Filling Jars

I grew up in a time when my Granny and Pop recycled long before either one of them new what recycling was.  There were no recycling centers, or recycling curbside pickup.  Recycling for them meant, not throwing anything away and reusing stuff over and over again. Granny had stacks of meat trays, a hoard of bread bags, butter tub food savers, and a jar of twist ties!  Heaven help you if you tried to throw a glass jar away.  Jars became drinking glasses, pickling jars for Pop's hot peppers, fresh strawberry savers, and of course the canned vegetables from the South Carolina summer garden.  Thats just jars in the kitchen.  Pop kept old nuts and bolts in them in the shed, and pocket change in one on his dresser.  Granny would put buttons in some, make them into rooting vases for her Wondering Jew porch plants in others, and I saw her more than once put her teeth in them! I hate to admit that I throw out (recycle bin) more of my jars than I keep today instead of filling them for practical, frugal purposes.  Granny would shake her finger at me and tell me I better straighten up and fly right....that I was being wasteful!  Thats not to say that there are not a few filled jars around my house.  Some hold seashells from walks on the beach, some have art supplies in them, and 12 blue mason jars line the open shelf in the kitchen that we use for drinking glasses.  My favorite jars are not glass.  My favorite jars of date are made of wood and rubber and are of unlimited number because I get to stamp them onto paper and fill them with all the things I imagine.  Filling the jars each week has become the little pieces of my journaling that I enjoy the most.  Granny filled jars. Pop filled jars.  I fill jars.

Jar stamps were bought at Michael's and Paper Source.