Onward and upward

Before I begin, I must send out some thank-yous to everyone who shared such kind and supportive comments on my last post. I realized that was the first time I really shared some of that internal dialogue stuff that Anne Lamott calls "Radio Station KFKD." Reading your comments made me joyful, and a little bit sheepish, because they reminded me that there are actually people out there reading these ramblings. Thank you, dear friends.

OK! This week has already been a bit crazy with getting ready for the JBF Children's Clothing Sale in our area. This is my second time to consign clothing and there's so much to do to get everything just perfect so that it will be accepted into the sale, and, hopefully, sell. Last spring I waited until the last minute and then discovered that it takes more than one afternoon to iron and tag a big pile of baby clothes. So what did I do this time? Waited until the last minute. This time, though, I had fewer clothes to iron and the rest I just tossed into the dryer with a couple of wet washrags and everything came out just dandy. I still didn't make it to the drop-off on Sunday evening like I had planned (even after cutting out tags with a napping Little Omi in my lap), but got everything in on Monday morning. Thanks, Mom & Big Omi, for all your help with this!

On Monday evening the big payoff came: shopping the sale! I was able to pick up a very tall stack of winter clothes for Little Omi for a very small amount of do-re-mi. And the biggest get was an adorable raincoat that I had actually seen for sale last fall, but decided not to purchase at the time because it was so big and I couldn't do the math on what size Little Omi would be so far in the future. But there it was, in the same spot on the rack as it had been a year before, and I snatched it up without hesitation. This is exactly what's wonderful about this sale. As far as I know, I am the third owner of this raincoat, and it is still in such great shape it might as well be brand new. I love that all of these clothes are getting cycled back into children's wardrobes for 2, 3, and probably even 4 or 5 times. Even the buying and selling of it all is really just a way to trade in items you don't need or use anymore for ones you will. (Of course, the woman who runs the whole thing makes out like a bandit, but I think she deserves it, don't you?)

So, I also picked up a used green turtle sandbox for Little Omi. Whoa, boy! If we thought the kiddie pool was a hit, we hadn't seen the sandbox yet. Today she spent the better part of an hour sitting in the sand, scooping and digging and sifting. By the end, she was up on her knees and bent over with both hands just sunk in the sand. Lovely. I see some stellar mud-pies in this girl's future.