Suddenly, it’s summer. Nearly a week of it so far and no end in sight that I’ve heard…and don’t tell me if so; I’m loving this seemingly endless sunshine. Suddenly, the grass is long and rippling along the roadsides, the white flat wheels of Queen’s Anne Lace have bloomed and every other bush and tree sports lilacs in every shade of ecstasy: white, lavender, pink, purple. The chestnut candles are glowing, white and pearly pink. The starry lupine leaves have sprouted and the flowering stalks are rising and calling: summer, summer, summer!
If I could slow it down, I would. The seasons turn so slowly on the other side of the year; and spring takes forever. Now the rush has begun and we must savor every second. We must see the world with wondering eyes. Stare at the sky and imprint that particular shade of sun-drenched blue upon the backs of our eyelids. There’s nothing like it: the slide into summer is worth every minute.
Martin and I are sorting Lego. The kids have 3 huge plastic bins FULL of the stuff. For years, it was the go-to gift for both of them: Bionicles for Karin and basic building blocks for Martin. Karin never really played with it, however, and she must have bought or received nearly 30 Bionicles during her childhood. I don’t even know if they MAKE the things anymore (just checked: they stopped in 2010). According to my nephew, Lego Ninjago is the rage now. Bionicles are so …2010. Since neither kids is interested in actually doing anything with the million little plastic bricks we own, I hit on a plan. Even though I recycled every bit of packaging over the years, we DID keep all the instruction booklets.
We’re starting by sorting by color (2 bins down, 1 to go), and then we’ll put all the Bionicles and other sets together that we have instructions for. Then we’ll bag them, and then…hopefully…we’ll sell them.
We have 2 large paper bags more than half full with only black and white pieces and bowls of various sizes completely covering the dining room table with all the other colors. The Bionicles were produced with their own colors so there are several bowls of color pieces that are ONLY for them. All in all, we have 43 bowls or piles of DIFFERENT colors. Plus mini-figures and a huge pile of wheels. And a stack of super-size flat pieces for building on.
We have EVERYTHING. We have windows and doors and roof ridges and trees and wheels and an ELEPHANT. We have people and all the billion tiny things they can hold in their little Lego hands and a DINOSAUR…and an ALLIGATOR. We have transparent pieces and neon pieces and glow-in-the-dark pieces and shiny silver pieces. It’s like Legopalooza around here!
God knows how long this will take me us. Martin is helping me sort. And Karin has promised to help put Bionicles together. Maybe by the time we’re done and they’re all bagged and ready to sell, they’ll actually be worth something.