Moving Yard Sale

This week we held our very first yard sale since being married. After 10 years of marriage and 4 kids we had accumulated quite a bit of stuff. We said goodbye to the armoire we purchased in Vermont. I remember getting it at Kmart and feeling so excited to put it in our new home. It was so new and pretty back then, but the years had not been kind to it and we didn't think it would survive another move. We also said goodbye to a coffee table we were given a desk we purchased at a garage sale. We also sold baby clothes, toys, and random household items. Selling the baby clothes and the armoire was the hardest part for me. Two weeks prior I went through our many bins of baby clothes to sort through them. There was no point in having to haul so many pieces of clothing. I kept the clothing that was sentimental to me, but gave away the clothes that either my kids didn't wear, were outdated, or too worn. I reminisced the times my kids wore those clothes and how thankful we were to have them.

Kelsey wanted to participate in the sale by holding a lemonade stand. I had grand plans to make cinnamon rolls the night before to have them fresh and ready for the next morning....needless to say, that didn't happen. I was frustrated, but through the lulls in the day of having people come by to our sale I made two cookie sheet pans of cinnamon rolls. Kelsey was able to sell all of them (we ate some too). She prepared the lemonade herself by following the directions on the country time lemonade canister. She also cut up lemons for those customers that wanted them. Seeing her get so excited about selling lemonade warmed my heart. Mylee and Lanaea helped here and there too.

At the end of the day, we had sold all of our big ticket items, but had loads of clothes and toys leftover. We put a free sign (that was hard!!) in our yard for about 4 hours and got rid of a couple more things, but ended up taking all of our unsold items to the Salvation Army. Kelsey was sweet to remind me that she was happy other people less fortunate then us were now going to have toys to play with and clothes to wear.

At the end of the day I was beat! We had invited a family of 6 to come over for dinner the next day though so I went back to work and went shopping for food to have an Easter-type dinner we never had the week prior. Blake and the kids were helpful to help me prepare the house and the meal. We had glazed ham, cheesy potatoes, cranberry jello salad, rolls, corn, carrots, and had root beer floats for dessert. We had a wonderful visit and all the work was worth it to be able to serve someone else. She, has just gotten into town the night before serving a member of her family that had health problems. It was nice to be able to give something to her, when she had been serving someone else all week. It was also a good lesson for my kids to see the value in service.