It Makes a Mother Proud

One morning, while my youngest was shoveling cereal in his mouth, I overheard him talking to himself. This is nothing new--he has a lot to say and sometimes he's his own best listener. But on this particular morning my ears perked up. I recognized what he was uttering and my heart beat with pride. He struggled at first, but as he played around with the words, he finally got it right: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," he said with his mouth full of Cheerios. I asked him how he knew that saying. "I've heard YOU say it a thousand times," he replied. It's true. That practical American proverb is one of my favorites and it has served me well. Those words ring in my ear, for example, when I think I need to buy a new outfit, ("Make it do, or do without," I tell myself as I first "shop" from my own closet, taking old clothes I have on hand and coordinating them in new ways), or I'm about to run to the store for dinner ingredients and decide to creatively disguise the leftovers, ("Use it up"), and serve them instead.

I hope my boy holds on to those wise words and learns to put them into practice as he experiences life. Today, I am even more purposeful about expressing wise sayings of the past that will serve all of my kids well, now and into the future. When my youngest finished his breakfast on that momentous morning, I handed him his daily chore list, passing on another one of my favorite sayings: "Many hands make light work."