Day 287

It's in our pockets, the ash trays of our vehicle, counter and dresser tops.

Change.

It's become almost obsolete these days, with debit and credit card availability everywhere from gas stations to McDonald's. But somehow, it still piles up in all those places it always has.

Therefore, most households have an area where change gets hoarded every once in a while. Some have actual piggy banks, while others use Ziplock baggies or mason jars to collect their coins. Ours is a gigantic plastic beer bottle that sits behind the bar. Each evening, I sweep off counters and empty pockets, then dump the jingling metal into our container that is so old it has duct tape holding it together.

But, although it's less often than it used to be, every once in a while you just need some change- For the car wash, or maybe to put air in your bicycle tires.

Tonight, however, the trusty beer bottle of coins was needed for Math homework...

The question was "How many centimeters high would a stack of 1000 pennies be?"

The 11-year old was a bit stumped at first- "How am I supposed to figure that out? They didn't tell us how tall a penny is!"

So, I pulled out the beer bottle (I know, that sounds weird). But I told him to fish out 10 pennies and place them in a stack on the table. Then we got a ruler and measured the stack- it was 1 cm high if you were wondering...

This allowed the 11-year old to then project how tall a stack of 1000 pennies would be, all without using a calculator or Google. Kids are so used to getting answers immediately on the Internet, I find that they struggle with any type of situation where they have to figure out a solution or how to do something on their own. He gets frustrated so easily when he can't immediately understand how to go about getting an answer.

That beer bottle has helped us through so many situations- a have emptied it out time and again when it starts to get full or when extra cash has been needed. It's seen us through helping to buy groceries and Christmas presents, to paying for gas on family vacations.

Tonight's picture represents that giddy feeling you get when you add up a bunch of change and realize how much extra cash you suddenly have, and using Resources other than Google to figure something out. I put the pennies back in the beer bottle though- we have a trip to see the grand baby coming up and I'm counting every penny towards helping with gas!