Selling Books: Not Sure It Was Worth the Effort

With a second little one on the way, we need to transform our current office/storage room into an actual bedroom.  That means we need to go through our five bookcases filled with books and thin out our collection so we can then move the remaining books to new locations around the house.

Until today, we had set aside about three diaper boxes of books (diaper boxes are great all purpose items to have around the house).  I decided to take the books to a local used bookstore to see if they would buy any of them.  I did not figure we would get much out of the books, but I figured a little bit of money would be better than no money at all.

The lady who helped us must not have been having a very good day.  Even though my books and my sisters where the only books she had to go through, we had to wait over thirty minutes for the process to be completed (the store was not that busy either).  I had the little one with me, and she was not to happy to be stuck in her stroller for so long in one place. 

In the end, we received $10 for a few of our books.  The store has a book donation box outside of the store, so we just put the rest of the books in there.  Now I have to decide if I want to take future books to the store to sell or just save my time and donate the books to begin with. 

Yard Disaster

Here are some pictures of our yard, some of the work we have done, and examples of much of the work that we still need to do.  This 100 degree heat has not really helped our situation any.  I don't want to go outside to sort rocks in the heat and all our plants are drying up.

As you will see in the other pictures of our backyard, there are four different types of fences.  This awful looking fence in the front of the house is standing up by prayers alone.  We have had to put in metal posts to help support the fence for the time being.  We hope to replace the fence soon with a much more attractive and traditional one.

 

Here are some pictures of our back yard.  As you can see, the rock pile is still there waiting for me to come out and begin digging and sorting again.  Unfortunately, with all of this heat, the dirt is going to be especially hard and difficult to separate from the rock.  I hope we get some rain soon to soften the dirt.

 

In these two pictures you can see our poor attempt at growing grass.  Part of our problem is that we are horrible about watering the grass seed once it is planted.  We are looking into having a sand well installed so that we can water the lawn without worrying about the cost.  If  you have any thoughts on that issue, we would be happy to hear them.

In the first shot below, you will see some crazy snap dragons that came back volunteer this year even though they are supposed to just be an annual.  The remaining shots are of the various planting beds we have in the front of the house.  The two main beds did not have the paths of rocks until we created the paths a couple of years ago.  I like the paths because they help break up the beds and make it a little easier to manage.  I have just about all the plants I plan to plant in the back bed of the south planting area.  I just hope that they will survive the heat. 

Strange Habit

I often hear people joke about their OCD tendencies, and I think that everyone probably has their quirks.  One of my strange habits that I recently realized is that I have a specific way that I like to remove eggs from the carton.

When I use an egg, I begin on the outside of the carton and work my way towards the middle.  Not only that, if I need to use two eggs, I have to take them from the two different ends and they have to be diagonal from one another.  It is a bit of a bother if I have to use three eggs as it unbalances the carton, but at times it cannot be helped.

I have no idea how I started this habit, or why, but it throws me off if someone else takes eggs from the carton incorrectly.  Fortunately, it is uncommon for anyone else to remove the eggs from the carton here at our house.

What strange or quirky habits do you have?

Sticking to the Budget

Ugh, the B word.  Why is it so difficult to stick to a budget?  We have not been doing so well these last few months, so we are determined to stick tightly to our budget this month. 

It's funny, I figured that I would do better with our grocery budget as soon as Lucy no longer needed to drink formula, but last month I spent more on our grocery budget than I had before when I was buying her formula. 

One plan I have for sticking to the grocery budget is to only do major grocery shopping every other week and to try and use up the items in my pantry.  I struggle with wanting to keep my pantry stocked, so I tend to forget about or just not use the items that I already have.  Since we do not have a large house or a large pantry, I know that I need to use up the items I have before I buy more.

I have continued to plan our meals at least a week in advance using the MealBoard app on my Ipod touch, but I still buy items that we do not necessarily need for my planned meals.  This is another area I plan to work on to help us stick to our budget better.

So, here's to sticking to our budgets and being good stewards with the abundant blessings that God has given us!

Useful Tool: iPod Touch

This last Christmas I asked for and received an iPod touch.  I did not want an iPhone because I do not use my cellphone enough to justify the monthly cost, but I did want a device I could carry around me that could hold my to-do list, grocery list, and give me the ability to go online when Wi-Fi is available.

I have loved having my iPod touch.  Since one can download most of the apps available for the iPhone, there are many applications to choose from.  I found a simple to-do list app that lets me categorize my to-do items and lets me set the routine events on a schedule.  This has helped me stay on top of housework since I can assign different tasks for each day instead of waiting until the end of the week and doing all the chores at once.  I think my house has consistently remained cleaner than it did while I was working and not at home.

I like the grocery shopping app that I have, but I would like to find one that will let me enter the prices for the various stores so I can have the information available to me as I shop. 

I don't have many games on my iPod as I would be too tempted to sit around all day and just play the games instead of doing work around the house. 

Finding Bargains

I know that going to garage sales is a great way to find inexpensive children's clothes, toys, and other items, but I have never been much in the habit of going to sales.  I usually get tired of stopping and getting out of the car only to find few items I might be interested in buying.

Now that the little one has outgrown most of the clothes we received at baby showers, it is time to beginning doing some more garage sale shopping, so I made a trip out to Andover this morning to check out the city-wide sales. 

The first sale we stopped at had many items sitting out on the driveway and looked promising, but the people had a little too much pride in their possessions.  They had marked many of the children's clothes at $2 or more.  We did not stay there long and made our way through the neighborhood, hoping to find some better bargains.

We found a group of five or six houses close together having sales, so we were able to walk more and drive less.  They had their children's clothes more reasonably priced, so I picked up a couple of dresses and a toy.  The last sale we stopped at I found what I feel was the best deal of the day.  I picked up a pair a Nike athletic shoes for $1.  They are currently too big for the little one, but she will probably fit into them within a year or so. 

In all, I am happy that we went out and it was worth the time and the drive, but it is still going to take me some time to make this a regular habit.

Yogurt Shop Review

I still have not gone out to take pictures of our yard, and we have not really done much work out there anyways because of the rain, so I thought I would write a review of one of the many new yogurt shops in town. 

I went to Orange Leaf at 21st and Tyler today with my two sisters and the little one.  After a trip to the zoo and lunch at Chipotle's, a frozen treat sounded good.  When we walked into the store, a wall of different flavors of frozen yogurt greeted us; today the store featured flavors like chocolate and peanut butter; green tea and raspberry lemonade; butter pecan and coffee; and banana and raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry (these are the flavors that I can remember).  They group the flavors by complimentary pairs in case someone wants to combine the two flavors. 

I like simple flavors, so I chose the raspberry, blueberry, strawberry combination.  Showing restraint, I did not fill the huge bowl to the top with the yogurt; I think I only filled it about a third full.  Once we selected our yogurt, we found a huge selection of toppings waiting for us.  The selection included many types of fruits, chocolates, candies, and cereals.  I added a few sliced strawberries and some dark chocolate chips. 

The price of the treat depends on the weight of the creation.  Fortunately, mine weighed in at 7 ounces and the cost came in at just over $2.50 with tax.  I felt the price was pretty reasonable and I found the yogurt to be fresh and delicious.  The little one accepted a few bites of the frozen treat, but she was more interested in trying to walk around the store.

Perhaps the only complaint I have about the store is that they do not have any high chairs.  Otherwise, they kept the store clean and neat and a friendly staff works behind the counter.  The music selection surprised me most.  When I heard a Toby Mac song, I figured it was just one song that made it onto a secular play list, but the rest of the music was distinctly Christian as well.

I would definitely recommend stopping by Orange Leaf whenever you have a craving for a sweet frozen treat.