“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
by Yogi Berra

When I was a young physical therapist I worked at a school for kids with disabilities. We had one girl who was in her late teens who constantly carried a much-loved, much-worn doll.
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We were all concerned that this was not age appropriate and made her appear as quite mentally challenged, which was not the case. She spoke quite well, could write a bit, and was very good at simple tasks. We were all hoping she could get a job in the future.

The challenge to us was to somehow convince her to give up the doll. We tried all sorts of behavior modification techniques. None worked. That doll, clutched tightly to her chest, simply meant too much to her.

The district psychologist came in and simply stated that if we were going to remove this comforting treasure from her that we would have to replace it with something equally comforting and pleasing.

We worked for weeks and weeks with a pillow she could put her doll in (which worked) until we finally found a large, cuddly, quilted purse. We put the baby and a small pillow that she liked into the purse and the problem was solved. She even began to put it down occasionally to perform a task.

I’ve thought a lot about this experience as we try to change our spending debting habits. And this concept of filling a void left by no shopping, no going out (or limited), etc. has to be addressed. In order to succeed, to reach our dreams and get out of debt, we are going to have to find our fun and excitement away from the malls, away from online shopping and auctions, and all the other places that simply aren’t in our list of priorities.

As a family we just stay home more. Occasionally we play board games. We have Netflx so we watch those movies, we go to thrift shops (”junkin” as my mother-in-law used to call it), we have more fun cooking, and we go to the Y to exercise. It has been a slow transition but not too painful. And we’re not perfect. Sometimes we go out to eat or buy something that really wasn’t anticipated, but we just adjust our spending plan (hate the word “BUDGET”!) and we get along just fine.

NOW HERE’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE JOKES:

A man boarded a plane with 6 kids. After they got settled in their seats a woman sitting across the aisle from him leaned over to him and asked,”Are all of those kids yours?”

He replied, “No. I work for a condom company. These are customer complaints.”

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FACE YOUR DREAMS, EMBRACE YOUR LOVES