Sunday, March 14, 2010

Tampering is the Evidence

I'm surprised how many posts begin because I've gone off sugar. I never before realized what a central role it has played in my life! But here I go...

In the last few weeks, I've spent more time looking for non-sugary snacks at the grocery store. I don't normally buy a lot of snacking nuts, because of their price, but now I'm splurging. When I opened the can a few days after my shopping trip, this is what I found: the foil seal was opened halfway and then tucked back down.


Now, I know from personal experience that getting into stuff you know you aren't supposed to is part of childhood. I remember spending secret time in my family's food storage room. I'd pull out the buckets of sugar and flour and cornmeal and play with their contents. It's a great sensory experience to plunge your arms as far into the flour as possible and then slowly raise them up and out and let the particles stick to your arm hairs and sift through your fingers. Yes, my parents built a sandbox for us; but no sand is so fine as flour. So I get why my kids find some containers irresistible. But when I was a child, I was always very careful to put things back how I found them so I wouldn't be caught. I would shake the flour bucket to restore a smooth surface and push it back under the shelf with the label facing out at exactly the same angle as I found it. My kids seem to forget to hide the evidence of their tampering escapades. Or maybe they just don't care. Hmmm... Would I prefer to think of my kids as too stupid to cover their tracks, or too brash to be influenced by the impending consequences?

Maybe they figure that denial saves them from looking stupid as well as from the consequences. While I was reading to #5 the other day, I noticed this strange hairline on his eyelashes. (Click a photo to enlarge it.)


When I asked him who cut his eyelashes, he pretended to have no idea what I was talking about. Yet there is the evidence for all to see.

P.S. I owned a camera for years before learning about the macros feature. If you've never played with it before, try it out. You can take some amazing close-ups. (You didn't click on the eyelash photos? You really should. It's like looking through a magnifying glass.)

8 comments:

Our family said...

I never did that with food buckets, but my #3 loves doing that. It drives me crazy because she's not careful, just messy. You make me want to go plunge my arms into the four bucket now.

As far as snacks go, we've become addicted to almonds. I don't remember what brand it is, but you can buy some in a green bag. They seem to be the best price and they're delicious. A handulf of those with an apple or orange makes for a great, filling snack.

Charlotte said...

I hope my kids have never done that with the food storage... I guess I'd never know.

I can't believe those eyelashes. That is something I've never seen before. Just the thought of scissors so close to the eyes make me shiver.

mindy said...

Oooh, I love how you can see your deck in the middle picture, reflected in his eye!

Mary said...

Our Family--I love almonds! What store do you buy them at?

Charlotte--I can only hope whoever cut the eyelashes used blunt-tipped scissors. There is a 2 in 7 chance that they weren't though!

Mindy--I was so focused on the eyelashes that I didn't pay attention to that reflection. That was pretty cool. I wish it had been on purpose! Now I'd like to try for a shot with mountains and clouds reflected in an eye.

Pam Williams said...

You can get nuts in bulk from Alison's Pantry in Pleasant Grove, just off State Street. They have bulk spices, food storage items, kitchen tools and utensils, etc. Wanna go sometime?

Mary said...

Pam--I've never heard about that store before. I'd love to go, even just to see what they have and for what prices. I would like to find a local alternative to the group buys that I usually wait for to stock my food storage staples and spices.

Min said...

Ewww! You stuck your hands and arms in the flour? Gross. (Well, not gross for you), your mom used that flour to make cookies, and I ate those cookies. Ewww. I'll never look at flour the same again. Shiver

Mary said...

Min--If memory serves, I don't think your mom's cookies were less germ-free than ours. I remember several afternoons at your house watching He-Man and Scooby Doo while sifting through a storage bucket of chocolate chips. You were the one who taught me to lick the bottoms and stick the chips on my nose to pretend to be a rhinoceros. You'll be happy to know that I've passed that trick onto my own children--but I hand out the chips rather than letting them dig!