I guess you could say our yard sale went pretty well today--considering the fact that it rained and rained and rained. We had a few sunny/muggy moments. Then it would turn cool and rain some more. All in all, making ANY money on a day like today should be considered a success. Oh, how much, you wonder? Drum roll, please..........We made $40! (Crowds roar) Okay, that's not astounding, but it's $40 we didn't have yesterday. Plus, I got to spend the day with Cindy (my college roomie), and we met some folks who wanted to talk about adoption.
If I didn't mention it before, we decided to try a "Donations Only" sale. For the few items that sold, $40 is more than I would have priced them. So I think I really like doing it this way. Only once did I think someone offered too little, and it turned out they changed their mind and didn't take the item.
The next step is to pray really hard for pretty weather next weekend and do this again then. By having to set up inside our garage, I only had room for about 1/3 of the stuff we had (and still leave room to walk around). AND we still have 3 or 4 folks who wanted to donate, but we didn't hook up in time for this weekend. So, we're going to try to put everything out next weekend, make better signs, advertise better, etc., and see what we can do.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Yard Sale 2009
It looks like we are finally ready to jump into another yard sale. We are going to do things a little differently this time. We are once again taking donations, but we didn't give folks an awful lot of warning. (It sorta snuck up on me, too.) We announced it to our church, and I'm putting it here. We also went today to a house not far from us. They had an adoption yard sale last weekend and offered their leftovers to us. So, we will take what we had left from last year plus anything else I've found in the house plus these leftovers plus anything new from our church family and put it all together for a Saturday Only yard sale on May 9. When this sale is over, we are getting rid of everything. Later this summer, we'll try to pull together fresh donations and maybe hit a few yard sales for their leftovers and do this all again.
The other thing that is different this year is that (if I don't chicken out) I want to try to do this as a "donations only" yard sale. A friend did hers this way recently and was very successful. I think what I hate most about yard sales is all the effort I put into coming up with a price only to have someone haggle with me over it. I just want to scream, "Do you have any idea what I went through to come up with THAT price?" Not pricing anything sounds very freeing to me.
So. If any of you out there in BloggerLand (and within driving distance) has anything you wish to donate. Let me know. We'll be glad to pick up from you as long as our van can handle it.
The other thing that is different this year is that (if I don't chicken out) I want to try to do this as a "donations only" yard sale. A friend did hers this way recently and was very successful. I think what I hate most about yard sales is all the effort I put into coming up with a price only to have someone haggle with me over it. I just want to scream, "Do you have any idea what I went through to come up with THAT price?" Not pricing anything sounds very freeing to me.
So. If any of you out there in BloggerLand (and within driving distance) has anything you wish to donate. Let me know. We'll be glad to pick up from you as long as our van can handle it.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
New Exercise
Yesterday, I walked into our living and saw this...
When I asked what they were doing, they said they were seeing who could keep their legs in the air longer. Hmm. Maybe it could catch on as some new kind of exercise. Ya think?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
My Boys
Now, don't take it personally when I say that my boys have got to be the most wonderful kids I know. (I hope you would say the same to me about your kids.) They are so close and protective of each other. They snuggle and love on each other. It's so sweet...until they start fussing and feuding again. Yes, they actually are normal kids, too.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Let's Get Moving
Don't you hate waiting for a phone call or an email to come and then finding out that it never was going to come? Last Thursday night I was looking at a website (reputable, yes) which has photos of children around the world available for adoption. Quite often these children are the "hard to place" because of a medical condition, several siblings, or age. I ran across two profiles that caught my eye. These little girls were not sisters, but they were both listed as healthy with no developmental delays. Their ages were just right. Their birthdays were right around the same as my boys. Even their initials were K and M, just like the names we hope to use (Keely and Maggie). It was very late Thursday night, so I just sent off an email requesting some more information.
Keep in mind that I knew that at least one of the girls was not from Bulgaria. She looked Asian. Couple that with her "country" being listed as Eastern Europe, and I figured she was from Kazakhstan. Not our original plan, but who knows?
Friday came and went with no response to my email. I thought, "They could be closed on Fridays like the agency here in town." That meant that Saturday and Sunday were going to automatically be spent waiting and wondering. Monday, I still waited. Finally, in the late afternoon, I decided to call before they closed for the day. The first "problem" was that I was greeted with "Hello?" I instantly thought I had the wrong number. I asked if I had the agency...I did. It was a very strange phone call after that. She seemed to have recognized my name because she began talking about adoption in Kazakhstan even though I never mentioned which children I was calling about. Anyway, Kazakhstan has changed their policies somewhere along the way, and like Ukraine they no longer give referrals prior to travel. You are matched with a child after you get there. Bottom line, the profiles I saw are no longer valid, and the agency has simply never bothered to remove the listings... and apparently had no intentions of responding to my email.
To say the least it has been quite depressing this evening. Even in only a few days, my mind was showing those two girls here. My heart had already made room for them. My speech had already started including them in my conversations with Tim.
I do feel that we need to renew our plans with as much vigor as we can. As I thought about the possibility of beginning to pursue these girls right now, I was thrown into a bit of a panic. We aren't ready. We need to raise a little more money before jumping in. Once we jump, I'll be ready to pursue applying for every grant I can find.
I'm still working on a few Craigslist things. I've lost one bookkeeping client but have hopes of another. I have one fundraiser in the planning stages now with help from a friend at church. I would like to try the Party Night Out again. (I still think it is a great idea even if I didn't pull it off well last year.) Maybe I can "suck it up" and have another yard sale just as soon as the weather is more consistently warm. (Just not 102 like it was last year!) What do you think of a pie sale?
I still have bracelets for sale, and the pizza cards can go for $1. Any takers? I know the 4 of you who actually read my blog have got to be tired of my sales pitches...weak and ineffective as they may be. Do you have any suggestions for us? Another $1500 would be very comfortable. I'll even take bookkeeping or transcription jobs if you know of any. I've never been opposed to earning the money ourselves, but a homeschooling mom and a public school teacher just don't encounter sudden or significant raises or bonuses. (I knew I should have taken that job with AIG!!!)
Any input would be unbelievably welcome!
Keep in mind that I knew that at least one of the girls was not from Bulgaria. She looked Asian. Couple that with her "country" being listed as Eastern Europe, and I figured she was from Kazakhstan. Not our original plan, but who knows?
Friday came and went with no response to my email. I thought, "They could be closed on Fridays like the agency here in town." That meant that Saturday and Sunday were going to automatically be spent waiting and wondering. Monday, I still waited. Finally, in the late afternoon, I decided to call before they closed for the day. The first "problem" was that I was greeted with "Hello?" I instantly thought I had the wrong number. I asked if I had the agency...I did. It was a very strange phone call after that. She seemed to have recognized my name because she began talking about adoption in Kazakhstan even though I never mentioned which children I was calling about. Anyway, Kazakhstan has changed their policies somewhere along the way, and like Ukraine they no longer give referrals prior to travel. You are matched with a child after you get there. Bottom line, the profiles I saw are no longer valid, and the agency has simply never bothered to remove the listings... and apparently had no intentions of responding to my email.
To say the least it has been quite depressing this evening. Even in only a few days, my mind was showing those two girls here. My heart had already made room for them. My speech had already started including them in my conversations with Tim.
I do feel that we need to renew our plans with as much vigor as we can. As I thought about the possibility of beginning to pursue these girls right now, I was thrown into a bit of a panic. We aren't ready. We need to raise a little more money before jumping in. Once we jump, I'll be ready to pursue applying for every grant I can find.
I'm still working on a few Craigslist things. I've lost one bookkeeping client but have hopes of another. I have one fundraiser in the planning stages now with help from a friend at church. I would like to try the Party Night Out again. (I still think it is a great idea even if I didn't pull it off well last year.) Maybe I can "suck it up" and have another yard sale just as soon as the weather is more consistently warm. (Just not 102 like it was last year!) What do you think of a pie sale?
I still have bracelets for sale, and the pizza cards can go for $1. Any takers? I know the 4 of you who actually read my blog have got to be tired of my sales pitches...weak and ineffective as they may be. Do you have any suggestions for us? Another $1500 would be very comfortable. I'll even take bookkeeping or transcription jobs if you know of any. I've never been opposed to earning the money ourselves, but a homeschooling mom and a public school teacher just don't encounter sudden or significant raises or bonuses. (I knew I should have taken that job with AIG!!!)
Any input would be unbelievably welcome!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Check-ups and Heart Stirrings
We are almost a month late, but Eli had his 4-year check-up today. His weight has always been an issue (underweight, that is). Just a couple of years ago, we were struggling to stay on the growth chart at the starting 3-6 percentile. At one point we didn't even make that! Last year we were excited to make the 12-15th percentile. Well, today we are celebrating the 25th percentile!! Now if we could just get him to eat consistently, we might be smack in the middle of the growth chart next year. Oh to be average! At least on weight.
Colton was excited to learn that he is old enough NOT to go every year. He was just an observer today...except for the shots. Colton doesn't do badly getting shots himself, but he can't handle watching his little brother get them. He is so afraid Eli will cry, and he doesn't want to be there for it. So he stepped out into the hall until we finished. But, Eli did great. He simply said, "Ouch. That hurt."
On a totally different topic, we've been going through the Old Testament on Sunday nights at church. Last week, we did Ezra. Right from the beginning, a phrase caught my attention. Paraphrasing, it said that God stirred their hearts to do His will. Whoa. Back up. Re-read. One more time. Now I don't expect burning bushes. (Listen to my last post.) But has my heart ever been stirred toward something? Yes. And I believe adoption to be one of those times. While I'm not comfortable saying, "God told me to adopt." I do feel comfortable saying, "God stirred my heart to adopt." As we've been doing for quite a while, we are still trying to iron out the details of exactly what doing His will looks like in this case. We would still love to adopt two sisters from Bulgaria, but the details are not just "falling into place". So we have to always consider adjusting the plan. It's kind of like turning a puzzle piece until it fits exactly where it needs to go.
So tell me, when has God stirred your heart?
Colton was excited to learn that he is old enough NOT to go every year. He was just an observer today...except for the shots. Colton doesn't do badly getting shots himself, but he can't handle watching his little brother get them. He is so afraid Eli will cry, and he doesn't want to be there for it. So he stepped out into the hall until we finished. But, Eli did great. He simply said, "Ouch. That hurt."
On a totally different topic, we've been going through the Old Testament on Sunday nights at church. Last week, we did Ezra. Right from the beginning, a phrase caught my attention. Paraphrasing, it said that God stirred their hearts to do His will. Whoa. Back up. Re-read. One more time. Now I don't expect burning bushes. (Listen to my last post.) But has my heart ever been stirred toward something? Yes. And I believe adoption to be one of those times. While I'm not comfortable saying, "God told me to adopt." I do feel comfortable saying, "God stirred my heart to adopt." As we've been doing for quite a while, we are still trying to iron out the details of exactly what doing His will looks like in this case. We would still love to adopt two sisters from Bulgaria, but the details are not just "falling into place". So we have to always consider adjusting the plan. It's kind of like turning a puzzle piece until it fits exactly where it needs to go.
So tell me, when has God stirred your heart?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Say It in Song
I ran across this song the other day and thought it summed up how I sometimes feel.
Enjoy...
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