When times get tough, this tough family gets inventive

As expected in raising five children, making do with what we have is a common theme in our house. Our creativity is continually enhanced as we come up with unique solutions.

We have a 1996 Camry with 220,000 miles on it, no door handles, and the left window doesn't roll down. I think it's my husband Mike's pride and joy because it starts every morning. When I drive the Camry to work, I never have to drive a group to lunch because no one can figure out how to get into my vehicle, even though the bent pieces of coat hanger and the key rings are obviously the replacement door handles. Mike is the king of "jury-rigging," which is repairing with whatever is on hand.

He has a healthy supply of flexible wire and a pair of pliers. However, he is not to be confused with MacGyver; he would be the sitcom version. There is nothing cool or fancy about the way Mike fixes anything.

I drove home from work the other day and two of my 8-year-old triplets were playing baseball. Jerrod really wants to be a pitcher. David was catching for him. We don't have a catcher's chest protector, so Mike improvised and had him wear a red and black backpack on his chest with rolls of toilet paper in it. It was the funniest scene.

Mike built a great treehouse for the kids in our backyard. He nailed small chunks of wood as steps up the tree so they could easily climb up. It sure beats the plastic playhouses on sale for hundreds of dollars in stores. He also took some rope and a plank of wood and made them a swing hanging off one of the solid branches.

My 6-year-old daughter Maria's first bicycle was the old blue bike that was handed down from one of the boys with little tassels added to the end of the handle bars, new pink handle bar grips, a basket and a new white seat.

My sister and I used to play with water balloon babies. We filled one water balloon with a smaller amount of water than the other to make the head and drew a face on it. The second water balloon was the body, on which we drew a belly button. We tied the two ends together and wrapped our babies in a receiving blanket. The cool thing about our babies was they were heavy like a real baby. When we were done playing, we just popped our babies.

My 19-year-old son, RJ, is certainly following in his dad's footsteps. He can build just about anything out of stuff we have around the house. Mike did get really mad, though, when RJ destroyed a perfectly good workbench to build his skateboard ramp instead of using the scrap lumber we had behind the house.

Some innovation is not so great. About four years ago, we bought two of those dual-child bike strollers. Although our children don't ride in them any longer, Mike still uses them as a mock trailer when he has to haul heavy objects out to our dock. Unfortunately, my teenage son RJ and my then-boss' daughter hooked the stroller onto the back of our moped and decided it would be fun to take turns driving each other around the neighborhood in the stroller. I nixed that and explained to them that I didn't need to get fired.

My triplet boys come up with lots of bad ideas. Cookie sheets should not be used as stair sleds, and cast nets are not lassos and should never be used to capture siblings. (The metal sinkers on the edges of the nets really hurt.)

I'm really proud of my husband and my family. I get a kick out of their innovative approaches and will continue to challenge them to think outside the box, especially during this particular time of economic slowdown.

Lisa Brown is a Mount Pleasant working mother of five children ages 6-19. E-mail her at lbrown@postandcourier.com.