FLUFFY PILLOWS

I was pulling more white fluff from the inside of a pillow and stacking it on the dining room table when my son Alex came into the room. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Haven't you noticed how dirty and flat my needlepoint pillows were getting?” I reached into the pillow and pulled out more.

Alex shook his head as he looked at the pile of fluff that was almost up to my shoulders on the table. “Nope, never noticed.”

“Well look at this.” I held up the now empty pillow with a needlepoint picture of a bee on it. “It's filthy!” I cried.

Alex leaned in to look closer. “I don't see any dirt.”

I turned it around to take a look for myself and couldn't see any either. “Okay, so maybe this one was just flat and needed new stuffing.” I reached over to another needlepoint pillow that had a white background. “This one's yucky!”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “If you say so.” He picked up the pillow with the bee on it from the table. “It cracks me up that you have bees and honey jars all over the place just because Miele means honey in Italian.”

Now it was my turn to shrug my shoulders. “Hey, lucky for you it means that and not something disgusting!”

“You mean if it did we'd have a picture of something disgusting on a pillow?” Alex started to laugh.

“You never know.” I'd finished pulling the remainder of the stuffing from the last pillow and took them all over to the sink to start washing them.

Later that afternoon Alex was back in the kitchen and could see I was at the dining room table re-stuffing the pillows with new filling. “Wow! This has turned into an all day event.” He grabbed a snack and went into the living room and turned on the television.

“What can I say? I like clean, fluffy pillows.” I was jamming so much filling into each pillow they were looking bloated. “If I over-stuff them now I won't have to redo them for another year or two.” I explained.

“Whatever makes you happy.” Alex laid back on one of the couch pillows and began watching his show.

I'd finished stuffing the needlepoint pillows but still had some leftover stuffing. I was walking around the living room carrying the bag when I noticed the pillows on the couch. “Do they look flat to you?”

Alex looked over at me and adjusted the one under his head. “They seem fine to me.”

Not liking that answer I picked up one of the other pillows on the couch and unzipped the bottom. “Perfect! It's not a foam block, it's filled with stuffing too!” I reached into the bag and grabbed a big clump of stuffing and began jamming it into the pillow. When I was satisfied that it had enough filling I struggled to zip it up again then reached for the next pillow and did that one too. When that was in place I looked at Alex. “I need that pillow now.” I was pointing to the one under his head as I held a newly stuffed pillow for him to use.

Alex switched pillows but when he slipped the new one under his head it made his head tip forward. “I think you might have overstuffed this one.” he said with his chin almost touching his chest.

“Don't worry, it will flatten out after a while.” I was busy cramming more stuffing into the pillow when my husband Steven came into the room. He looked at Alex, “You don't look very comfortable.”

“I'm not.” Alex tried to adjust the pillow so his head would rest the right way.

I tossed the last finished pillow on the couch. “Don't they look fabulous!” I cried. “Nothing looks better then freshly fluffed pillows!” I looked at Alex and Steven.

“Wow!” Steven looked around at all the overstuffed pillows on all the furniture. “Who knew we'd been living with flat pillows all this time.”

“Not me.” Alex sighed as he was still trying to find a comfortable place to rest his head. “I think I liked them better flat.”