Tuesday, April 01, 2014

5 Reasons to Collect Bottles

For the past year or so, we have been collecting bottles. I used to do this a lot as a kid in order to go to Disneyland so it's something that brings back good memories for me.  Initially we started collecting so that the kids could go to Menchies.  I didn't want to spend the money on Menchies but with a groupon and bottle collecting, they went about 6 times!  We were also using the money to support a missionary but now that money just comes out of our bank account :)

The bottle money is now going towards Disneyland.  We started one month ago, walking around our neighbourhood 2-5 times a week, and already have $30.  Okay, so that might not sound like much, and maybe it isn't.  But let me tell you why I enjoy it.
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1.  The kids are part of the process of making money.  They can see how much work it takes to raise money to go to Disneyland.  We bring the bottles to the depot by our church so that we don't have to spend gas money on bringing them to the depot and the boys are responsible for organizing all the bottles.  Kai loves that part the most.

2.  It's quality family time.  We walk for about 20-60 minutes each time.  Usually we go all together, sometimes I just take Nya and Koen.  The kids LOVE it. We've always gone for family walks so incorporating this just adds a new dimension.

3.  Exercise!

4.  Cleaning up the streets.  It's unbelievable to me how much people litter.  Very sad.  I'm thinking we may have to start bringing a garbage bag along to start picking up garbage as well.

5. It's a little outside of my comfort zone.  Sometimes, I care too much about what people think.  It's kind of embarrassing jumping into a ditch with cars whizzing by to get the 10 cent beer bottle.  Actually, it's really embarrassing.   I'm working on it.

The following story is slightly ridiculous but it just shows you how awesome Gary is.  So, driving home from Green Lake, along the main Green Lake road, there were 100's of bottles along a 5 km stretch.  The snow had melted and they were all exposed.  I may have pulled over 4 times so that Gary and I could collect a bunch of  bottles.  Thank you Gary :)

Hope you had a great day!  We had  some BEAUTIFUL sunshine here today. So thankful!

Love, Louise


6 comments:

  1. Woah woah woah! I just googled menchies... This place looks awesome!!!!! I've never heard of it before... And I just so happy to have a day "off" next week, and I'm totally going to stop there!!!!!

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  2. Adrienne, that's so funny :) It is yummy, just pricey for a family of 5. Hope you enjoy it!

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  3. All these post about your bottles your collecting reminds me of out "POP CAN PICK UP!" yelled everytime we saw something shine on the side of the road anytime we were driving anywhere. And the times we would circle back to get the can, and be really excited with you saw three more down the road just a short ways you could run too! It was for sure a highlight who go to jump out and get it. (i think maybe we were a bit older than your kiddies tho. :P )

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  4. I think your bottle collecting with the kids is great! Good for you! My dad started to collect bottles in his old age, much to my mother's chagrin, and used the money to give to charity. It gave some excitement and purpose to his walks.

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  5. I think this is great, I love the bit about teaching the kids about the process of making/collecting money for something. I often wonder what some good things would be to do to teach Silas this... maybe we should start!

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  6. That is awesome you are teaching your kids do many great things. We have just started collecting for Disneyland too!

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