The saying "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." has long been a favorite of mine. I love the challenge in that saying and I love how contented I can feel with what I do have. I have always hoped to pass on to my kids the enjoyment of making do and just being happy with what we have.
Yesterday provided a fun example of their creativity and fun in making do. We have been having warm weather recently and I have been thinking that it might be nice to buy a wading pool for this summer, that hasn't happened yet however and yesterday was rather hot. I was busy planting the garden and I had a tarp laid out that I planned to plant tomatoes through that had gathered some water in it. The girls thought it was rather fun to play in but since I didn't really want them jumping and compacting my garden soil I showed them another tarp they could use.
My intention was for them to just lay it out, spray some water on it and have fun with a few puddles, they however thought that making a swimming pool would work better, so they made this:
This really isn't a long term solution (Ken had them put everything away yesterday evening) but it provided a lot of fun for one morning and cooled them off in the process.
Every little project like this is helping them to realize how much fun we can have simply using what we have and a little creativity and that is something I am pretty happy about!
For more Frugal Ideas visit Life as MOM. 
