Object Permanence

Our van's top raises on a slant. Toes go in the small end, heads go in the larger end, and it can be. . . disconcerting. Turning over is sometimes difficult, and getting two adult-sized people in bed can take some contorting. Thus, when Sarafina saw this van, she remarked a little wistfully that that pop top would be pretty comfortable.

She has been a trouper and not too much of a blanket hog.

Every morning so far, she's had tea with me, made on a camping stove I've had for at least a dozen years, if not more.

I think this tea kettle came home from an Irish honeymoon with me and Eric.

These tiffin boxes are the babies of the objects, being only a couple of years old. They aren't made as well as some of the other things.

I replaced the broken plastic handle on the three-layer box almost immediately after getting it, and Kevin made a much more sophisticated handle for the four-layer one just before our trip.

These have been the perfect solution for the kind of not-really cooking a cross-country sprint needed. Just cereal or oatmeal in the morning, sandwiches for lunch, and soup from a can or pouched Indian food for dinner.

We're a little tired of non-cooked food. The homeschooling camping trips have really spoiled us, as groups almost compete to make the most gourmet kind of meals. 

So many of the things that come through my household are, despite my best efforts, either junky throwaway or end up being discarded for all kinds of reasons. I'm torn between wanting to hold stuff lightly, and wanting to honor my way of living by not having a lot of disposable stuff around. Because, it's stuff. And we all know that one of the first lessons anyone has to learn to be fully human is that people are not objects.

These little people, in one of my favorite objects, who use (and it must be admitted) destroy many objects, are more important than even the mostest favorite objects.

It's easier sometimes to remember that when we haven't been together in a relatively small van for days and days.