The Happy Homemaker

I tried vitamin water last night and really like it. I drank the purple one that has potassium. I do feel revived. I noticed on the bottle the marking for 5 cents when you recycle the bottle in Hawaii and it brought back some funny memories.

I lived in Hawaii when they first started the program. I thought that it would be a great way to earn a little change for the kids to buy candy. My mother-in-law from Uzbekistan moved in with us. She wanted to earn some money but she was unable to get a job because she was illegal at the time. Well, actually I would not let her work either. I am no hypocrite. She kept butting in my business so I told her about the 5 cents thing. We took a walk and found a lot of bottles and cans on the road. My mother-in-law was excited! She began to rummage through the neighbor looking for bottles and cans. The locals drink an awful lot of beer so bottles were easy to find. We had stacks and stacks of beer bottles on our porch and on our lanai so much so that you could not even walk out there. She made pretty good money off of the bottles.

It was embarrassing to be known as the can lady’s daughter-in-law. I pleaded with her to stop! At the same time I was impressed. She needed money and worked hard to find a way to make that money. She saved up enough to pay for a medical procedure that she needed done. I don’t think she ever did it however, not long after she returned to Uzbekistan, her husband, my husband’s father passed away.

Those were very difficult times for me. I didn’t get along with my mother-in-law. I enjoyed learning how to cook Uzbek food and how to live more simply. I think sometimes in our world we live too complicated. (except for JJ and Melissa, they should write a book!)