money

this morning i paid our bills. we have had to borrow money to pay some of our more significant bills, like lawyers and medical. it's been a strain. however, things are soooooo much better than when i was single and trying to stretch a nickel to cover milk. i remember scavenging through couch cushions for a little grocery money. i'm not kidding either. so i was telling my sister this morning abt money and kids these days and it got me to thinking...

that's me on the left w/2 of my best friends growing up. eventually we all worked at that car wash together.  w/all the perves. :(  (meg and aleta roncallo)

they have no idea what life is going to be like when they grow up. they have their own tvs....flat screens. they have ipods and computers and video game systems and transportation. they have food and clothes and all the comforts of life. and they haven't had to work for them. they consider making their bed and cleaning up their own rooms to be chores and work. no concept of real life. i remember working as a kid. i sold lightbulbs door to door w/the boys scouts when i was 12. i had a paper route also. i babysat outside the home for 50 cents an hour. and i remember when i got my first raise to 75 cents an hour. that was for watching the gaisfords 5 kids. and i didn't watch tv while the kids played in the other room. i was hands on w/all of my charges. changing diapers, reading to them, playing games. and my mom taught me to wash the dishes and leave the house cleaner than i found it. so i did. picked up toys, cleaned up food and dishes. when i got my first summer job at 15 it was working at a car wash. the full service kinds. where the car is put on a conveyor belt. i had to jump in the back door of the car as soon as it got through the power dryer and spray and wipe the back window before it got off the belt. and there were hundreds in an hour. i made 3.95/hr and thought i was rich.  so i have told my boys abt my experiences with money and working. they throw that story into the pile of stories of people w/one tv (black and white!) and horse and buggies. you know, the ones where you walk to school through three feet of snow, up hill both ways. my boys look at me w/the "pffft" glare, and under their breaths call me a dinosaur. 

but they'll learn. the prophecies warn us of times to come. they will learn. hopefully before it's too late to do something abt it. work=stability. no two ways abt it.  and i am GRATEFUL. both to have been taught that, and for that principle. bcs w/out hard work, there can be no confidence. but after all we can do, we can have peace that we have done that. :)