Never Enough

I was recently thinking, well, ok i was thinking TODAY, how much i say to my kids "it's never ENOUGH with you". Funny thing, God very often enlightens us to OUR behavior through children, doesn't He! I remember back through the years how i would think, if only we had this, if only we had that! and when i get this or that, sure enough, it's not how appreciative i am, (well i am for a short period of time) but "oooo, now if i only had this or if i only had that". i remember sitting in my sunday school class years ago as a teenager, and the teacher teaching on this very thing, and it has stuck with me and alot of times i try to refocus. but more often than not, it's back to this and that.

(btw this picture has nothing to do with this blog but i thought it was funny to look at )

for a long time now i have been facinated with old black and white movies. and i watch them (now i know it's still tv/movie land and not totally the same as real life back them) and think how simple things were back then, yet people seemed so much more happy and satisfied.

the question i find myself asking now is, why is it so hard to go back to that simpicity today, even when we want to. my answer.....the busy stuff addiction! it is stronger than any drug! yet we often find ourselves thinking, the latest and greatest invention to make life "easier" so wonderful! i mean i bought a stupid thing to pick up pet hair off the furniture, hello! what is wrong with the vaccum or some masking tape! or how about the carwash thing you hook your hose up to, umm when i was a kid WE were the thing you attached your hose to, to wash your car! how many different "wands" are out there to clean your toilet, what happened to using your yellow gloved covered hand....(ok i DO own a wand, BUT i can clean the inside of my toilet if i run out of the little sponges that attatch to it, if i had to! )

seriously, i realized how bad it was, when one day i ran out of crockpot liners, and thought oh no, now i can't fix that meal i wanted to.....hellllloooo! oh no, now i have to WASH the crockpot! lol if you have a bother, they have an answer, you don't need to try to come up with a solution out of what you have on hand, you can go to the store (hopefully atleast with a coupon) an buy the latest and greatest to solve all your cares! what we forget is how dependent we become or how it moves us farther and farther away from the relationships with other people. what happened to work frolics, what happened to, when 2 or more women would get together to visit, they would bring something they were working on from home to keep up on their work but yet be able to visit. what happened to teaching our kids some very simple yet practical things like sewing, or even burning trash!

i was lighting a candle the other day, and was using matches, and frankie was asking me how to light a match! picture my shocked face! here my 11 yr old (well it was a few weeks ago so he was 10 then, lol) sits and has no idea how to light a match, boy he would definetly not survive in the wilderness forget winning mama some money on survivor! lol but we always hear to teach kids not to play with matches and so i guess i never got around to teaching him how TO USE matches! lol it was funny, he was very hesitant, afraid he was going to burn his finger! and was so excited when he got it down! ofcourse he got the standard lecture on the safety of it all, but wow, what a wake up call. i have been so negligent in teaching my kids some of the very basic skills in life! so with that, i decided gracie was old enough to learn to sew, the basics for now anway. and frankie, well he gets to learn how to take out the trash and that generic trash bags are not very good, there are just some things that are worth the extra money, however, now that he knows how to light a match, maybe he can BURN some of that trash! lol ya, not really but it's an option! lol

as many of you know, we took the regular tv/cable out of our house, without all that crazy stuff they get engrossed in, they were able to discover, the beverly hillbillies, the three stooges, stuff they never would have taken the time to watch before. i hear frankie making noises from the three stooges and when corrected by his teacher for saying ain't he blammed it on too much beverly hillbilies! tonite he was enthralled with johnny carson! gracie is reading more now, and well, ok to be honest, other than that it hasn't changed her that much, lol, but she was not one to watch alot of tv anyway! lol

they learned how much fun doing a jigsaw puzzle is! when we went to conner prairie they discovered simple toys like a stick and wooden ring, and could have spent the afternoon playing with that! i believe we put too much on what we think we would have wanted as a kid on our kids and miss the simple things they would totally enjoy! we have never really taken a vacation, but the kids don't really ask either (other than holiday world) , they enjoy doing things around here, they get excited to go camping for the weekend, or fishing, or even bowling! miniture golf was too slow however, BUT just swimming in the backyard is pure joy! how many people joke how their kids play more with the box a toy comes in than the toy itself! we have cut down every year on the gifts they get for christmas and birthdays and guess what, they don't even miss all the stuff, in fact they get more excited than the year they came downstairs to find a room full of gifts, i will never forget how unexcited they were, that was the year we decided...ENOUGH!

i forget how capable kids are, until i read books on home life from the pioneer days or watch those old movies, just how much kids are able to do and want to do! what a diservice we do them in letting them take the easy way out with all the current technology. they need to know how to do things the old way and be self sufficient, we need to teach them about not using credit, how to save and budget, how to do basic home maintenance, and sewing (do you know how many people do not know how to sew a simple button on their clothes) and cooking and cleaning! no wonder the generation of now doesn't want to work, they have not been taught to!

i am not saying i will succeed at what i want to do, but i am sure gonna try. i want to teach my kids to have self help skills so they aren't one of the millions buying books and trying to figure it out. maybe they can be the ones writing the books! lol i think we need to get back to spending time to shape them into the people we want to have running this country when we are old. to be the ones to get this country out of debt and turn it around. some may say it's too late, it can never happen, but i say...."i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"...ok that may not be a perfect quote, but i am too lazy to get up and look it up, cuz i was not taught a good work ethic!!! especially this late at night!

just a thought.