WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER:  Fathers Day Gifts – Which Cost Little – But Mean Much

It could be as simple as grabbing that to-go cooked chicken at the grocery store, like Jewel, with some potato wedges, veggies, and a home-made card – for just a few bucks.  Take it home, set the table with placemats you make (construction paper is fine!) to tell “The Story of Dad.”

Posterboard costs under a dollar at Walgreens.  Markers are less than five.  Make a poster of all of his favorite things and his best traits…  maybe even attach coupons, for a free chore (or more!), 3 hours of quiet time or breakfast in bed, or a day with no chores.

A favorite frame – or a new one from Dollar General – can hold a new portrait or a newly drawn picture.

Fill a jar (like the one that just held the spaghetti sauce) with notes, or candy, or both.  Maybe place a treat at the bottom…  like the key to a new toolbox.  Maybe a gift card for Dicks Sporting Goods.

Make up a song about him, and perform it, “live,” after dinner – maybe a homemade favorite meal, like pizza.

Get to a local nursery, pick up a tree or shrub, then plant it for him, and surprise him.  It’s a perennial gift!  A Catalpa tree grows beautifully, here in Chicago – and blooms, with heart-shaped leaves, at Fathers Day, every year.  I go to ALLIED Nursery & Garden Center, at 53 & Schweitzer, in Joliet.

Have each person write a paragraph about a favorite memory, together.  Then fold the pages into a homemade book.  This can be done, each year, to create a little “paper library of Dad.”

Just knowing that you took the time to make things special for him will mean the world, this year.

[PS  That’s me and my Dad, back in the day.  Would give the world to celebrate him, again!  And, that’s our Catalpa tree.   ~ Mo]

 

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