What should I do with some perfectly good old building materials that you were ripping out? Now say these building materials were an old concrete sidewalk that you could pull out of the ground in big chunks?
Would you:
a) toss the chunks into the dumpster.
b) use the chunks to pave your gravel (mud) driveway.
c) sidewalk? What’s that?
If you chose (b), you would be right on target. I wish I could say that I have some morally superior reasoning for doing it this way. I know that reusing is the “green” way. Honestly, I’m just cheap frugal. Well, that and I know a paved driveway probably won’t happen any other way and spring thaw is really hard on my shoes.
One thing I have noticed about getting outside with a toddler is that he likes being outside, but he also likes novelty. Today I can dig in my driveway and lay concrete. I can probably get by with doing it again tomorrow. After 3 days of working on the same project, when I ask, “Do you want to go outside?” Samuel says “NO!” It works this way whether we are playing, working, or just hanging out. The only exception I have found to this rule is playing with slides. He could never get enough time playing with slides.
He is teaching me about balance. Projects will (eventually) get finished, even if I don’t hyperfocus.
Today we work in the driveway. Tomorrow, we play with slides.
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