Friday Favorites-Firsties

My friend Hillary over at The Other Mama started a "Friday Favorites" carnival, so, being true to my Irish roots (A day late & a dollar short), I'm joining up TWO weeks late. But, luckily for me, the party happens every Friday. Woot! (I'm going to use this as a way to get better at inserting pictures and links, so this might not be done until Sunday.)

My favorite for today......... Daffodils!

I ADORE daffodils. Here in the South, they are, I think, the first flowers of spring. Not flowering tree or shrub, but a realio, trulio poesy. Even if the calendar still says winter, and for once the weather agrees (like this year,) they start pushing their leaves up the end of January to start blooming no later than March. I've had daffodils for Valentine's Day once. As a little girl in Georgia, I'd get excited when my mom's daffodils came up, even if there was ice on the puddles. As a teen in Germantown, I'd often walk through an old farmstead, and where the house once stood, was a naturalized profusion of daffodils there under the oak grove-- golden ones, pale ones with apricot cups, double-doubles so frilly they looked like pompoms. It was very much what I believe heaven might look like. I only picked one out of every four, but I still came home with my arms over-flowing. Even my parents have memories of seeing walk into the house covered in daffodils; we had flowers in every room. I even dug some bulbs to plant. I wish I'd dug more, picked more.

The old farm is now a luxury golf-course and millionaires' row, with all the top soil stripped away. The daffodils are gone, except for the ones the gardeners plant every year, and then dig up for the next month's display. My parents sold the house, and I do not know if the new owner changed the flower beds. But I have my own daffodils! On my wall hangs a Gayle Strider print of daffodils in a vase, and in my kitchen vase are some I gathered from my own growing beds-- some from the previous owners, some thinned from other's gardens. To my beds, I have added jonquils, narcissus, hyacinth, star of Bethlehem, Easter lilies and spider lilies. But of all these, my daffodils are my first, my favorites.

"And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils."

The Daffodils W. Wordsworth

I'm gonna press 2

I KNOW that considering what I have to work with, I'm doing pretty well. I KNOW that we are relatively blessed. I KNOW that things can always be worse. I get it. I'm actually good at finding the silver-lining, and even being sincere, if not earnest about it (although being snarky & sarcastic about it can be amusing.) Yes, I get it.

But sometimes I just want to complain, you know?

It gets really tiring trying to keep everyone else's spirits up. To keep making lemonade. To put others' feelings first. What about me? Why do I have to feel like I have to suck it up & hold back what I feel sometimes? Is it because politeness counts? Is it because I'm a woman? A mother? The dutiful daughter? The rah-rah friend? The supportive wife? That other people just don't want to deal with it?

I know what advantages I had in my life before, and I'm impatient for them to return. Yes, I'm a bit envious, jealous, of other's good circumstances, even though I know that other's have their "long, dark tea-times of the soul" or at least mounding piles of housework & despair, and they hide it away as well.

Couldn't we have some toll-free hot line somewhere that we can call to complain? And to do so in a comfortable way, with the results & feedback that we crave?

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1-8700-GRIPE ME

"Hey. Thanks from calling the "Gripe Me Hotline," serving all of your disgruntled needs. Please listen careful for the menu options have changed.

To just kvetch & get it off your chest, while just knowing you're being heard, press 1.

To rant & rave and have someone sympathize that yes, it is all just as bad as it seems, press 2.

To moan & despair over your woes and have a kindly soul remind you that you're strong & it will be better, press 3.

To worry & fret, so you may be forgiven and offered guided suggestions, press 4.

For general stress that's caused by suppressing the natural violent urge to choke some idiot that needs it, and all other aggravations, please press the star key as hard and as often as you can to activate an assortment of sound effects designed to annihilate the treacly hold music.

Thanks for calling "Gripe Me Hotline." Have a better day, and if not, call back. We'll be here."

What a Sale It Was!

It's been over a week now since my church had its Rummage Sale, and I know a few friends (well, OK, one friend) has wondered how it all turned out. Quite well, quite well, indeed.

Let's start off by quoting the write up in the Good Shepherd bulletin:

Our 7th Annual Rummage Sale was a big success, raising just a little over $8,755.60 from your many donated “treasures." Thanks again to Jerry Alexandria, Judy Dombrowski, Sue Cumo and their huge team of adult volunteers and the many youth and Boy Scout helpers, who made this happen. 25% of our sales will go to “On This Rock”–to reduce the building fund debt. The rest will be proportioned out to our Religious Ed, Youth Programs, Scouting Program, our South Alabama Mission (SAM), and Facility needs. Good Shepherd's MMO and Pre-school teachers were offered first pick for their classrooms, and leftover sale items were dispersed to the following organizations: Local Pro-Life (all items left in Baby Room); Huntsville AL Hispanic Association (youth books, videos & educational books); SAM-South Alabama Mission in Moses/Pineapple (ladies hanging and flat items, mens clothes, fabrics); Sierra Leone Freetown Africa (Youth clothing, suitcases, some jeans); MARS (computers and all other electronic items); SNAP thriftshop (most all books); Breaking Free Rescue Mission (everything leftover from above).

We seem to increase our funds raised by $500-$1000 each year. That's a lot of good done by "someone else's junk"!

Now for the personal report. Personally, and others saw this too, we didn't get as many donations as we have in years past; luckily, what we did was was good condition, high-end & desirable, so we sold a lot in cheap lots and quite a few in "big money" items ($3.00 - $80.00). We also made the jewelry a separate "cash & carry" table to eliminate the 5-finger discount. (It's a church rummage sale, people! We can't price the stuff free, sheesh!) There are many theories about the down-turn in donations; someone thinks we've tapped our our church donor base, but I don't think so since we're a vibrant community with kids being born/growing up/moving/ moving in--lots of room for stuff turnover; another is the weather-- it was lousy cold with snow during drop-off days-- but we did get half our stuff during the snow days. My theory is the economy; many people are hanging on to stuff long, passing it on to family & friends, or are selling it themselves. But, because of the economy, we get great crowds! The day for the sale was perfect weather, and I'd guess that 1/2 our merchandise was bought in the first hour. We get quite a few dealers.

Cathy & I were the only returning "Toy Room" workers from the previous year, but they asked new volunteer Frances to help in the toy room, and she, her sister & her three daughters were fantastic! I wasn't sure about the young girls (you know, that other-peoples'-kids thing), but WOW! they were poised, fun, sweet, smart, helpful, able to follow instructions but able to think independently, too. (If my daughter grows up to be like them, I sure wouldn't mind.) I hope that they can volunteer next year, but with school schedules, you never know.

We got some good donations in the Toy Room, but we got some stuff that I can best describe as "hodge-podge." Every year were get a load of trinkets & partial toy sets, but this year we had a couple of case of "Thank God! I can shovel out my kid's room & get a tax deduction for it." (Grumble......) So, being greedy to raise funds & being just plain stubborn, I put together Bionicles to make sure all the parts were there & to match them to boxes, washed toys left out too long in sandboxes, and bagged up little stuff. The box of well-played-with Transformers I had no clue about how to match the parts up, so I made them one big box-- take your chances. And someone did for a buck-fifty. We seemed to have some new dealers this year, but one of regulars didn't show (hope he's OK.) Since that one guy didn't show, I had no takers for the HO Swiss Train set ($25) and the Tyco Nite-Glo ($15) slot-car set, even after one $5 markdown. Mid-sale, I took them down to the "big-boy-toy" room (computers & electronics), and they did sell for their full second prices, which is actually quite a lot for a gotta-go rummage sale.

And before all this got underway, we workers, of course, got to go shopping for ourselves. As usual, I spent most of my money on the kids. I was able to get for my son's Special Ed class some puzzles and fine-motor-skill games. Also, we get some really good condition books, so I found a few which I will save for future gifts (I'd mention the titles here, but MLB keeps walking in & out of the room.) While sorting & making the grab-bags, I grabbed a few orphaned Fisher-Price components for DLG-- Roll-arounds, Peek-A-Blocks, Little People-- and Legos for MLB (if they'd had a set I could match them with, I did.) I swapped out our Little Tykes toy box for a more big-boy one, in planning a new room for MLB; and also some sports-themed items like a lamp & valance, too. DLG also got a bead maze and some Duplo blocks (which need more cleaning.)

Found a few finds for my husband; as usual, some LPs (they are becoming somewhat of a retro-sub-craze,) a tape of Celtic music, a "TurnerSouth" bbq apron, and some really cool 1960s head phones (it was surprisingly easy for him to pass on the Sony 1960s reel-to-reel player/recorder.)

Yes, I found a few goodies for myself. Four pieces of vintage sheet music like my grandmother used to play & sing. A "Southern" book. A layered-blue glass cream pitcher (now I need to grow some Shasta daisies.)

And two pieces of jewelry!!! A baseball bracelet and a pair of fresh-water pearl earrings. (told you we got some good stuff.)