Got a lot of school planning done!

The most wonderful thing about holding a garage sale and having to sit outside and mind the shop during it, is time to plan.  I managed to get 1/2 the school year planned for my 5th grade son!  It's a good feeling to be ahead of the game.

It is done...

... and I am tired.  Good bye garage sale.  I'll see you next year.

Garage Sale Day Two

About $40 more, bringing our total to $80'ish.  Yeah!  One more day!  It's actually great fun to size customers up and then make up stories in your head about what they might do with their purchases.  Like the Middle Aged Latino woman who bought an old meat cleaver.  Hmmmm...

Garage Sale Day One....

...Over!  Made about $40 dollars not bad for a Wed. selling our junk.  Now lets see how tomorrow goes.

End of Summer Rush

Ack!  Summer is almost over!  All those things I wanted to do and put off (because there was plenty of time) need to happen. Potty training the almost 3 year-old, garage sale, homeschool planning and working on starting a new cottage biz.  Oh, well... it's what I get for playing all summer and procrastinating.

1. Potty training... didn't fly yesterday... The kitchen, where I was going to train her, is the largest of the non-carpeted rooms.  It also houses the washer and dryer.  She was freaked out by the noises the machines were making and didn't want to go potty there.  Sigh.  Trying again today- without the machines going.

2.  Garage Sale... Happens tomorrow, Thursday and Friday!  Come on "BUY" if you are in the area.  Spent yesterday (instead of potty training) sorting through our piles and pricing.  Still have some more rooms to go through and purge.  Most of our stuff is small and quarter/dollar stuff.  Still anything I sell is less to cart off to Goodwill.

3. Homeschool Planning... I need to plan and organize 5 different bins of activities for Taylor, our pre-schooler.  One for each day of the week to keep her busy during "school".  My second grader is pretty much set.  She is using workbooks, except for science and geography/history. So I only need to plan some reading assignments and activities for those two subjects. Most of our time will be spent perfecting her reading which isn't too hot yet. My fifth grader is moving away from workbooks this year, except for math, to get him ready for upcoming Jr. High.  He's going to take the most planning as his Language Arts studies will be incorporated into science and history/geography.  I use the "What Your ___ Grader Needs to Know" series for those two subjects and have him do the reading and make up assignments based on that. I really like tailoring assignments to each individual student.  The books aren't "Christian World View" but I either have him skip sections that we don't agree with or we discuss the differences in world view and what the Bible says.  I also supplement these subjects with a lot of  documentaries and other learning tools from various homeschool sources and of course the library.  My Jr. Higher and my Highschooler use the Far Above Rubies curriculum by Linda Coats.  LOVE IT!  It gives them a well-rounded education while emphasizing homemaking. It also helps you document everything for transcript purposes for any college bound student.  F.A.R. is for girls but they also have Blessed is the Man for boys.  That is what my son will use when he gets there.  These programs are self-directed but I like to sit down with each child and help them choose their assignments.  I'm also going to be teaching family art, music, and nutrition plus we have family Bible time in the morning and Biblical Character training and Spanish with Dad in the evenings.  Oh, and family exercise.  Our days are full. 

4.  Cottage biz... focusing on home arts... still forming in the head.  Like my days aren't full enough...lol!

All this to say... sorry that the "homesteading" focus isn't very back to the land orientated right now.  I'm focusing on my "home" and those in it.

Getting Ready For A Garage Sale

I've been cleaning, sorting, purging the entire house.  We have too much stuff.  Garage sale time! Next week Wed.- Fri. 8am to 5pm.  Stop by if you're in the area!  You need my stuff!

Gotta love other people's junk

Garage sale season is so much fun. We scored at a neighbor's sale. I went over just for the heck of it on Thursday. (I'm a Nosie Nellie who always has to check out the neighbor's stuff.) I came home with two white ceramic mugs and a floor puzzle. ($2) Then the kids went over with their money and found three beanie babies. ($.30) Friday I sent the DH over to look at the bikes they had. We came home with one men's and one woman's bike. ($20) Today we went over to get a sprinkler they had and came home not only with it but with a beanbag and digital camera too. ($7 for all).

I'm very pleased with our purchases. I've been on the look out for a camera for my 13 year-old daughter for at least a year and we've been mulling over purchasing bikes for DH and I since October. If I had paid retail prices for everything we'd have spent around $350 so I think $30 was a darn good deal.

Does Your Bookcase Look Like This?

Overflowing with school books...

Overflowing with regular books...

Overflowing with more school books and supplies...

The catch-all for shells, Star Wars cards, Bakagan, Legos, beads, various jewelry, pennies and dimes, game pieces, Barbie shoes and one baking soda and vinegar volcano (not to mention too many books)...

And overflowing with even more books, plus a couple of wallets containing library cards?

It is this evening's project. I hope I can whittle down the books that I want and need out and can either put some in storage or better yet delegate some to the yard sale bin for this spring's annual event. Wish me luck! I love books and getting rid of them is hard. I would just purchase a second bookcase but funds are tight and so is space. Purging is a must.

Too much garage sale

Someone crashed very hard on Saturday afternoon. (Don't worry, she had sunscreen on.)

The sale really picked up after my last post. We ended up with $80-ish. That's double what we usually do. People in our area do not part with $$ easily.

Garage Sale Saturday!

My men's table... up front to pull them in!

View from the front!

My Ladies/Decor table

View from the back... and my neighbor's sale across the street!

It's been a long, slow, Saturday morning. I've had only five or six lookers and no purchasers. I'm hoping it picks up.

Hey I just made my first sale! $12.50! WooHoo! And more people are coming now! I can hope!

Show and Tell Friday

Yesterday we cleaned out our garage! I found treasures I hadn't seen for three years. (Since we moved from Texas to Michigan). Two of my favorite quilt books. One big (see above).

One small!

Both are filled with beautiful pictures of quilts, as well as quotes about quilts and quilting history. I'm glad to have re-discovered these treasures.

For more Show and Tell Fridays go to http://kellishouse.blogspot.com

Whew! What a busy week!

Of course, being the END OF MAY we are still having frost warnings! Sigh.

A trip to the local nursery to replace my dead tomato plants

So much color... I could have spent soooo... much $$$

Practical purchases

Andi learning to plant- "Mom, why can't we just go to the store and buy our food?"

A look at my itty bitty little garden... it's a start!

My neighbors told me Tuesday night that they were doing a garage sale this weekend (Thurs., Fri., Sat.) so if I wanted to put anything out/have my own, it would be a good time. Sigh... I was no where near ready. I had some stuff put aside but I knew I had so much more to find and pull out. To make it more stressfull... I absolutely had to weed and plant in my vege garden on Wed. Finally about 4:00 on Wed. I was ready to start cleaning out the garage (which was where a good portion of garage sale items would come from). Luckily the neighborhood kids love a good garage cleaning. (I actually just think they are curious to see other people's stuff.) I had lots of helpers. I was able to get a good start on it and find enough stuff to make setting up a sale worthwhile.


On Thursday we set up and since my DH had the day off, he continued cleaning the garage while I manned the sale. He would bring out boxes to me and I would go through them to find more sale items. It worked well and we have a much nicer looking garage. Unfortunately, today it is raining so I don't know if the sale will happen today, but we'll be back at it tomorrow.