Being Green

On our way to the house to change for dinner (out of nice clothes into t-shirts and jeans, ironically), E was calmly eating a bag of M&Ms in the back seat. Yes, I give him candy before dinner. If I do it, I can't expect him not to...

Anyway, so he's eating the devil dots, and the next thing I know, he says "Mama, can we recycle this M&M bag?"

I was instantly overcome with pride. My obsession with searching out every single recyclable item in our lives had been picked up by my five-year-old son! O frabjous day! (My mom made me memorize that poem when I was about 11 and I can still recite it 13 years later. So don't blame me, blame my crazy literature-obsessed homeschooling mom.)

I answer, "Probably," immediately trying to categorize to myself which bin that little bag is going to end up in (help me out: it's paper, right?). Then E says "Good. Because I tore it up."

And sure enough, as I whip around to cast my gimlet eye upon him, he's cradling a pile of tiny M&M bag scraps in his chubby hands, cherubically grinning at me.

"Why would you DO that?" I gasped. "What are we going to do with that NOW?!"

"Mom!" He frowned at my failure to immediately grasp the silver lining. "We're going to use them for CREATIONS!"

.......

So I suppose the point got across...just not in the way I had imagined.