On What Did You Do With The Milk?:

Earlier this morning I was watching the snow falling and letting my mind wander and it went to when the kids were about nine and seven.















We were pretty good at recycling and making fun out of nothing much even back then. Years before this story I’m going to tell you about, we had started collecting empty paper, half gallon, milk and orange juice containers.















We would carefully wash and dry them out and every time we had two of them we would cut the top off of one and turn the second one upside down and pinch its sides in a bit so it would fit, then slide it into the now opened top of the first carton until it came to rest at the bottom. Instant free building block. (You can tape them with tuck tape to make them stronger if you like.)















At first it wasn’t much, but after a while we had a cardboard box full of these blocks. After a few years we had more then a large refrigerator box full.















Well, on to the story: One day we had a few, out of town, family members for a weekend visit and the kids got silly. They got up early and built a carton block wall in front of the door to the room our guests were sleeping in. The kids didn’t build it flat to the door, but out in a squared small room of its own for the guests to find themselves in when they came out of the bedroom to start the day. With the help of Daddy to reach the higher rows it was higher then the door itself.

They had a good laugh. There was crashing and bashing of blocks to free the guests. And breakfast was full of laughter at the memory and plans for bigger and better buildings and jokes in the future. The family still tells the tale.

The blocks were given away to other kids when my children had out grown them and we moved to a smaller house.

I think that if the day ever comes that I find out I’m to be a grandmother, I’ll start recycling my milk cartons into blocks again for more cheep fun.

And yes, I now have a few open pitchers of milk in the frig.