If not most, certainly a lot of kids grow up with a grandma who has a big box or tin full of spare buttons.

My Grandma Harris certainly had a large (ex-cookie) tin crammed full of extra buttons.

And she let me play with those buttons.

And I loved playing with those buttons.

I would dump the whole thing out and then sort buttons. 

Yup.  That’s it. 

I loved sorting all those buttons.

Is that weird?

Some buttons had rhinestones in them.  There were some little sombrero buttons (no I have no idea why Grandma had them).  There were some fruit shaped buttons.  There were buttons of every size and color and lots of specialty buttons.

Sorting these buttons into orderly piles made my little heart so happy!

And when I was done?

I just piled them all back into the tin; so they would be all mixed up for my next moments of childish OCD joy!

And now I have my own tin full of spare buttons – but my collection can’t hold a candle to Grandma’s.  And I don’t try to sort them either. 

Sometimes being a grown up makes me sad.