Purse Tells All

Ah... The purse. It has a personality all its own, doesn't it? I like to imagine myself with a posh purse. You know, a cute handbag to match any girlie outfit I can conjure from my closet.

However, this (for me) has not been a reality.

I'm a mom who shares this seemingly community bag with other members of the family. I just carry it. There have been times I would have loved to put it under lock and key.

My purse seems to tell a lot about my family... much like our kitchen table at times.

Please don't get me wrong though. Considering the struggle we had with infertility, I would not trade my 'mom purse' over anything! I don't mind lugging around this 15 lb bag that keeps me going to the chiropractor every month. Seriously.

Yep, this is my current purse. It has quite a few miles on it... time to trade it in. I bought it as a knock-off before this style of purse really took off in our neck of the woods. I do love a good discount store. I was clueless. I thought $16 was too much to pay in comparison to the other purses they were selling for $5. However, I made the investment because it felt like a sturdy enough purse to hold all of our community items.

When I got it home, everyone could not believe I only paid $16! Then I realized how popular this purse really was! I couldn't believe what others were paying for the real designer bag. Yikes. I felt good about my investment now.
The contents of my purse in this stage of life are as follows....

• cell phone & charger
• Fossil sunglasses (found @ Ross :)
• red wallet for numerous receipts, checkbook and children's church kid bucks that DK bought me while in Bangladesh
• Brain Quest cards
• organic raisins
• nail file (yay, something for mom)
• numerous shopping lists (old and new) on the back of tallied weight watcher points
• stamps
• library cards
• children's church check-in pass
• granola bar (only reserved for Gracie)
• Kleenex
• hair clip
• Petco coupon
• cheetah print wallet for cc's & cash ($20! ;)
• soccer camp 411
• i-Pod
• girls' bracelet
• souvenir from local museum
• pass to local children's pizza place
• Monsters vs. Aliens and Jonas Bro concert movie stubs
• numerous pens & misc notes I wrote in a rush
• Nikon (which makes my purse a camera bag as well... my reason for testing purses as 'sturdy enough') or Kodak (point & shoot)... sometimes both
• Playdoh... reserved for restaurants. This is a great mom tip from me to you. I don't allow Playdoh in the house, so they eat this up at restaurants. Well, not literally. You know what I mean. I think it brings out the inner child in some adults too... Right, Uncle B? :)
• I'll reserve this line for different daily events that I'm positive can be matched with something in my mom purse.
  
  
  

It won't be Jasmine though.... No, she is too busy sitting in the passenger seat wishing for more Starbucks puppy foam. However, touching of the purse gets her excited. She thinks she is going with us everywhere. She will be deeply disappointed as the weather gets too hot for her to wait for us in the car. Poor dog... so abused. Not.

It's funny how a purse tells what stage of life we are in.

I barely remember the days when my purse was the diaper bag...

filled with diapers, dirty burp clothes and such.

My brother & sister-N-law are in that season again now. Sometimes I miss those days.

After taking my new niece's pix, this is something I put together for them... "Love is... in the details."

Another benefit of having a 15-20lb mom purse? Burns more calories. I wonder... How many more Weight Watchers points would that give me?

I'll add 1... the point system is all a guideline to me anyway.