one man's trash is always my children's treasure

My kids headed out with their allowances on Friday to the neighbor's yard sale. And what did their $3.00 buy them? This.....






















Upon laying eyes on this treasure, our conversation went something like this:


Boys: "That was really a great deal, wasn't it Mom?"



Me: "Suuuuure.....but where are we going to put it?"



Boys: "In our room--where Liam's bed use to be".



Me: "I thought you wanted me to move Liam out of there so you guys could have some more space."


Boys: "Yeah--space to put our new pool table!"




So now my children's room looks like a pool hall. We just need the Budweiser light hanging above the table. And some loud Whitesnake music. Maybe a few ashtrays here and there.....


The miniature pool balls are cute though. I'll keep them. The table's future is uncertain....




****Watching my kids start to make independent decisions like this reminded me of an old post of mine. So let's do a little time warp back to Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007. This is how I turned my mother's hair gray.......



terrible children!
No, my children aren't terrible, though lately they've been doing a few things that make me want to pull my rapidly graying hair out. But each time I feel ready to start down the road to "yellsville" because of one crazy shenanigan or another, I have to stop and remember what a terrible child I was. I didn't mean to be terrible--perhaps just overly creative with too much time on my hands.... My mom was widowed and so she had to work long hours to support us all. Until I was about 8, my brother and I went to a babysitter. I can't really remember why we stopped going, I just remember suddenly having 3-4 hours to ourselves after school. Time to do things like this.....


Once I had a yard sale. Only I never asked, I just went around the house finding stuff I didn't like or didn't think we needed--none of my precious stuff mind you--but dishes, a lamp, some of my mom's clothes, my sister's bike, my brother's winter coat with the pointy hood that bothered me---you get the picture. Needless to say my poor mother had to do some hunting around to our neighbors to get our things back and return the dimes and quarters I'd sold everything for.

Another time, I remember my brother and I drug our family's big beanbag outside. Then we got out the ladder and climbed up onto the roof. Can you guess what's coming next? We had a jolly good time repeatedly jumping off the roof and onto the beanbag. We even invited a few lucky neighborhood children to join us!


We swam in the canal that ran through our neighborhood. We played with fireworks and caught my mom's bed on fire (her fault for leaving her window open, right?....) . We called the police when we saw 'strangers' in our neighborhood (guys from the power company checking the meters...). We loaned out expensive tools and fishing gear to our friends. We experimented with our own 'potions' in the kitchen (I think we may even have made crack once now that I know what's in it.....). How we are still alive, I do not know. I can only attribute it to the fact that it was the early 80's and maybe every kid acted like that......maybe?!?! Please tell me some of you acted this way too.....


So when I feel the need to punish Liam and the "spawn of Liam" as we so affectionately call James. Or to ground the two older amigos that seem to outsmart me at every turn-- I just remember my own mother who laughed (and cried!) and managed to get me through my childhood feeling loved and of worth------and I think I can try and do the same.


*I would LOVE to hear some crazy stories about anyone else's childhood. No teenage stories though please--because those can get really ugly :).



**Also, my sister who is 10 years older than I am, use to take me to see the Rocky Horror Picture show. I was 6 and hanging with transvestites at an R rated movie..... I'm sure poor Mom had something to say about that too! That movie did give me a rawkin' good song to accompany the post today though, didn't it :)?! Nothing like a Susan Sarandon/ Meatloaf duet.....