Maximizing the Mite

I got really excited yesterday. Over something that might be not so big to someone else.
After collecting cans for miniscule profits (Chicken Run) we got a tip from my neighbor to take them to Pacific Steel. Finally googled the directions and took a couple wrong turns but made it. A big recybling place behind a dealership downtown. Never been there before.

We took all the cans we'd gotten and after being weighed the man whose pants were falling off his bottomless waist and a cigg hanging out of his bearded mouth we had 3.9 pounds.

took it inside and they handed Jaden almost 2 x as much as he'd been getting for that amount someplace else. I was like: "ok now that is worth it." And I decided to keep it up.
they said if I put a bumper sticker on the car we'd get 5 cents more per pound. I took one.

And today after the rain fall I put it on the van. Yes, it was 11.60 cents that Jaden earned. But in a time that I can't afford to even give him an allowance. It is worth it. It is worth teaching him to work.

Last night we had FHE on The Sanctity of Labor from the recent Church News. President Eyring's phyicist father was 80 and suffering from bone cancer when he went to weed the Welfare farm onions. Afterward he found out that the weeds had been sprayed and would have died anyway. He roared laughing. when he was asked by his son about it he said: "I wasn't there for the weeds."

So we aren't there for the paycheck per se. It did make him able to go to Target and buy a finger dirt bike that he does tricks on his Tony Hawk skate park in the basement. He gets stoked about earning money and buying his own things. So do I.

It isn't much but what it does for me mentally is. It makes think of other ways to improve and make each dollar stretch. I don't want to spend my money on dumb things. Or waste food or anything I buy. I want it to last. I like my car. My van that I swore in HS I would never drive.

It makes me want to ride my bike to do little errands with Jaden while the weather lasts and my health permiting.

Yesterday I was asked what I "do". Well, I have a sub-teaching job. But today as I clipped the edges of the lawn out back by the hose I thought about it.

I hand clip grass. I weed my garden. I cut up fresh tomatoes from my garden for the taco dinner I am preparing. I write a list out of needed food at the grocery store and after my son comes home from school we drive there. I take my son to the allergy specialist where we sit for 20 mintues after our shots to see if we have a reaction.

I quiz my son on his spelling words. I watch my son show me tricks on his new bike that he learned at flicktrix.com. I prod my son to brush his teeth before bed and school each morning. I make breakfast and pray with him in the morning.

I spray the bugs and webs on the house. I bring in the mail. I cut up vegetable for my Dad's cold lunch while I make my son's. I rub my parents feet in the morninig before they go to work.

I take my son to the vacant lot and watch him the whole time (almost) and clap after each trick. I put make-up on in the morning and wear a skirt because it makes me feel good.
I RSVP for a b-day party for Jaden's friend and wrap a $1.00 gift from Target.
I make appts and drive across town to attend them. I give myself shots of meds. I pioneer meds that will help others down the road.

It may not seem like much. But like the widow's mite, it is all I've got.