Well played, God. Well played.

I’ve been praying for rain for weeks. Correction-for months. We’ve been in the worst drought Oklahoma has seen since the dust bowl. My crispy garden limps along with wilted leaves during the day, only popping to life at night or in the cool of morning.

This Saturday, I planned a garage sale without regards to the weather. I’ve taken for granted the blue sky, the shining sun, the brown pokey grass and my sweaty pits. So, I set up for the sale, advertised, priced, organized and didn’t look back.

 

That’s when God answered my prayers. At the exact moment that I didn’t want them answered.

He didn’t consider my garage sale when he planned his weather. He didn’t consider that I had been praying for rain for weeks and didn’t answer me. And after all, I just didn’t want it to rain for this one Saturday. He didn’t consider me whining as the first drops fell and he didn’t stop the rain when I begged him to do so.

He just let loose and let the rain fall. All over me and my garage sale, all over my huge stack of Dwell magazines, my perfectly organized display of clothing, my pink gigantic cardboard flowers, my carefully priced tools and my fancy picnic basket.

God didn’t do what I wanted. I closed up shop after complaining quite a bit to Biceps and to my friends that stopped by. I grumbled as I pulled out the whole wheat flour and buttermilk to make pancakes for all of us. I whined as we sat down to our impromptu breakfast.

We bowed our heads as Biceps prayed, thanking God for the blessing of the rain, for the break in the garage sale action which provided the opportunity to spend time with some of our closest friends and for the financial blessing we had already experienced that morning.

Ouch. God did what he wanted to do in his timing, not in my timing.

Well played, God. Well played.

Love (and my Living Room) is a Battlefield

Tomorrow is the big day. The Garage Sale day. I’m not only looking to make a few extra bucks, I love purging my home of all things unnecessary. (I told you earlier how pickles were not even off limits.)

Here’s part of my craigslist ad and I had fun with it, so there, stick-in-muds!:

Easy to find due to my awesome signage-in between Harvard and Yale, north of 15th turn onto Richmond and there you’ll find my Large, organized garage sale with prices clearly marked and everything displayed for your easy viewing pleasure. No awkward, “How much is this?”, no digging, no cockroaches, no cobwebs. Just a clean, simple sale for a girl trying to make ends meet. Even if you don’t want to buy something, but for once want a pleasurable garage sale experience, come on by.

I’d love to see you there! If you don’t come, well, then I’ll miss you. (Email if you have questions, but try to weed out the stupid ones.)

I’ve already had two stupid questions. I thought I distinctly said, “no stupid ones”. Hm….

However, the organized side of me is freaking out a little. This is my living room.

MY living room. It looks like the remnants of a house raid gone awry. And yes, those are gigantic cardboard flowers.

There is a merchandise setup in the middle of the room with hundreds of clothing items hanging from it. Maxwell has spent his time removing each one from the hanger when I’m not looking. He’s been “spanked” several times, however, this does not deter.

Boxes are piled on top of boxes and the cats have had a hey-day climbing through, around and into anything they can get their little furry paws on. I found Bianca cuddled in between a pair of shoes in all of her furry glory. Lint rollers have been a necessity.

I cannot wait for my home to return to normal, to clean up the “battlefield”, so to speak. And to earn an extra few greenbacks. And maybe a treat for all my hard work (hint, hint Biceps…).

Wish me luck!

The “Oh, Crap!” Stage in Life

Dear Readers:
We are in the “Oh, Crap!” stage of life right now. When I look at the outside circumstances, I’m not sure how it’s all going to work out. I have so many irons in the fires and hats on my head, that my brain is a constant whirlwind that’s seemingly never productive.

And this is how I feel. (Brace yourself for a very disturbing and unflattering photo of yours truly.)

I find myself doing this a lot-silently, of course, so as not to scare the kittens. However, I try to remind myself of the blessings that I don’t deserve and for some reason, that I’ve received.

I live in an amazing country, I have a roof over my head and am married to my best friend. So what if everything is changing once again, just when I got used to the way it worked? Wah.

I suppose that’s called life. And I suppose I should just get used to it.
I mean, we haven’t had a house blow up yet this year, so we’re doing pretty good. Right?

Everything must Go-Reduce, Resell, Reward!

Dear Readers:
Do you enjoy getting rid of stuff as much as I do? I have a little thing inside of me that hates excess-having too much “stuff”. If I am gifted or I buy a new shirt, a dish, pair of shoes, etc.-I have to get rid of something the same. I believe I am petrified of becoming a hoarder.

I’ll get to a point where nothing is off limits in our house in an effort to reduce our excess. I’ve been known to clear jars of pickles and sell them at a garage sale. I begin to question the need for area rugs, kitchen sponges, umbrellas, the cats…and I begin making large piles of stuff we no longer need.

Biceps got in on my crazy over the weekend and together we scoured our closets, home offices and the attic looking for anything and everything we could get rid of.
Including our banana costumes from one of our greatest Christmas card photos ever.

We piled our findings into four categories:

1. Salvation Army
2. Craigslist
3. Ebay
4. Garage Sale (PS-if you are in the Tulsa area, I’m having a G-Sale on Saturday!)

There’s something so liberating as our closets breathe a sigh of relief and our attic looks a little less cluttered. I have a theory, if you haven’t worn it in the last year, it’s time to get rid of it. Plus as we get rid of things we don’t need, we’ll make a little extra cash-and that never hurts.
I mean, who really needs to own a DVD copy of “Bedazzled”?

Knick-knacks, books, jars, vases and clothing were all in the running to be reduced, resold and we would reap the rewards. The cats are safe-for now. But there is one that bit me last night that’s on the fence…

So, Dear Readers:

Do you enjoy getting rid of stuff and if you do, what’s your favorite way-throwing it all in a bag and dropping it off at Salvation Army? Taking the time to list it online? Or do you-like me-love setting up a garage sale, brewing coffee and physically watching as the money rolls in?