SEARCH PARTY

The silver stickers for the lighthouse were missing. It was my turn to work on the page where I would place the stickers on two Lego pieces as mirrors on top of the lighthouse. However, they were nowhere to be found. We all set out to look for it. Sage insisted it was in the original box. It was not. He went through the instruction booklets of another set whilst I went through the three booklets of the lighthouse set. Nothing.

Sometimes the children put things in the strangest places. Like the yellow duck from one of their games which went missing for over a year. One day last year, I happened to look in the side of the kitchen island where the wine bottles were stored. There I found the long lost yellow duck hiding behind a dusty wine bottle on the bottom shelf.

A search party was underway. Sage searched downstairs but his sister did not make much of an effort. For some reason, I decided to go upstairs and look through a paper bag where the kids had some cardboard for crafts. There, on the bottom of the bag, was the one-inch square paper with two silver stickers. 'Unbelievable' I thought to myself.

The next missing item was the last piece of the 500-piece puzzle which Sage and I 'completed' today. That is, except for the light blue piece which went missing. I moved the Lego table and the puzzle table, then overturned the rug on which the tables stood. Still no piece. After searching for over an hour, we gave up and ate dinner. Perhaps one day the missing piece will show up as did the plastic piece for the globe puzzle which went missing early in September.

Searching through my compact flash cards today whilst transferring photos to the main computer, I noticed a week in September for which I could not locate a card. I spent another hour looking through the handful of cards sitting on my desk. The photographs were already transferred, so nothing was lost. It was a matter of principle to find the card on which the original photographs were taken. Tomorrow I might make another attempt.

Before the futile searching commenced, we spoke with Saffron on Skype. I let the children speak to each other since the weekends were the only time they could get together due to the time difference and the younger two being in school when Saffron calls. All three are excited to see each other in nine days after having been separated for the past six months.

Cinnamon took over the daybed couch and discussed dolls and doll clothes and her birthday makeup party which will take place in two weeks. Saffron has planned everything as she is good with organising. Cinnamon intends to invite her entire class, but only due to the rule imposed by the school - the rule stating you cannot leave anyone out by not inviting them. Small gatherings are my preference. Simplicity is best.