Smashing Cans

Today after I had took my walk I decided to smash cans.  This is usually my sons job, but since he broke his toe about month ago smashing cans isn’t something he can do for a while longer.  Of course I didn’t actually mind, because I’ve not really been going outside lately since it’s been cold.  So having a reason to stay outside for a little while longer while it was nice out, worked for me.  Even it was smashing cans.

Of course while I was smashing cans I thought back to when I was my sons age & used to smash cans.  See smashing cans for me growing up was one way I earned money.  My parents said that as long as I would smash cans then I could get the money from the sale of the smashed cans. 

I tried many ways to find an easier way to smash cans growing up.  Of course there’s the usual way of smashing cans with your feet.  I did the putting them on end & smashing cans straight down, standing on two cans like this at a time also, which didn’t work any better LOL.  Putting cans on their sides & smashing in the middle then smashing both ends.  I used a cinder block & tried smashing cans with it, three cans at a time.  This process made me tired quickly, so I wasn’t able to smash cans very long doing it with the cinder block.

After years of smashing cans with my feet I finally convinced my parents that I needed a actual can smasher.  So they finally agreed to buy me one as long as I paid for it out of my smashing cans money.  I said that was fine with me.  So I used it till I wore the thing out.  Then I bought another one. 

When we moved into the new house we built, the can smasher was no longer mounted on a pole.  So I had to smash cans on the back porch sitting down on the porch to use the thing.  This wasn’t so bad still easier than smashing cans with my feet.

The bad thing was one day when I was smashing cans, I smashed a can that someone had used as their chew spit can.  You talk about GROSS!!!   It went everywhere, I had to wash the porch off, my can smasher & me!!  That used chew went all over me when the can was squeezed.  Now I wasn’t a girl that hated to get dirty or anything like that.  But this was beyond dirty, it was NASTY!!  When I told my cousin about it & it was her husband that chewed, she thought it was just hilarious.  Then come to find out when she told her husband about it, he thought the same thing.  I tell you what I was mad!!  Now it takes a lot to make me mad, but for them to laugh at this situation made be furious.  I gave him a piece of my mind & told him he better not leave another spit can at the house.

So every time I start smashing cans I think of this.  Makes me not want to smash cans anymore.  You know what thou, a few years later the same thing happened to my cousin.  She was smashing cans & got a hold of one her husband’s spit can.  Yeah she realized real quickly how unfunny it really was.

I suppose maybe I should invest in a can smasher for my son, so he no longer has to smash cans by foot.  But then again he doesn’t have a quarter of the cans I used to smash.

I suppose there wasn’t really a point to this blog today, but it’s what I was thinking about & just wanted to share.  Hopefully you found some type of value or humor out it.

Nap Time

As I grew up on Sundays there was always nap time.  This was the only day my mom would take a nap during the week & I was expected to lie down to take one or at least be quite during nap time.  I grew up in the Nazarene church & that is the church my mom grew up in also. So nap time was nicknamed Nazarene nap, in our house.  As I’ve gotten older I still take a nap on Sundays, I really think that nap time helps me get through the rest of the week.

Growing up Grandpa used to take nap time either right before lunch or right after lunch.  Whichever he felt like that day, LOL.  Also his cat Lady would climb on his stomach & take a nap right along with him.  Those are some good memories, every time I was at Grandma’s & Grandpa’s I would lay on the floor to try & get Lady to come nap on my stomach.  She would ever now & then, but her person was Grandpa.

I now have a son that’s 13 but when he was little he would of course like most babies have nap time.  At first it was two hour nap time, but when he was a few months old he started not sleeping thru the night.  Which is something he had always done, so we changed his nap time to an hour and a half.   This worked for a little while, he started sleeping thru the night again.  By the time he was one year old he was down to a one hour nap time each day.  By the time he was two years old he was only sleeping for fifteen minutes.  Most of the family couldn’t understand why in the world we weren’t allowing our son to take hour long nap time at the age of two.  But you know what our son had plenty of energy the rest of the day to play after nap time & slept thru the night also.

Nap time for our son at the age of three was pretty well non-existent.  If he took one it was a rare thing & only for five minutes or so.  Any longer than that & he got cranky then wouldn’t sleep that night.  I wonder when he gets even older if he will start wanting to take nap time or not.  If he does will it be only for fifteen minutes or so, like he used to.  My Great Aunt used to take a fifteen minute nap.  That’s all she needed to get her thru the rest of her day.

What about you?  Do you find yourself needing a nap time thru the week?  Maybe you should just go ahead & take one.  It might be the pick me up you need, instead of turning to caffeine for your pick me up.  So go ahead lie down & take that nap time.  I won’t judge:)