Return of the Thrift Store Vikings and Danger on Ice

Last Monday I had one of those lovely days that comes so rarely to a busy mom. I got to do some (almost) completely guilt free shopping for as long as I wanted with no rush to get home. I had a bit of extra money, so I gave myself permission to pick up any needed furniture items I saw at the thrift shops. We are doing OK for furniture, but we've been using only half our house during the winter, so it's not hard to predict an increase in need now that we can start using the whole thing.


I had a wonderful time at the thrift stores, spending $60 between the two of them. I got a couple nice pieces of furniture, though not really needful ones, and some smaller items just because I could. As closely as I remember, for my $60 I got:


3 pictures
A wire and wood shelf
A wicker and wood cabinet
1 coffee table
3 denim jackets
1 white summer jacket
2 skirts
4 pairs of pants
I lost track of how many long and short sleeved shirts I got...
5 planters
3 children's snowboards
A darling quilted ABC chart
3 mugs that appealed to me
A corduroy vest
A pair of fuzzy slipper boots (finally!)
And a lovely decorative piece, a tiny wooden outhouse with a sign next to it, "Little House on the Prairie"


I love this ABC chart. It has little pockets with a little fabric applique piece of something for each alphabet letter. You can put in and out of the pocket, but they are attached by a little cord so they won't get lost. The quality of the workmanship is amazing, and I got it for $1.50. It was made in the Philippines, and I'd like to give credit to them for a nice product.


Then it was on to Walmart where I got more mundane, everyday stuff, but I did indulge in some new sharpies (can't live without 'em) and a bunch of new acrylic paints since mine were in pretty bad shape. Aaaaaaaaah! Once in a while it's nice to have a day where you get a break from living hand to mouth.


Danger on Ice

A couple weeks ago, Noni and I took the kids and dogs on a Sabbath afternoon drive. I was trying to find a back road that gets us the closest to the Canadian border, but that's a different story. Things were much snowier and icier at the time, and Finley got into trouble our very first stop.

The hills around here are lousy with old buildings that I happen to like to stop and explore. As I explain to Noni, it is only trespassing if you come with a spirit of rudeness or destruction, not if you come to respect and honor the past. I only hope if I ever meet a sheriff, he won't make the same rude noises she makes when I tell her that...

Anyway, stopped to look at an old school house that happened to have a snow melt pond right next to it. Finley was accustomed to the shallow ditch ponds around our house where you could fall through the ice and it was no big deal. So he charged out across the snow just like always, and fell through, just like always. But then he found out he couldn't get out, just like always. I was a long ways away and started running to see if he needed help. There is very real danger in a situation like that, as the deer in my next post can attest. Noni was closer and says she could tell he was doing just fine, so she took pictures. I'm sure Finley appreciated being the model for her photo-journalistic efforts!




Later we stopped to climb a hill and left the dogs in the car; there are limits---even for me---to how disgusting they can get and still have transportation. They sat there, staring out the windshield at us, and panting in disappointment. We were gone about five minutes and returned to this scene...


The tragedy (though Noni did not seem to find it so), was that the moisture was not confined to a gentle misting of the windows. Someone had drooled all over my steering wheel, a fact I did not fully discover until driving. So it went something like this....steer, yuck, wipe, fiendish cackle from sister, steer, yuck, wipe, cackle...Well, you get the idea. Next time she can drive.