The church rummage sale.

Hello.  I'm in charge of the church rummage sale.  I have been eating, breathing and sleeping rummage and all of its greatness. I've gone in the morning, gone to work and went back.  M-W were days that I pulled 12 1/2 - 13 hour days.  The sale has reminded me of the Gilmore Girls episode, Concert Interruptus.  In that episode, she was in charge of the town rummage sale, but took those donations at her house.  While these donations didn't come to my house, they did come to my house of worship and there was A LOT of stuff.

I have placed ads.

I have begged for transportation for items and only after I accidentally shed tears while talking to a few of the church men was that handled.

I have driven to hither and yon to pick things up.  Incidentally, I've found that older folks don't give good directions and it concerns me that the few that gave me directions are also people who drive.

I've been declined pick-up by the general charities that do such things, so we had to rent a U Haul.

I have had a troupe of volunteers come every single day.  They have bagged, sorted, tossed, arranged, tagged and resorted things.  They were all truly quite a blessing.  Despite my coming a half hour before the "scheduled" work time, they were always there before me and there before I got there in the evenings.  Often, people shut the doors with me.

I had one volunteer who was frankly a rather tough nut to crack.  She apologized for being a pain in my side and we've come to an understanding and mutual respect.

I made lunch for everyone on Thursday.  They all liked it.  K made an absolutely wonderful butter cake with buttercream frosting.  :licking lips:  Every single piece of that cake went.

Today was day one of our sale.  Most people were wonderful.  I did have someone want to skip ahead and to purchase items in advance by a half hour.  I told them that the sale started at 9 AM.  "But people previous years. . . "  No.  No, they didn't.  I know.

I had a man offer me a dollar for a bed frame when it was marked for $15.  I told him no that it was marked $15.  "Well I'm not going to pay that!"  "I'll put it back."

We've sold couches, tables, TVs and outdoor tools.  We've sold clothing, knick-knacks, electronics, jewelry and more.  It's amazing what has gone out the door.

So far, we've made $3200 to go towards the building fund.  (They put an addition on 9 years ago and we're still paying on it.)

Today, I had a parishioner call about tables.  "There are no tables down in the Fellowship Hall."  "No, they are all at [the sale.]"

"But we're having a party tomorrow at noon."

We sorted out what tables could go and whatnot.  "Diane, you do know that we have our bag sale tomorrow at 12:45."

"Really?"

So during our closeout sale, there'll be a birthday party down the hall.  I told her that there may be issues with parking.  "Oh, really?"  Yes.  You open the doors for the bag sale and get out of the way or the people will pick you clean and leave you for dead.  This is the same lady who gave her friend information to call me to come pick up her yard sale leftovers.  Those yard sale leftovers were over 30 miles away.  I will now ask where they are located before I commit to going to get items.  The items donated?  Most were not of good quality.

I also have the U Haul coming, Habitat for Humanity and a local organization that takes in refugees in the area.  I just don't want to hear about how their party was negatively impacted by our presence when they should have known and were told that the sale was scheduled far in advance.

Wow.

We're working for Jesus and will continue to do so.  We're making money to put on the building tab.  That can't be a bad thing at all.

Resetting my husband's internal clock.

For the love of Pete, my man's sleep schedule has been way off.  He's been sleeping about every other night for the last month during the week for at least a month.  He gets anxious that he's not sleeping, then he starts worrying about it and that only makes things worse.

For two days this week, he has slept maybe 2 hours.  On those two days, he shared his sleeplessness with me.  Now, I don't mind.  If I can help, let me know.

Last night, we had a family discussion at dinner.  How can we reset his internal clock?

1.  No naps.  Period.  Not an option.
2.  A regular schedule that is kept to every single night, even days off.  To bed at 11, up at 7.
3.  He must come to bed every night.  He's afraid that he's keeping me up, so he'll go to the couch or he'll fall asleep there because I'm involved in what he calls "the multi-media extravaganza."  (Yes, we have the computer in the bedroom as well as a TV and iTunes running and while my ADD/ADHD keeps up just fine, it causes him to short-circuit and not function well.)
4.  I have to keep track of the time and make sure that I'm shut down at 11.  I also need to make sure that he knows that it is 11 and is in BED.
5.  A little birdie may have slipped and told me that potentially I'm getting an iPod for my birthday, so maybe I can take my need for something distracting at bedtime and move it to music.  I just need something to turn my brain to one thing and not the 12,000 that run through it at any given moment.  Currently, I fall asleep to the TV.  It only takes but maybe 10 minutes since when my head hits the pillow, I'm usually out.  Still, a change that Hubs has politely suggested that I'll try.
6.  No video games an hour before bed.  He really doesn't play video games all that much, but when he is stressed out, they are his drink in the evening.  I've long told him that I'm certain that all that is just activating his brain and not calming it.
7.  Nothing to eat after dinner.

He takes melatonin, but it hasn't been helping a whole lot.

We're hoping to reset his internal clock so that he can start to sleep better again.  He's always had sleep issues and even took Ambien for a short time.  (Bad things happened.)  He is an incredibly light sleeper.

He did think to tell me at 3 AM the other night that he needed a side dish to go with tacos for the work lunch on Friday.  I admit that I was making sweet corn cake last night at 9:30 PM because I forgot.  "I can understand how you forgot since I only remembered to tell you at 3 AM and all."  ;)

He slept last night.  Let's hope that is a streak of better sleep nights.  My heavens, K slept better as an infant that Hubs has been sleeping.

"Sure, I'll do that" needs to be removed from my vocabulary.

Hubs has informed me for some time that I need to exercise the "birth of no." *

I signed on to heading up the annual church indoor yard sale.

Salvation Army is completely booked and can't send a truck to come get the stuff.  Amvets will be out 11 days prior, but not "in your area" on that day despite having a truck load of goods to give.  They don't work on Saturday anyhow.  (Super.)  I have a message out to Goodwill who only really does pick-ups of estate sales, but I told them that essentially, this is a giant estate sale.

The woman who puts the ads in bailed on me and left me on my own to do that.  After working on it for well over an hour, I've realized that I'm far too ahead on that one.

The pastor was concerned because I was starting on set-up later than she thought I should.  I was waiting for Hubs who works out and frankly, I know won't have a heart attack from carrying tables.  I've now moved set-up to Friday at 6:30 PM.

I need people to drive and pick things up and possibly take and drop off all all of the extraneous goods.  I can't manage to hear from one of them.

I have people who volunteer and call to change times.

I have people who have volunteered in the past but because they haven't been given an engraved invitation, feel that they won't volunteer because not personally invited.

What did I get myself into?

UGH!

I've been up to my eyeballs in PTA and this is right up next to it.  The person I'm taking over for always had her husband call and schedule the truck pick up.  I had no idea to do it a month or more in advance.

ARGH!

* In PJ 20, they kept saying yes to everything because they waited for a while for people to ask the band to do things and had the colossal mess of State of Love & Trust at the Singles movie release, making complete butts out of themselves, to which Stone later commented that particular moment was the birth of no. 

Last day of school! Last day of school!

Kiddo did awesome this year!  We're thrilled to be marching on to 5th grade!  She even got the teacher we hoped for!

:)

Teaching not to panic.

Yesterday was mom's 65th birthday.  Happy birthday, Mom!  We made dinner and kept shooing mom from the table, not allowing her to fuss with anything.  My sister scooted out to get her kids home.  My brother and I were wrapping up a few things.  I was carrying my cake container to the car.  The girls (K and M) were coming through the front room.  K was to the left, M was to the right.  M's foot bent up under her or her feet have grown so much that her body hasn't caught up.  She went down.  I was feet away.  I saw her go down.  I saw her bounce.  I saw blood.  K got out of the way.  Mom yelled.  I yelled that she was okay, but blood kept coming.  I couldn't decide to put her in the chair or lay her on the floor, but decided for the chair.  I grabbed a towel, wet it a little and put it on her forehead.  I swore that it would be a band aid thing.

Oh, it wasn't.

I pulled the towel away and saw that there was about 1/2" gap, a big gash and I was seeing skull.

K said that she heard me gasp, saw me put the towel back on, scoop M up and told my brother we had to go.  He wanted to see.  I wouldn't let him.  I knew he would pass out.

Y'all, I saw what I shouldn't have been seeing.

Mom called the ambulance.  My brother was panicking.  Her mom was working and was in route from about 1/2 hour away.  I was on the sidewalk with M in my lap, rolled up and hugging her tight while holding the towel to her forehead.  I was rocking her back and forth.  There was nothing else I could do.

I knew that they wouldn't transport, but they came, gave her the once over.  Confirmed what I knew-- go for stitches.  The neighbor is an EMT, but we didn't even think of him.  My dad wanted to see her forehead.  The neighbor said no.

It could have been way worse.  Still.  That memory is well etched into my brain.

Because the ambulance was called, they called ahead and told them that we were coming.  I drove my brother and niece and was thankful that they valet at the ER.  Who knew?  Free valet.  My first valet experience.  I wished it were classier.

In the end, what I saw was the membrane covering the skull.  :shutter:  She got 4 stitches inside and 14 outside.  She has a line down her face.  From where she hit the corner of the antique desk, she bruised her cheek, went through her eyebrow and missed her hairline by probably an inch.  The suture tech was great and took great care in making sure that her 5 year old face will have as little scaring as possible.

We taught K a valuable lesson.  It's important not to panic.  Oh, I cried on the way home from the hospital.  Still, someone needed to grab her up to get her all pulled around.

Gack.  M will be okay.  Wow.  Happy birthday, Mom!  :S

Three rain barrels are we.

After the city announced that sewer and water rates are going up and they did-- by $40/month on the first increase-- we decided as a family that we needed more rain barrels.  We've had one for years.  We love it.  There have been times of drought that we drained it to the bottom.  I'm hoping that three rain barrels will be good for our watering needs.

My man in his hiking boots taking a look at the work so far.  

That man is handy.  :)

We didn't want to place the barrels where the laundry line is, so we had to swing a right turn to get the diverter tube where it needed to go.

We had to join the barrels.

And yes, they still smell like brined peppers.  

Hubs is demonstrating that he had to strap the downspout to the house 'cause she was a rockin'.

The two barrels.  For two barrels and parts, we probably spent $60.  The blocks aren't that attractive, but they were free.

K's little tree that she was sent home with.  We're not exactly positive of what it is.  It didn't come with a tag.  Hubs thinks it might be a Redbud and I thought that I heard that maybe a cherry blossom.  (ETA:  It's a Redbud.)  We need to look into it more when it gets bigger.  For now, I've pinned a tomato container around it to keep Hubs from whacking it with the lawn mower or the weed eater.  I can't tell you how many times we thought he took out the little white pine we have.  (It's now getting quite large, but it really is only by the grace of God that it survived.)  

My freebie pile pick.  She was a work reject and long ago, I put my name on her.  The rejects were distributed on a day I was there and while it moved through a few coworkers hands, one brought it back to me.  It sat in the basement all winter.  I had no stand for it and had no idea what I would do about that.  A stand is about $30 and the ball itself is $50.  After our dreadful winter, I was doing art death counts and found a bird bath with a cracked plate.  The stand was there with no plate, but I knew that the garden ball would fit-- I would just need to bend the plate holders up to cradle the ball.  I decided that it wouldn't a bad thing since I didn't want the ball to fly anyhow.  

What made her a reject?  The broken "leaf" up there.  I turn it to the back.  She's gorgeous, even covered in that dreadful pollen that won't go away.

Another art death but this one is from the old gallery.  This one is from Robert Coleman/Patient Medicines.  Don't push them into the ground by their noggins.  Oops.

I have planters and pots and whatnot planted.  This one is planted with annuals and some lovely Morning Glories I grew from seed that I bought from Baker Creek Seed.  

The perennial geranium is back!

The irises came back, too.

A columbine.

And another.

A flowering sedum.

Clematis.

And the pink one is about to bloom!

And the peonies.  I sent Rachael some, but I think that they became critter food.

No longer on the MIA list-- butterfly weed!  

And one of the suspected dead butterfly bushes is showing signs of life!  

Well hello!  Who are .... oh .... whoa-- Hubs says that you are NOT nice.  Hello bald faced hornet.  If you would kindly mosey onward, that would be super.  Never mind that I was about 12" away when I took this picture.  Apparently, they can be really mean.  They were what led to the eventual death of one of my grandfathers-- the one who was diabetic with a bee allergy.  

Shh.  No one will see me here. 

Our girl planted the beans and carrots in the garden.  She finally ditched the flip flops for bare feet.  "It feels so good to get dirt in my toes."  I hear you.  

So it seems that our gardens are very slowly coming around.  This year won't be as grand as others, but we're thrilled with whatever decides to come back.  

Have a great week! 

I'm an artist and I hate to scrapbook.

I've tried it.  My friend was tied up into the whole Creative Memories empire.  She wanted me to buy all of the stuff and sticky things and binders and pages.  I tried it.  I was bored out of my gourd.

K's preschool made "scrapbooks" for the kids.  She has two binders with plastic insert pages and a bunch of different things, photos and whatnot.  I kept up with that.  Every year, at the end of the school year, I combine all of the things that I've stacked and saved throughout the year (you'd think I would do it as I go) and pile it all into a binder.  There are reports, notes, thank you's, awards, homework examples, classroom notes and things from outside of school.  I put soccer pictures, church programs from when she has done acolyting and swimming report cards.

Each binder has the grade marked on the spine.  They live on our book case in the bedroom.  It may not be as pretty and as involved as the scrapbook binders, but at least I'm saving things that we can look back at.  Just tonight, we found her photo from when she started soccer in the fall of 1st grade.  :)

Do you do memory albums/binders or scrapbooks?  Some folks keep memory boxes.  Do you keep things?  Do tell!