To Wellness and the Creative mind
Mom, Artist, Health Coach, daughter, sister and a wife.We all wear many hats during the day. How do we maintain balance? How do we not lose sight of what is important and real? We can help each other answer these questions by sharing what we have learned along the way.
Here I am going to share my thoughts and experiences with how we treat our bodies and the effects it has on how we think and feel.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Making due
Summer is here and the request have come flooding in. A new bike, a new skateboard, more Super Soakers, new video games and Lego sets, trips to the amusement park and lots of ice cream. What my kids do not understand, because they aren't suppose to yet, is I spend a chunk this week on getting the pool open, buying them new summer shoes, bathing suits, shorts and yes, a few new Super Soakers. I also had to get prescriptions filled and pay the final heating bill. It was a long winter. I wish I could get them everything their hearts desired but that isn't the best example. Trust me, I have accumulated plenty of crap I do not need, but generally I try to use what I have first. I am frugal by nature and I enjoy the occasional dumpster dive. So how do I pass this on to my kids?
After my last post I got to thinking about my father. He definitely had a big influence on my passion for salvaging. He likes making tables. The coffee table in my house growing up was big enough and sturdy enough that as kids we would dance on it as we acted out "The Copa Cabana". Before it was our stage it was a pink wooden bench that my father rescued from a burn pile. If you look under the table today you can still see the paint. When I was little my neighborhood had "Junk Day". Everyone put out the things they wanted to get rid of and then drove around seeing what everyone else put at the end of the drive way. A wooden ladder became our monkey bars and our slide had a slight twist to the left but it was all salvaged, so with hammer and nails my dad made us an amazing fort. Last summer my mom and dad found a free rowboat on the lake and rowed it to my dock. Now I just have to find some oars.
This to me is fun. Memories are made discovering "new" treasures. I hope my kids will also find it fun and see its value. It is easier to buy things new but times are tough and it just isn't possible. Making due demands more of our creativity, we may have to develop some unconventional solutions, but it forces us to think and ask questions. School may be out for the summer but learning should be a constant.
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1 comment:
Yes. I can get my kids to enjoy the occasional flea market or yard sale, but truly living that way is another story. We teach them to recycle, but for them, that is just putting the right trash(bottle, can , paper) in the right bin. Maybe the value in rejuvinating trash comes with the ever increasing value of money. For sure my 23 year-old has no problem stopping for road-side treasure! (Now that he has to stretch his own paycheck).
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