Meaning of Life: Family

How do you afford clothes, food, and a house on minimum wage? Unconditional love and stretching every penny to the fullest. I will not fully understand how my parents raised 7 children. My Dad worked minimum wage jobs for years and my Mom was a stay at home wife who babysat for every kid who had 9 to 5 working parents, cooked 3 meals a day and cleaned in between.  In spite of low paying dead end jobs, we were always fed plentiful, clothes and shoes always fit, and we always had a roof over our heads.  My parents succeeded where others fail; family inspired them to live a humble, happy, healthy and hard working life. I love my parents and I am eternally grateful for all of their sacrifices. They make me want to be a better person in life and respect everyone for who they are. I wish some day I could be like them, with some minor changes but like them nonetheless.

My view

This is the view from my window. My husband set this up and I love having hummingbirds visit me daily. They start feeding around 5:30am and end around 6pm. There is at least one hummingbird drinking every 5 minutes. One hummingbird in particular is very territorial and constantly defends this feeder from all who intrude. I have not been able to take his (we believe it is a male) picture because he is very fast. The hummingbird in this picture is one of our "regulars."

Upcycle

This is a purse/clutch that I made a while back from pages of a magazine. I was cleaning out my bookcase and I saw that I had too many magazines that I read and was not going to read again. I did not want to throw them away or recycle them, so I decided to create something useful with them. I made several of these purses and gave them to my nieces as gifts. They loved them. Each purse was unique and fit their personalities. The one in the picture is my own.

Front view

Back view