Another article about difficult times, and making the most of things. Published non-exclusive January 2007.

First the link to the article, "How to Spend More Time with Your Teenager and Get in Shape"

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-spend-more-time-teenager-get-151701.html?cat=27

Now a few details, before I post the article, this article I was paid 3.00 upfront. At least it was something during a very difficult week. This was just the beginning of a lot of very hard things in our lives, not that we'd ever had very many good years prior.

I tried to write this article in a positive manner. This was written at a very depressing time in my life that was only to get worse.

Now the article, also don't forget you can click the link above and leave a comment or view the comments of others.

           How to Spend More Time with Your Teenager and Get in Shape
                         Making Lemonaid from Sour Lemons

Well let's see this week so far we have had the stove quit (can't be replaced for a couple of weeks according to the landlady), the furnace has broke, (so no heat until it can be fixed), and the van has also quit.

And since that we are not made of money it will not be replaced today, and tomorrow is not looking too likely either.

So why is the title of this article about spending time with your teenager? Well we have no transportation so everyone has to either stay home or walk or ride a bike.

So whenever something is needed from the store or anyone wants to go to the library the way of going at this time is to ride a bike or walk.

And that has been exactly what has been going on all week.

First of the week my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, this was on a Monday two weeks ago now. Then the van broke down, he was able to get it started again, but then it broke down again and has not started back, so next the furnace quit, next the stove went out.

So our teenage sons have been spending a lot of time riding their bikes with their dad, riding to the auto parts store, riding to the grocery store, riding to Wal-Mart, riding to the library, riding to work.
My husband has been loosing weight and getting in shape as a result and our teenage boys have been getting to spend a lot more time with him.

This is not the best way to go about finding time to spend with your teens, but trust me it has been working very well for the last two weeks or so. LOL

So now you know what to do with the lemons in your life, use them to make memories with your children. How many children can say that because the family van broke down, their dad had time to do some bike riding with them?

There is a good side to everything even a diabetes diagnoses, with this diagnoses my husband has learned the value of watching what and when he eats, and how much. Now he may get healthy and fit. And since the van is broke he is walking more and riding a bike, the bike was cheaper than what it will take to fix the van so he is getting a triple benefit.

He is getting the benefit of riding to loose weight (and to get where he needs to go, as taxi's are high, and there is no bus service here) he is also not spending money on gas, so that is less money out of pocket. Plus he is getting to spend time with his teenage sons that he would otherwise not of had because he would of been taking them and dropping them off at various classes and work. This way he spends time with them, and they get to see him get healthy all at the same time.

By the way just for the record I do not think this is how you should have to spend time with your kids, but at the moment it is working, but there are better ways. And I am trying to think of how a diabetes diagnosis, a van break down, a stove and furnace quitting all happening within days of each other could possibly be good or could have any benefits, even though it is quite inconvenient.