Goodwill Finds!

Last Saturday was half price day at our local Goodwill Stores. Unfortunately, (or fortunately for our budget and lack of space) I had to work 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. that day. I was "TORMENTED" by my missed opportunities for bargains all day long! Even my hubby, who appreciates a Goodwill bargain almost as well as I do was unable to go to any of the stores!

So, on my way home, exhausted after working 12 hours and still not feeling my best after battling this nasty bad cold/flu for well over a week, I decided to drag myself into a Goodwill store. I was confident that all the "good" bargains would be gone. Boy was I wrong!

My energy soon returned with gusto. There weren't a lot of people in the store by that time of night (8:00p.m.) but there were enough to give me some difficulty in maneuvering my cart through the aisles and over to the tables where they place the "newly put out items". So, first I wandered up and down the children's clothing area. I found some adorable little dresses and a pair of little grey sweatpants. I put them in the cart. I also found some little shoes. (Did I mention that we have some precious grandy kids and have two on the way? I also have it in my heart to adopt probably from foster care so....as the boy scouts say, "Be Prepared.")

I eventually made it over to the toy aisle and I found little Miss Boyd's Bear (her tag is missing so I don't know what her real name is) and I was able to purchase her for 49 cents!!! She is adorable and I collect Boyds Bears. I should say I used to collect Boyds Bears because for now, my buying any more is paused due to the financial inability to rationalize any more bears...unless, of course, I find them at Goodwill!!!! So now I am mostly just a "Keeper" of Boyd's Bears. That's ok, 'cause they don't eat much.

My cart was stacked pretty high when way ahead of me, I thought I spotted a Longaberger basket equipped with a pretty liner AND a Christmas arrangement in it! I got all nervous since there was this little girl with a cart in front of me who REFUSED to realize the urgency of my situation. I just knew that someone would grab it before I could get there! I couldn't get her to move and since she was of a different nationality, she didn't speak my language. I tried to figure out how to get to the object of my desire but couldn't get there with my cart. I considered the parable (REALLY, I DID!) of the shepherd leaving the ninety and nine sheep to go after the one lost one so I grabbed my purse and left my Boyds Bear and all the other treasures in the cart and did an "OJ Simpson" run through the Goodwill Store. Do you remember those old commercials with him running through the airport? Yeah, that was me. All my chubbiness leaping and jumping shopping carts with athletic ease to get to that basket. Well, ok, not really, but I did hurry and finally, my grubby chubby hands were able to grasp that lovely basket. The price on the ticket read $1.99!! I don't homeschool for nothing, you know, and I was quickly able to figure out that half of $1.99 was roughly $1.00!!!

I also found an old world Santa Claus that I really like. My hubby is NOT fond of Santa Clauses so I made light of it. Literally. He is on my hutch with Christmas lights around him. (I have begun to wonder if Santa has a place in our lives. I have mixed emotions about it. I really want to focus on Christ as it should be so maybe our Santas will need to go at some point. Maybe. If God leads.)

I got some other neat stuff such as a Geography book for Becca next year AND some boxed food mixes. Yeah, I agree, buying food from Goodwill is pretty disgusting. But in our area, the Target stores donate things to Goodwill. So I'm going to pretend that that is where they came from. They're sealed and so are the ingredients inside so......yeah.

My hubby was kind of cranky at me because I had stopped at the store on my way home and he had made supper for us...at that late hour. But he forgave me and his supper was wonderful! Little Dylan was with us for the night and I played with him for a while and read him a bedtime story. I was fully prepared to read and read and read to him but when we got done with the first storybook, I asked him if he wanted to get some more. I looked at him with his big sleepy/dazed eyes and he said, "Nah, I think I just want to go to bed." I tucked him in and prayed with him. He is so adorable! (he is five...)

I checked on him a few times during the night and I realize just how much I miss having a little person in the house full time! I really want to adopt.

In the morning, I asked Dylan if he slept well. He said, "No, not really." (Which was funny since every time I checked on the little guy, he was sound asleep!) I asked him why he didn't sleep well, and he said, "There was this BIG BLUE Christmas tree outside the window and I kept looking at it!" How cute! (Dylan, NOT the TREE! Evidently our neighbor is a big Indianapolis Colts fan so the house is all decked out in Colts' Blue. Yuck. I do love our Colts, but not for Christmas decorations!)

So, there you go. Amazing Goodwill finds. That's all. (Oh and a really wonderful Grandy Boy!)

Blessings!

Beth