Sunday, July 15, 2012

More Than I Bargained For

Yesterday morning, before the birds started singin', the boys and I headed out in search of some yard sales. In true Bethany fashion, I checked craigslist ahead of time and mapped out my route. Elijah can handle about 2 hours of stop and go, but with my personal protester Lazzy by my side, I knew I would hear complaints way sooner. We made it to four sales, spent only four dollars and this is what we got:

- 1 Cars bicycle helmet with matching elbow and knee pads (Elijah is learning to ride a bike sans training wheels, woo hoo! )
- 2 navy vintage pillow cases, to be used in a sewing project
- 1 large black shadow box picture frame (which will house a certain adorable family photo)
- 1 antique baby doll rocking crib (to be painted and used by foster girls, I hope!)
- 1 incredible dress for anticipated foster girls
-2 monster trucks
- 1 book about monster trucks (seriously, I can't go anywhere without monster trucks being involved!)
- 8 fancy wooden skirt hangers (almost bought some the other day)

It's as if the yard sale gods knew about the list I carry in my wallet and wanted to shower me with good shopping fortune.  We had a fun morning together, and everyone walked away happy.

But wait. There's more. Loads more!!!


Yes, we came home with 8 bags of stuff (2 not pictured)! You see, I follow one rule pretty seriously when it comes to shopping : Always use a 1 - 1 ratio. Something new comes in, something old must go out.

So, on our way home from dominating the yard sale world, we swung by our favorite thrift store to drop off two bags of tiny clothes and rejected toys. As I pull up, I see a woman unloading her car. Seriously, it was raining paper bags of unused toys!

She asked me if I had kids and urged me to go through them and take what I wanted. There was a lot of crap, but there were some gems, too. In an attempt to keep the shopping high going, I tossed the best six bags into my car and called it good. When we got home, we did another one of my favorite things : sort and organize!

Elijah kept exclaiming "It's like Christmas! I can't even ever believe my eyes today!".
Items I grabbed from the freebies bags:

- 1 complete set of dollhouse furniture and 8 multi-racial mini dolls
- 1 blue tea set (I have seriously been searching the planet for something other than pink!)
- 1 girly tea set (anyone need a tea set???)
- 3 Leap Frog learning games, working batteries included (bleh for me, but the boys love them!)
- 1 Bazillion race cars, monster trucks, U-hauls, you name it. If it has wheels, we now have it!
- 1 battery operated (ugh!) Mater. Probably retailed $15.
- 2 brand new Playtex sippy cups (almost bought more, don't need to anymore)

You know you're a thrift-aholic when you don't even step foot in a thrift store and still come home looking like bag lady!


 You'll be happy to know that I took four full bags back to the thrift store. Another bag will be donated to my church nursery and another to a local coffee shop which has a kids play area.

Today was a big surprise in many ways. Of course, the obvious : I spent $4 and got a lot of fun stuff. What it means in that I have special things for our foster girls when they get here.  I was able to bless the children at my church as well as my community coffee shop. It was way more than I had expected to find, and I just feel blessed.

2 comments:

  1. My favorite part of this post is the blue bird that you can see in one of the bags. That bird will balance on anything...I know this, because I had a pink one! I loved that toy!

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    Replies
    1. Me too! That bird is definitely the find of the week! Elijah thinks he is so. cool. when he balances it on his little "thinger".

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