Hopefully everyone is familiar with the children’s book “If you Give a Pig a Party“. If not, you’ve probably heard of “If you Give a Pig a Pancake“, it’s by the same author and has the same basic story. We acquired it in a Chick-fil-a kid’s meal one day and I can now quote the book (and probably draw you all the pictures) by memory. Basically, the premise is if you give a pig one thing, he wants something else, if you give him something else, he was something else again, and on and on.
There are just some things in life that I do that remind me so much of this book. And it’s frustrating and amusing all at the same time.
For example, my 5yr old had been asking for a pet for ages, and my husband kept talking about getting fish or a bird, so, one day at a yard sale I picked up a 10 gallon fish tank for $5. It had colored pebbles and lots of little rocks and accessories. My husband is all excited, we clean it, and he sets it up. About $100 later we have all the right filters, lights, etc. and my 5 yr old dutifully feeds the fish every morning.
We have 3 guppies, two males and one female. So…the female has babies, at least 30 babies. That’s a LOT of babies for a 10 gallon tank.
So, we get a 55 gallon tank and my husband and his brother build a cabinet (which still doesn’t have doors – so the baby gets into it all the time) for the fishtank. So, we fill up the fishtank and $200 later we have mostly the right lights, filters, bubbles, plants, and fish.
We let the tank sit for a few days then my husband starts moving fish from the small tank to the big one, the small fish tank was supposed to be put away before our Christmas party (which was a week and a half before Christmas). Well…both fish tanks are still up. The larger tank has an algae problem so he can’t move all the fish just in case they start dying. Which, we’ve lost a few fish, but we have over 10 guppies still so I’m really not at all worried about them. They’ll probably be having more babies soon… The moral of a story, don’t buy a fishtank!
Or, once my kids discovered their first barbies and polly pockets it just snowballed from there. They also discovered that said toys can be easily acquired at yard sales and Goodwill. Now, they have a room full of them! To be fair, they do play with them every day so it’s not a huge deal, but I am beginning to think that I should get rid of all the rest of their toys so they have more room for their dolls. Never buy that first barbie for a girl who loves pink, dresses, and lace unless you really want your house to be overrun by them!
Oh! and, my husband has recently discovered the fun of purchasing items on Craigslist. He purchased a copy of Rocksmith and decided he needed a guitar. He purchased 3 guitars on Craigslist (sold one of them so we’re down to two). How does Craigslist work at my house? I sell things and he buys things. I think we come out even in the end. Actually, hopefully, one of these days I’ll get around to trying out the game myself!
None of this stuff is bad, I’m glad the kids have their toys and my husband has his hobbies, just some days, I wish it all took up less space in my house!
