It took a minute to think how best to describe what we bring to the titanium chain. I’ve got kind of an embarrassing story that really illustrates our philosophy. My apologies, it’s necessarily a bit wordy. My husband and I are what you call..frugal. We decided to get a new bedroom set (keep in mind, 15 years later, we’re still in the bedroom set that our realtor gave us, which was her daughter’s in high school). It took me literally forever to decide on a style. I finally picked, found and purchased. Here we are, 7 years in this much deliberated over piece of furniture – I still haven’t painted our room, installed flooring or anything else. But by golly, I’ve got my bed!
The hubby and I have put on a bit of weight in the last 21 years. I’m battling back now – hubby is talking about battling back. We’ll see how that works for him. One night, we’re lying there in bed, and suddenly we hear a crack..and WHAM..we found ourselves lying downhill. The bottom of the side rails split away from the footboard. While laughing hysterically (no matter what else-it was pretty funny), we were both lamenting inside “really –we’ve gotten so huge we broke the bed”.
His first reaction was – I guess it’s time to get a new bed. As women tend to do, I had like 5 thoughts going through my head simultaneously:
- I’ve got to get serious about getting back in shape-this is ridiculous
- It was hard to find this bed frame – it’ll be a major pain to try to find another one
- I can’t face picking another style due to the difficulty of finding one similar to this
- Surely, since it’s wood, it can be fixed
- I bet I have everything I need, without having to spend a dime to fix this myself.
I won’t bore you with the conversations that followed for the next few days. Needless to say, my husband had serious doubts as to whether (a) it could be fixed and (b) that I could fix it. Now, I could have fallen into a bit of a depression over letting myself go to the point of breaking my bed. I could have let myself succumb to the idea that I had no chance of success. My attitude could absolutely have shifted to stall.
Not this Hands On Woman! The H.O.W. philosophy had me taking the broken bed as a sign that now is the time to get serious about getting back in shape – I’m a former title-holding bodybuilder, for goodness sake – I know how to do this! The H.O.W. appetite for using tools, gadgets and whatnot propelled me into serious evaluation of what it would take to fix that bed. Taking that shift in attitude turned what could have been a depressing turn of events into an opportunity to make myself proud.
I not only fixed the bed – let me tell you, man-handling everything by myself was pretty challenging-I’m also two weeks into my physical makeover and feeling good. Every time I look at that bed, it makes me smile. That’s what we hope to bring as link in the titanium chain. The more we are exposed to tools and ways to make the care of where we live a source of accomplishment; the greater chance we have to shift what some people think of as mundane and nuisance into challenge and self-satisfaction. It is so cool to walk around your place and think – “I fixed that”, “I made that”, “I did that”. We’ll share the stuff that we learn and the things that we find to help bring out the Hands On Woman in you.
Pam & the H.O.W. Team
