We had a garage sale yesterday and today, just in time to rid our lives of all the useless junk we seem to have picked up in the last year. We had quite a bit I am sad to say. So we stuck price tags on it, plopped it on tables and hoped for the best. We made $155 bucks! Not as good as last year, but there was no furniture, or any big items....just a ton of little stuff that added up. My mom and dad came to help wrangle the kids, which was so great. Although, Killian didnt need much wrangling, he spent most of both days playing with his friend Patrick and a girl named Taylor who was in their class, and also lives in our neighborhood. Her family happened to be having a garage sale this weekend too, so it was great for both kids to be able to get away and play. At times, I really don't like living here...but days like today, when I see Killian having a blast, roaming around the neighborhood with his buddies....I like it a whole lot :) Thats what summer should be all about for kids I think!
Here is a picture of the sale, taken a day and a half into it. I have no excuse, I just didn't take an earlier picture:
The last hour or so we just gave stuff away, which delighted various neighborhood kids to no end. They would come and grab all they could carry, some for themselves, but a lot of things they took for their moms and dads. I thought that was so sweet!! I also posted on Craigs List for people to come get it for free, and this morning we only have two boxes of stuff, and some books. Anyone know a good place to donate books?
I am happy that people where able to come and find uses for our stuff, and not have to pay for it. We are going to be starting a new journey around here, trying to consume much less, and recycle things more. I have been talking to Killian about boxing up all the things in his room (and he has a LOT) that he doesn't use or play with on a regular basis, and putting it all in the garage. That will give him a chance to see what, if anything, he misses before donating it all. Kids don't really need all the toys that we get for them. In fact, I think he might be happier having LESS....I know I feel better when my house is organized and uncluttered! Plus, Killian loves to collect little things, rocks, bottle caps, misc wires....if we clear out all the toys he doesn't use, he has more room for his treasures...things that really mean something to him. Sure its more "stuff", but its a different kind of "stuff" I think. Same goes for Birthdays and Christmas. I think we are going to move towards getting more creative things, open ended play things, always books, and maybe things like movie tickets, or passes to somewhere cool. Things that he can enjoy much longer, or have great memories from. We talked about this with him, and he seems pretty receptive to it. We will see what happens when its actually present time though :)
We did have a sad ending to our day today. While we were ending the garage sale, my mom saw a baby bird fall from its nest above our garage. They nest in small holes between the bricks and the eaves of our house. he had fluttered into the garage and hid in the small space between the freezer and the wall. I got out a ladder, scooped him up with a gloved hand, and put him back in his nest. I layed down a really fluffy blanket under the nest area, in case he fell again, which unfortunately he did, about 30 minutes later. I am deathly afraid of climbing ladders, and couldn't bring myself to do it without someone there to hold it (my parents had already left by this time) so I bundled the blanket around him till Matthew got home.
Killian, Patrick and Sebastian were outside digging in dirt, and they all kept coming over to check on him. I think the other kids thought it was sad, but it really affected Killian...he has such a soft heart for little animals. When Matthew got home, he held the ladder while I climbed the to second to top rung (yikes!!) and deposited the baby back in the nest. I put my glove away, moved the ladder, replaced the blanket, and the darn thing jumped right out again!!! I figured maybe there was some reason that he was jumping out, so I decided to leave him alone. I don't think he was ready, he didn't have butt feathers yet, and his wings weren't fully developed to fly, but I am not a bird expert, so who knows. Besides, as much as I wanted too, I couldn't stay out all day putting him back up in his nest. He flopped over to the grass, his mama chirping to him the whole time, and stayed huddled in the bark dust for a while. We went to run errands, and when we got back, he was still there:
We moved him when he was getting close to the sidewalk/road, because we didnt want him to flop out that way. I hope we didnt look and move him too much.I know that the mama will reject them if they smell like humans, but I dont know how the mama would get him back up to the nest alone anyways. Is that even possible? Killian kept going out to check on him, and I would find him out there talking to him, and patting the ground, trying to get him to cuddle in a towel for warmth. Poor little thing was shivering and chirping his heart out. Killian checked on him one last time before bed, and we were both really sad knowing that he probably wasn't going to make it. Killian was mad at the mama bird for leaving her baby, and I tried to explain that its different for birds, but he didnt buy it. He is such a sweet sensitive boy, I love that he has so much compassion for animals. It was a sad end to our day :(
Update: This morning when he woke up, Killian went outside to check on the baby bird, and found that he had died during the night. We are feeling really sad for the little guy :(
Here is a picture of the sale, taken a day and a half into it. I have no excuse, I just didn't take an earlier picture:
The last hour or so we just gave stuff away, which delighted various neighborhood kids to no end. They would come and grab all they could carry, some for themselves, but a lot of things they took for their moms and dads. I thought that was so sweet!! I also posted on Craigs List for people to come get it for free, and this morning we only have two boxes of stuff, and some books. Anyone know a good place to donate books?
I am happy that people where able to come and find uses for our stuff, and not have to pay for it. We are going to be starting a new journey around here, trying to consume much less, and recycle things more. I have been talking to Killian about boxing up all the things in his room (and he has a LOT) that he doesn't use or play with on a regular basis, and putting it all in the garage. That will give him a chance to see what, if anything, he misses before donating it all. Kids don't really need all the toys that we get for them. In fact, I think he might be happier having LESS....I know I feel better when my house is organized and uncluttered! Plus, Killian loves to collect little things, rocks, bottle caps, misc wires....if we clear out all the toys he doesn't use, he has more room for his treasures...things that really mean something to him. Sure its more "stuff", but its a different kind of "stuff" I think. Same goes for Birthdays and Christmas. I think we are going to move towards getting more creative things, open ended play things, always books, and maybe things like movie tickets, or passes to somewhere cool. Things that he can enjoy much longer, or have great memories from. We talked about this with him, and he seems pretty receptive to it. We will see what happens when its actually present time though :)
We did have a sad ending to our day today. While we were ending the garage sale, my mom saw a baby bird fall from its nest above our garage. They nest in small holes between the bricks and the eaves of our house. he had fluttered into the garage and hid in the small space between the freezer and the wall. I got out a ladder, scooped him up with a gloved hand, and put him back in his nest. I layed down a really fluffy blanket under the nest area, in case he fell again, which unfortunately he did, about 30 minutes later. I am deathly afraid of climbing ladders, and couldn't bring myself to do it without someone there to hold it (my parents had already left by this time) so I bundled the blanket around him till Matthew got home.
Killian, Patrick and Sebastian were outside digging in dirt, and they all kept coming over to check on him. I think the other kids thought it was sad, but it really affected Killian...he has such a soft heart for little animals. When Matthew got home, he held the ladder while I climbed the to second to top rung (yikes!!) and deposited the baby back in the nest. I put my glove away, moved the ladder, replaced the blanket, and the darn thing jumped right out again!!! I figured maybe there was some reason that he was jumping out, so I decided to leave him alone. I don't think he was ready, he didn't have butt feathers yet, and his wings weren't fully developed to fly, but I am not a bird expert, so who knows. Besides, as much as I wanted too, I couldn't stay out all day putting him back up in his nest. He flopped over to the grass, his mama chirping to him the whole time, and stayed huddled in the bark dust for a while. We went to run errands, and when we got back, he was still there:
We moved him when he was getting close to the sidewalk/road, because we didnt want him to flop out that way. I hope we didnt look and move him too much.I know that the mama will reject them if they smell like humans, but I dont know how the mama would get him back up to the nest alone anyways. Is that even possible? Killian kept going out to check on him, and I would find him out there talking to him, and patting the ground, trying to get him to cuddle in a towel for warmth. Poor little thing was shivering and chirping his heart out. Killian checked on him one last time before bed, and we were both really sad knowing that he probably wasn't going to make it. Killian was mad at the mama bird for leaving her baby, and I tried to explain that its different for birds, but he didnt buy it. He is such a sweet sensitive boy, I love that he has so much compassion for animals. It was a sad end to our day :(
Update: This morning when he woke up, Killian went outside to check on the baby bird, and found that he had died during the night. We are feeling really sad for the little guy :(