot where meals can be ordered to bring little ones joy. Along with this joy comes a toy. Most of these toys are met with disdain by my better half, mostly because they just end up on the floor of the van or the house. However, occasionally, the toys connect with her in a way that makes her happy so we started displaying them right in our kitchen window to look over us as we prepared and enjoyed food. 

But while this new collection doesn't need sun, something else we now have does.