Unhinged

Apparently all the heady freedom of back to school week has warped my perspective. After my brief appearance at work today I stopped by my favorite thrift store. I found a belt for X, one of those ubiquitous braided leather ones that has no actual holes so that will make things easier for him. Hadn't really considered the differences in belt technology before... I found a great pair of shoes for X - barely worn ankle boots. And for L I grabbed the Phillip Pullman trilogy for a whopping $5.40. I love reading novels to the kids. We'll be taking a break from Harry Potter.

It's kind of amusing to look back a year or two, and I remember being at a bookstore and dithering over whether-or-not to purchase those very books. I was so proud of myself for the restraint, at the time. Now I almost feel guilty for purchasing them second-hand, because they aren't exactly necessary. (But awesome! Still trying to decide if I should see The Golden Compass film...)

My honey-do list today included getting replacement hinges for the bathroom cabinets. At Ikea.

Ikea is new to our part of the world, but mythological proportions in the collective consciousness of 30-somethings from back East who thrive on cheap furnishings. When it opened here, it was mobbed for months. I'm not much of a crowd person, so I avoided it for quite some time. Today, it was almost pleasant, meandering and looking at all the cool designs and vivid colors.

Other than the hinges, I was charged with getting a garlic press for my friend Nina. But I didn't make it out of housewares unscathed... I have been missing my kitchen shears for some time, and the empty hole in the knife block mocks me as I still reach for them almost daily. At $1.99, I doubt these will do much more than fill the void. But I bought them anyways. So there.

I wandered through the children's section and picked out a couple of small stuffed mice (one white, one grey) , $1.49 each. For absolutely no good reason. The kids loved them and treated us to a puppet show this evening. X named his Ruffles and L has yet to decide. Stay tuned.

After wandering the huge expanse of Ikea in my dress-up heels, I had some wicked blisters. By the time I made it to Returns, I was no longer in a great, expansive shopping mood. The line was long and my blood sugar low. Not a good combination.

The earnest "co-worker" in the unfortunate yellow polo was very sweet - looked at the hinge, vanished briefly, and returned with two replacement ones free of charge. Huh. Didn't see that coming. But it's Ikea, which is the Swedish version of Walmart, and it's easy to overindulge.

I limited myself to one cinnamon roll for the drive home. Mission accomplished.

You never can tell!

Just today I managed to get the garage sale clothes out of the dryer and into rotation for the kids, namely L who is a lot tougher to buy for as her size is weird and her tastes vary daily. And there is no discernible transition time - yesterday she liked yellow uniform blouses paired with skorts, today only red polos and jumpers will do. She's not exactly a morning person so you can imagine the scene as I'm sifting thru laundry, clean and not-so-very, as she whines about having to wear that dumb whatever.... I was taken aback when she liked 5 out of 6 items, and kindly suggested I wear the discarded pullover as "that's really more your green than mine."

At the St. Mark's garage sale I was able to pick up a couple of uniform skirts for $1 each, with room to grow. Someone in the parish has a pretty hefty clothing budget, because I snapped up two pullovers and one embroidered cardigan from Hanna Andersson. Love the clothes but rarely find a sale good enough to justify purchasing them first-hand. They seem nearly impossible to wear out, too. We were lucky to have one of the Grandmothers take the kids on a shopping spree last fall - by far their favorite clothes, and ones I'm not embarrassed by. (Do clothes shrink en route to church? Even though I check before we leave, I always seem to be walking in with my son in high-waders and my daughter with a bare midriff. Yeesh.)

X has managed to catch up or eclipse those kids around that used to keep us flush with hand-me-downs, but is a lot less picky so I think we'll be fine. Plus our traveling Grandpa keeps him in quite the t-shirt collection, featuring dragons and tuk-tuks and the occasional panda bear. I had bought some cute shorts over the last year so we're set for summer. Even though they go barefoot every chance they get, we're good on sandals. (I know it's lame to buy things in advance and store them, but it really has saved me over the years. And the kids get so excited when they finally get to wear those darling violet Mary Janes that have been lurking in the closet...) I did get some puddle boots for X, on e-bay, for $10 and they are quite the hit.

Bob did buy another stereo for his car (4th? 5th?) at $100. He thought briefly about buying a used one but realized that that's probably supporting the industry of folks who have been stealing his car stereos for years now. And he bought some computer software for X to help with the Kindergarten skills. And some train movies...

Seeing as my 40th birthday and Mothers Day occur on the same day, I informed Bob that in the spirit of simplicity, estate and antique jewelry was just fine with me. He chose not to hear that one, claims he doesn't read the blog, so if you see him - remind him!

So not buying anything new just got a whole lot easier, thanks to the return of the garage sale season. The forecast on my self-control, not quite so promising. Hopefully the heady novelty of seeing neighbors and pawing through other people's crap will wear out soon enough.