Sandra Tayler

Garage Sales

By / January 11, 2006 / 6 Comments

Where I live garage sale season starts in March. It doesn’t get really moving until April or May, but the first sales are there in March. A significant amount of our household needs are supplied from garage sales, so starting in March I’ll be hitting one or two each week. BUT there is no point it going to the sales at all if I don’t know what I am looking for. So I’ve begun compiling my “Looking For” list. Some of these items I hope to find at garage sales, some (like underwear) I hope to find new in a store, but on clearance. The key is to anticipate needs before they arrive and you have to solve the problem today.

With this in mind I began creating an inventory of the kids clothes. I rifle their drawers and laundry baskets to figure out exactly what they have to wear right now. I count short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, short pants, long pants, sweaters, swimsuits, tennis shoes, sandals, church clothes, socks, underwear, and any other clothing item I come across. Then on the same paper in the next column I tally everything the next size that I have in boxes waiting for that child to grow. Gleek is currently size 4T. I have boxes of size 5, 6-6x, 7-8, and 9-10 clothing all waiting for her. I’m not going to need to look for many clothes for her, except for size 5 & 6 short pants which apparently Kiki completely wore out. This is incredibly useful information because when I hit a sale, no matter how cute the clothes are I know I don’t need to buy any pants in size 5 because she’s got 10 pairs waiting. Kiki and Link each have a really long list of the kinds of clothes I’m trying to find for them. Patience will help me find clothes for my kids for $1 or less per item.

Clothes are not the only thing on my “Looking For” list. The biggest item on this year’s list is a set of bunk beds. I need a set for Link and Patches to share. Patches currently sleeps in a toddler bed, but he’ll outgrow that sometime late this year and before he does I need to have bunk beds because that room is too small for a pair of twin beds. I know that I want the bunkbeds to be sturdy and I prefer a wooden frame to a metal one. I want the price to be under $100 (preferrably under $50). Beyond that I’m not picky about style or wear & tear. I’ll watch all summer and only if I’m unable to find this deal will I consider plunking down more money.

Small items make the list too. Things like clothes pins for the clothesline I intend to build, a dish drainer, 2X4 lumber for some projects, and items for next Christmas.

Armed with my list I sift through thrift stores and garage sales much more efficiently. Also I won’t forget what it is that my family could use. Last year I acquired most of the things on my list by August, so I just stopped going to garage sales for the rest of the year.

Last April I had this to say about garage sales:

This morning there were a plethora of garage sales. I left the house to buy gas for the mower and ended up being gone for an hour because I kept driving past sales and stopped to see what was there. I didn’t find any big scores, but I’m slowly accumulating information which I’m using to figure out when a garage sale is worth the time and gas to find. I’m going to list them while they’re in my head so that I don’t forget:

Garage sales which advertise in the paper have more stuff than ones which just throw up a few signs on nearby corners.

Garage sales which run for two days have more stuff than sales which only run for one.

Multi-family sales tend to have more stuff.

Multi-family sales are sometimes annoying because you have to pay more than one person for individual items.

If the sale is more than 5 minutes away by car, it isn’t worth the time and gas.

I don’t have to get all the sales today, there will be more next week, and the one after, and the one after…

It never hurts to see if the seller is willing to accept a lower price.

If the price isn’t listed on the item ask “Would you take…” rather than “How much?”

No garage sale item is worth arguing over. If the seller isn’t willing to come down to a price I’m willing to pay, then I need to walk away.

Garage sales are best first thing in the morning before they have been picked over or after noon when people are tired of sitting in the front yard and just want to get rid of stuff.

I don’t have to hit garage sales every week, I have all summer to slowly collect what I need.

Keep track of the kinds of things I’m looking for so I can make decisions quickly.

Take as few kids with me as I can possibly manage.

Be picky. Just because I have money with me, doesn’t mean I need to buy something.

Any time I’m considering buying something ask myself: “what will I use it for and where will I put it?”

I forgot to remember it.

By / January 10, 2006 / 3 Comments

At 8pm last night I remembered that today it was my turn to host Gleek’s preschool group. I remembered it last week. I remembered it over the weekend. And then I forgot until 8 pm the night before. Fortunately I had the letter N and the number 2. Noah and his ark were a perfect fit. Kids love a chance to pretend to be animals. I scrounged a bag of noodles and some yarn, instant Noodle Necklaces project.

I managed preschool. I even managed it while juggling NotMyBaby and I-want-mommy Patches. Then I managed the afternoon which included two trips to pick up kids from school, three friends coming over, leaving, and coming back again multiple times, endless demands for snack food, dinner, and homework time.

I’m tired. I had stuff I wanted to write today. I felt in a writing mood, but there simply wasn’t space in my brain for words to coalesce. There definitely wasn’t time to sit in front of my computer. Well, until now when all the kids are abed and I’m too bone weary to write anything profound.

I need to sleep, but if I sleep then it will be tomorrow and I’ll have more things to do. maybe I’ll watch some Firefly.

Airpack activity

By / January 9, 2006 / 8 Comments

A friend sent three magnadoodles to my kids for christmas. According to wisdom only known to those in the packing room at Amazon.com instead of packing all three into one huge box, each magnadoodle was packed individually in it’s own huge box with a ream of airpack bubbles. I checked, each of these boxes could have fit FOUR magnadoodles. In the christmas rush I shoved these boxes and their surfeit of packaging to the side and forgot about them. Today my Gleek discovered them and there was glee.

Gleek carefully ripped each bubble pack from the others and strewed them all over the family room. Then she and Patches stomped on these little plastic pillows to make them pop. They weren’t very good at it and they aren’t very heavy, so often the airpack pillow would squirt out from under their feet and they’d land on their bottoms. giggles. Then they took to popping the airpacks with plastic pickup stick swords. giggles. Then they piled all the non-flat airpack pillows into one of the huge boxes and played “baby.” I would never let a child sleep in a box full of plastic bags, but they thought it was great. even more giggles. In all they played with the airpack pillows for a full 90 minutes.

You know right on those airpack things it clearly states “This is not a toy.” I suppose I could be considered an awful mother for allowing my kids to play with them. But, honestly, they are in more danger in the bathtub than they are playing with airpack pillows. I don’t let them bathe unsupervised and I don’t let them play with airpacks unsupervised either. And in both cases once the play is done the potentially dangerous item (water or plastic bags) is quickly disposed of.

Toward the end of the play NotMyBaby woke up from his nap. NMB is in that stage where he chews on everything. Plastic bags are definitely unsafe to chew, so NMB never even got his hands on one. I took scissors, popped all the remaining inflated ones and pitched them all into the recycling bin. The box got to stick around and be played with.

The Frugal Pantry

By / January 7, 2006 / 3 Comments

More than once I’ve been asked for tips on how to cut grocery spending. Since that is becoming a frequently asked question I am now creating this entry so that the next time I’m asked it, I can just point the asker here. In fact I’m starting to use the “tag” feature to create a trail of entries on “Frugal Living” If you want to read all the entries, just click the “Frugal Living” link at the end of this entry and you’ll get a list of all the entries I deem to be related to that topic.

Let me say right here, that I’m still learning this whole frugal living stuff. When Howard still worked at Novell our children lived off of storebought chicken nuggets and chimichangas. We ate take out food almost daily in some form or another. I am not trying to set myself up as an Expert or Guru or anything else holier-than-thou. I’m just excited about the topic of saving money on household expenses and I’d like to share some of the stuff that I’ve learned. …

The Frugal PantryRead More »

Popsicles

By / January 6, 2006 / 5 Comments

I’m always so glad when my kids are nice to each other. This afternoon they ran around outside wearing shorts and eating popsicles while playing a game and watching a hot air balloon. I live in Utah, this is January, the weather outside is about 45 degrees and gray. My children are nuts. But they had fun right up until the point that they realized they were COLD. At that point Gleek tried to come and leech heat from me by climbing into my lap. But she wouldn’t relinquish the popsicle, not a chance.

The popsicles were an experimental mix of tang and milk frozen into “sip & lick” popsicle molds. These molds are special because the “lid” of the mold forms not only the stick for the popsicle, but a little cup to catch the drips. The cup includes a little straw for slurping the melted liquid. I took one look at them and pictured children blowing melted popsicle fluids into huge sticky bubbles. Gleek looked at them and saw pure joy. They were at a thrift store, Gleek spent her own money and they came home with us. Last night the kids were checking the freezer every 10 minutes to see if the popsicles were done yet. The tang + milk was really yummy in frozen form, but as it melted it separated into orange curds and clear whey which was pretty yucky. Fortunately the kids ate them so fast that I only knew about the separation from the sticky little drips that Patches left all over the house. Well, I could have done without the sticky drips, but I got them all wiped up. I think.

Unpacking

By / January 6, 2006 / 10 Comments

I have a personal theory about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. I believe the brain replays traumatic/adrenaline surged events in order to learn how not to do that again, whatever that may be. The fastest way for a person to end this kind of playback is to examine “that” and plan alternate courses of action to prevent it. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder occurs when a person feels powerless to affect the cause of the trauma. The playback is endless because no matter how many times the event is played back no pathway is found to prevent it from ever happening again. “Playback” may be as vivid as a full sensory flashback, or as mild as a feeling of fear or depression when similar circumstances are encountered. By this point in my post I’ve probably played merry hell with proper psychological terminology, I don’t much care. I’m trying to explain to myself what has been happening in my head for the past 7 years.

Seven years ago I underwent 7 weeks of radiation therapy to eradicate a tumor under my chin. It was a miserable experience. The tumor had been surgically removed, regrown, and removed again. It looked like the only way to prevent a cyclical repeat of regrowth and surgery was to radiate it until it was dead and I wasn’t. The therapy began at the end of January 1999 and ended in the middle of March. My mom had to come at stay with us for the last three weeks because I couldn’t keep things together. As soon as the therapy was over I shut the door on that part of my life. I was so desperate to be done with it and never go there again that I didn’t even want to think about it. I believe the proper psychological term for that is denial or maybe avoidance.

In the past 7 years I’ve always thought of radiation as something that was over. I’m done with that, so I don’t need to think about it. Only I’m not done with it. The experience was long enough and unpleasant enough that it set up a whole raft of associations in my brain that affect my moods and thinking. Howard tells me that every January/February he observes a noticable downtick in my moods. As soon as the holidays are over I start longing for spring because in 1999 spring coincided with the end of radiation therapy. I love crocus because they are a sign that the Bad Time is over. Last year I didn’t have a “downtick” during the winter. I remember thinking about it and feeling like I’d finally put behind me the last lingering emotional effects of the radiation therapy. I was wrong, this year all the associations are back with a vengence. Apparently I can’t just “put it behind me,” I need to face it and examine it. Not really something I want to do.

So I guess it is time for me to end the avoidance or denial or whatever you want to call it. I need to do some writing to take a clear look at what I went through and how I feel about it, because I packed the experience away so quickly I’m sure there are unresolved threads there. It’s been packed away for so many years that the memories are sure to be moth eaten and wrinkly, so anybody who was around me back then is welcome to add input or corrections as they see fit. This process will probably take several entries, I’ll try to put them behind cuts so that if anyone else wants to avoid this plunge into my worst winter, they can. To be honest I have very mixed feelings about putting this in livejournal at all. Part of me is afraid that it’ll look like I’m asking for pity or sympathy. This is the same part that is always reluctant to ask for help even when it is obviously needed. Also this is a very personal delving into my psyche and a life-altering experience, do I really want that hanging out in a public place? On the other hand I would love it if my experiences could be of some help to someone else. It would be nice to be able to feel like there was a point to this miserable experience. Also I’ll be able to sort my brain better if other people are around to comment and help me make connections that I’m missing. And there is also that whole avoidance thing. I’ve begun a couple of times to write about radiation, but without someone else involved I get about a half page done and quit. Livejournal is more like telling other people than like talking to myself.

So I’m going to take a middle approach. Everyone on my friend’s list will be able to read these entries because I already trust all of you to be kind and considerate. If any of you know someone who might be helped by anything I share, feel free to pass it on, or put them in touch with me, but do not post it in a public place. I may in the future decide to make all of this public information, but I’m not ready to do that yet. If you have thoughts for or against making this public, I’d be interested in hearing them, but I don’t promise to follow your advice. There will be more than one entry on this as I refine my thinking and sort my thoughts. I’m not sure how many entries this will come to, hopefully not too many. I don’t want anyone to get bored and I’d like to sort quickly. Of course that desire to “sort quickly” is a reflection of my desire to be done with it. Sigh. I definitely need to unpack this box.

January impending

By / January 4, 2006 / 3 Comments

Today was much better. I always forget that the first day of a new schedule is always exhausting and draining for me. I have to think and rethink every step of the day to make sure I get it right. By the second day I’ve internalized some of the steps and things are much smoother. I’m still tired, but this evening isn’t bleak the way that last night was.

January and February are the long dark teatime of the year. The space of time between Christmas and the first crocus blooming always seems to be a long slog. I don’t mind winter if it snows, but cold/gray/wet gets me down after awhile. Around here the first crocus blooms sometime in the second half of February. Having crocus bloom doesn’t make the weather any warmer, but it is a promise of good things to come. I love crocus. It is a sign of the end of dark times.

Of course right now it is the beginning of January and the long slog is still ahead of me. That is part of what had me stressed/depressed last night. It was bad enough managing conflict filled homework times in October/November/December, I couldn’t see how I’d manage it in January/February. The good news is that after the Christmas break kids seem to settle into their school routines. Everyone knows what to expect and they’re more content. I’m really really hoping for that. I saw a glimpse of it tonight.

This afternoon I caught myself looking out my back window and examining trees for signs of budding. More evidence that my longing for spring begins as soon as New Years is over. I never used to feel this way about winter until I had a very unpleasant one 7 years ago. Anniversaries matter even if we don’t consciously remember them. That one winter was sufficiently unpleasant that it has rippled negative associations through all the years that followed. Some winters are harder than others. I confess to anxiety about this one for the reasons I’ve already mentioned.

Foreshadowing is a fine literary technique. It doesn’t work as well in real life. Right now my brain is trying to foreshadow. It is throwing shadows foreward into the month ahead when perhaps no shadows need to be there at all. I can’t really hope for warm, so instead I’m going to hope for snow. Lots and lots of bright snow to enliven the winter days.