I think I've caught a bug...

....under the weather...not up to snuff...call it anything but don't say I'm sick.

I promised. I told Mr. B I wouldn't get sick this year. And I fully meant to not get....ahem...sick.

However, I have a stuffy nose. My body hurts and my throat is sore....

And, we're out of Kleenex.

Which reminds me of when I was a single Mom.

There were many times when I couldn't afford all the papers....all at one time.

You know, the toilet paper, napkins and paper towels. So we improvised.

We used napkins for TP, TP for Kleenex, paper towels for napkins, and so on.

I even devised a way to take the center cardboard core out of the TP and wind it from the inside outward, to pull up from the center, and stuff the whole thing in one of those Kleenex boxes with the paper coming out the top!

Pretty clever, if I do say so myself.

But in the midst of all this 'force fed frugality' came a feeling of scarcity for my daughters. My sons, not so much. But the girls are now sorta "paper hoarders". Brandi, while she was growing up, would never fail to let me know when they were having a big 'ol TP sale at the store. She'd search the Sunday papers for ads and coupons. April feels that if her shelves have the "big 3" papers, she's going to be OK.

Even now, if we are down to, oh 6 rolls, even I panic. We can be as broke as a church mice, but if we have all of the top 3 papers (TP, napkins AND paper towels) we're going to be fine.

Funny what lessons life give you, huh?

Like watching them turn off your water at the meter for non-payment, then going out there and manually turning it back on so you can get through the week-end showers. (as a waitress, money always came in on the week-ends, so by Monday, I could pay off whatever utility I needed to...)

But, even now, the kids don't remember those times as particularly bad. We actually had fun.

They can't remember doing without - well, with the exception of the whole paper-scarcity issues.

So, if necessity truly is the mother if invention, then I think we did pretty good.

Hey, even McGuyver had nothing on a single Mom with 4 kids!

So if you're ever feeling like you don't have enough, or you want more (and more and more) just think how lucky we all are - and then think of some clever ways to "make due" and make some memories while you're at it!

My Ny-Quil seems to be kicking in- so it's off to bed I go...

g'night,

-me