The silver lining as mentioned before is that when you have a limited income you really have to determine what you need versus what you want. Our income has been greatly reduced in the past two years. At first I was a basket case then it occurred to me that I have a place to live, food to eat and my children are healthy. Nothing else matters.

Some years ago we had an ice storm that took down the power lines. We were without power for almost two weeks. Thankfully it was still mild enough that a few extra layers in the house were all it took to be comfortably warm but cold enough to keep food frozen outside. But I look back at those weeks very fondly, I cooked meals that took all day so that the heat from the oven warmed the house, we ate every meal as a family after dinner we played board games, when it was dark we went to bed. With no TV, video games or computers we entertained each other. We were well rested and everyone had ideas as to what to do for entertainment. We all had a blast and we tried to keep it up after the power was back on but the electronics slowly pulled us all back in.

That harship forced us to come up with some other idea. This economic hardship has forced most of us to take a serious look at our lifestyle and determine what's important. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Prior to 2007, if we wanted something we bought it. My husband stopped by Wal-mart after working afternoon shift for some toiletries and saw people standing in line in the electronics department so he just stood in line, with no clue what he was waiting for. It turned out to be the latest handheld gaming systems. Our kids had not even asked for the stupid things yet but he bought one for each of them.

Now there is rarely any money left over for extra things, and when there is it's because we cut back somewhere to get it. Gifts are given a great deal of thought now and greatly appreciated. I don't think that's a bad lesson for our youth to learn. My kids always have always had good manners, but I don't think they fully appreciated a gift before. For Mother's Day my son asked what I wanted, I told him I'm much rather him clean the bathroom than buy me a gift. A few years ago, this would have never occurred to me. I would much rather have them do an extra chore that I don't like doing.