Last Sunday, I was telling someone about putting our girls' room together. We put their beds back together as bunk beds and it gave them room to have their own desks and a bit more personal space--which is tough when you have two girls sharing a room.
The gal I was talking to loves to garage sale like I do and find treasures--so she asked why I bought my middle daughter a table at IKEA instead of garage saling for it. I responded that I did get their chairs at a garage sale for $2 each and even cut the back off a broken chair to make a stool for my older daughter since she wanted a stool. I was so pleased to not have to buy a stool! I spent $25 on the most basic white table that IKEA sells (which we had another of, so my girls had matching desks).
But, I should have waited....
Garage saling is a funny thing. What one person doesn't want any more and is ready to find a new home for is often exactly what I'm look for. But, when I'm looking for a specific thing I often have to wait. And the honest answer as to why I didn't garage sale for the second desk I needed was that I wanted to have my daughters' room put together now. It's tough to give one girl a desk and not have one for the other at the same time! So, I bought the table.
But, then I went to one garage sale yesterday--and I found exactly what my middle daughter had wanted in a desk--the man accepted the cash I had--$16.85 (he had wanted $20). I brought it home and set to work painting it.
Then, today I spent time with my family this morning, but my husband let me stop by one garage sale on the way home. I've been searching online for a few weeks trying to find an art curriculum for my oldest daughter this year, but hadn't been able to figure it out. First, I found two shirts for 25 cents each. Then, I found three lace doilies like my great grandmother made when I was a kid. I look for them at garage sales because they remind me of the good things about my childhood--I find that it's easy sometimes to miss the good when our eyes look back and only see the bad. Lastly, I spotted a homeschool art book by Abeka out of the corner of my eye and I went over to investigate. I found a box of old art books. One of which was a homeschool curriculum I reviewed a few years back. I hadn't considered it because the books cost $43 each. But, this was an older copy and it was exactly what I was looking for! The lady sold it to me (along with 4 other old art textbooks) for $1. What a huge blessing!
As we headed towards home, I was thankful--for the Lord's love and His help finding what I needed for my family. I was also reminded by these two garage sales that I need to wait and be patient--eventually I'll probably find what I'm looking for...
