Being Independent and Resourceful

Kati says:

I also want to add improving her environment.
I remember what seemed like whole summers where she would paint the fence, replace a faucet, find a new use for some random durable good that came into the house.
Being capable and handy mattered to her. I just crossed my mind that maybe the power tools that Dad gave me this summer were actually Mom's and that is why we never saw them or used them growing up, because Dad didn't know how to use them.

I remembered that she also clipped coupons and saved up UPC symbols and Good Housekeeping seals to get stuff by mail order -
We wound up getting a cool inflatable Honey Nut Cheerios bee, and also Cheerios You Did It bowls....along with a lot of other interesting stuff.

Kati says:
I forgot about the UPC symbol collections! I think that Dad still has piles of them in his kitchen drawer. This might explain my strange attraction to this occupation. Steve and I collected enough Kellogg's Granola UPC symbols to get a DVD last year. We were really upset when it looked like they weren't going to continue the promotion, and then they started again. I was attracted to that Smart Start cereal last night because you could get a bowl if you sent in enough UPC things.

Kati also says:

I think that the idea of her wanting to be as capable and handy and useful as possible was the foundation of how she worked and worked and fell into a coma, instead of taking it easier. But it also made her this really inspirational, modern woman.
So I'm happy that she was so willing to learn new skills and model that behavior for us when we were young. I think that it helped us know that with or without a mother, we could collect a bunch of skills on our own.