Who knew you could greatly benefit from a hot glue gun?
I have been a military wife, a single mother and then a momma to three girls. There are some skills that I learned in Home Education as well as Wood Shop among other classes that I would have asked in high school why we needed to learn them that now I completely understand why. My husband who was a career college student for a very long time with multiple degrees who used to have a simple answer of calling someone to fix something and it took me a long time to show him that you do not always need a professional. While I am not about to install electric wiring, I know how to install a toilet. Here are some helpful, but off the beaten path skills that I find beneficial for me.
- Utilizing a sewing machine and sewing by hand. I dreaded sewing in middle school and even more when my oldest daughter had to have repairs made to her dance costumes which sometimes came incomplete (not to mentioned that they cost hundreds of dollars each). Somewhere between the first child and the second, I learned and now enjoy the art of sewing. It has become a valuable skill as my third child constantly likes to rip holes in her pants. Sometimes throwing a pair of pants away is better while other times they are perfectly savable. Do not try to throw them away when she is watching!
- Putting air in a tire. I am amazed how often I see people completely unsure how to fill air in car tires. My dad own a trucking company that he ran out of our garage for many years and he made sure we had a good understanding on changing a tire (although I rather call a popular membership company instead), checking the oil level and other basic car needs. Putting air in a tire with a tire pressure gauge with a sliding stick can be very terrifying, but many gas stations now have the digital air pressure reader which I find extremely helpful. If you do not know how much air you need, check the frame of the driver’s door as the pounds of pressure for each tire can normally be found there.
- Using a hot glue gun. If you have littles like I do, someone is always breaking something like small toys or Christmas ornaments. While it is not extremely difficult, it can be time consuming making sure that the reattached part looks great. Sometimes if it is a toy I do not expect to get out of the house, I will not spend as much time working on.
- Reheating food on the stove. Recently we lost our microwave and it took about a week for the replacement one to be delivered and installed. While this may have baffled my husband and my oldest daughter, I was prepared to heat leftovers on the stove. The only thing I had to live without was reheating coffee as my electric coffee warmer was not the most helpful electronic in the house.
While these are a small list of my most random task, there are a lot more helpful skills like knowing how to turn the water off to a sink or toilet. I often find looking up how to fix things on video apps or searching the internet, but never afraid to call a professional as needed. Now if I could figure out how to make the snow go away!
