A plethora of ideas for posts on this blog have flitted through my brain in the past few weeks, and I nary a one of them have I recorded. “Must establish the tone first.” “Does this fit the context of my ideas for the blog?” In essence, too much perfectionism.

I want this place to be a compilation of big and little thoughts and events, kinda like my life, I guess. It’s amazing to me how the fabric of living is made up of such an array of happenings and memories. Some of the smallest interactions are remembered for a life time, and other “big” things may be forgotten.

Whatever the days hold around our home, they are rarely boring. I decided to try a pattern for a crocheted kitchen sponge this morning during the children’s independent schoolwork. Pattern here, and while I was looking at the instructions & brushing up my rusty crochet skills, my children began to cackle and I looked up to find this:

To his credit, Timothy did try to take the yarn back off while I was detangling him, and he left it alone the rest of the day! Of course, that could be because he spent an enormous amount of time fussing about his nap instead of sleeping through it… but I got some great cuddles later! And I also made 2 kitchen sponges while I was waiting for him to obey and go to sleep, so I’ll get to test and see if I like them. Oh yes, and the yarn was all free, I asked for some on our local Freecycle list and got some generous donations! We’re having fun making lots of projects around here lately.

A couple of weekends ago the children and I frequented a rummage sale at a local church. It had been a long time since I had braved such an event – my packrat tendencies coupled with great deals make them dangerous – but we had a wonderful time, and the people who worked there were so gracious. We came home with far more “loot” than we paid in dollar amount, even at rummage sale prices!

While I do try to take care about how many “sales” and “deals” I spend our family’s money on, I’ve also learned, especially in the setting of our sizable family, that many good things come in older packages!

For instance, I almost never turn down a friend’s offer of hand-me-down clothes, even if they’re not in sizes my children are currently wearing. I cull through and select things we can use, and keep a box storage system in our attic crawl space for off-season/size clothing. The rest gets passed along out of the house (just “freecycled” three bags today, in fact.) My children have received much nicer items than we could afford to buy otherwise in this manner, and the clothing budget can be mostly reserved for supplemental pieces like tights, shoes, and other fill-ins rather than spent on just a few outfits.

Our local Freecycle group is very active, and items often turn over quickly. As I declutter around our house, I can often post something online and have it picked up within hours, rather than loading it into my car and waiting until I manage the time to take it to a donation center. I’ve gotten some great items for our home from others on the list too, though at the moment I have the individual messages set to read only online, because the piles of stuff in our house need to decrease, not grow! You can even post “Wanted” messages, if you’re looking for something specific.

Favorite “vintage” find this time? Several lovely cloth napkins, some that even match the grape theme of our kitchen, and a bunch of wooden napkin rings. For the kids, it was probably some of the fun hats they picked up, and the multitude of toys the folks at the sale kept attempting to give them for free!