The Tupperware is finally all washed again and back in the cupboard after 1½ year old grandson Elijah’s last visit.

His mommy always brings a bag of toys, but Elijah doesn’t play with them. Instead, to our delight, he empties out the plasticware cupboard and stacks and bangs (with a wooden spoon provided by me!) and throws (because he’s a boy!) and simply has a grand old time. And so do we.

Childhood toys? I'm sure I had a couple, but I only remember one doll. That’s it. And even though I’ve scrutinized old pictures with a magnifying glass, I can’t find a picture of her or me with any other toy for that matter.

Here’s an early 1950’s Christmas picture of my sister holding her Bonnie Braids doll. Later, on the farm, her toes melted when she was left in a too warm place — the doll, not my sister. Although I do have a gruesome incident of my own toes melting (the resulting scar is another reason I knew I’d never be Miss America).

Notice also in the picture that my brother has a toy vehicle. And I am holding what? But I’m happy, and not pouting that my sister got a Bonnie Braids doll — Dad would not have put up with that.

A far cry from the Fisher Price barn my kids had with many colorful vehicles, animals and people, Dad made this barn for my brothers’ few vehicles and their pretend animals. And they played with it for years!

Mom probably doesn’t remember it that way, but I think we were basically contented kids — we figured out how to make our own fun. Because of that, we are contented adults. What a gift!

You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. James 4:2