I was reminded of something my Mom taught me this morning when I was folding laundry. I started to move a single orange towel from my folding table to the top of the dryer when I heard a crunching noise—something was “hiding” inside the towel! Curious I lifted the top fold back and found a small bag of croutons tucked inside.

Croutons?

What in the world?
And then in a flash I knew.
Addie was hiding these croutons.

These are the croutons that come in the Caesar salad mix at Costco. Addie loves Caeser salad and she loves the croutons, but when she makes up the Caesar salad, she generally leaves the croutons off, since Geoff and I don’t eat gluten. Instead of mixing them in, she’ll put them in a small bowl, which she places on the table, so that she can add them to her salad when we sit down to eat. Except … my son, Chase is home for a few months. Addie is no longer the only crouton eater. In fact, Chase would most likely chow down on the croutons and Addie was most likely protecting them. I called to her, we had a good laugh and a quick conversation about scarcity and abundance and shared ownership of things like food—then she decided to put them in the pantry.

But, here’s funny thing: This incident with a crunchy towel brought back a memory with my mom. I was probably just a little older than Addie—maybe a freshman in high school. It was Christmas time. I needed money and Mom said she would pay me if I would clean the laundry room really, really good. I did. But as I reached down into the laundry basket to scoop up the last load of dirty laundry to wash, my hands struck something hard. I pulled out one of Mom’s Tupperware containers that she stored cookies in and sure enough, it was filled with Christmas treats—probably Caramel or Cream Cheese brownies! I asked Mom and she replied, “It’s a great hiding place don’t you think?”

Yes, I thought, there’s a very good chance that sweet treats tucked safely under a pile of stinky, dirty clothes will not be discovered or prematurely eaten.

❤️ I’d LOVE to know your best hiding spots. Leave me a comment or a story!