In our 40 years of marriage, this is the first year that no one in our family is going back to school. Since I retired from my job as a school nurse at the end of last school year, we are all now out of the business of education.
And today was the first day for students in my school district, so I made plans to go see the movie "The Giver" at noon--just because I could.
On the way, I decided to make a quick stop at Michael's craft store to buy a pack of photo corners. Last year I got a great deal on twelve $2.00 grab bag boxes that contained hundreds of nice fillers for our Operation Christmas Child packing party and I've been hoping to find some again.
Well, today was that day.
I had to bag "The Giver" to become 'the getter' as I filled my minivan with 34 of those $2.00 grab bag cartons.
When I got home and opened the first few boxes I realized there were a lot of items I couldn't use for shoe boxes, so I called my neighbor who helps with the 'holiday store' at her grandson's school.
She was nice enough to come and spend several hours helping me sort. She was able to fill four large cartons with items usable for her grandson's school.
Out of the 34 boxes I ended up with 115 clothing items (flip-flops, shirts, etc.) and 226 filler items. My neighbor donated $25 for the items she took, so the things I got for shoe boxes were just a bit over ten cents each.
Now I need to figure out what to do with a houseful of leftovers--expensive large vases and tons of artificial flowers. You could stock a florist shop with all the stuff hanging out on every horizontal space in my house.
I'm thinking I should have stuck with my schedule and spent the afternoon watching "The Giver" instead of being "the getter" and gorging on grab bag boxes.
Hi Kathy, I am wondering if you could post the flowers and vases on ebay or craig’s list? We had a pair of slightly used western boots come through as a donation a few weeks ago. The souls were too worn to go through as “new” boots for a shoe box so a friend at church posted them on ebay for us. The boots went in the first auction to someone who got a really nice pair of boots that would have been $90 new for $40. This past week the Lord turned that $40 into 80 pairs of flip flops (through a local BOGO sale) for our shoe boxes. It never ceases to amaze me on how God works out the logistics each year. We just give it over to Him in pray and then wait in excited anticipation to see what He is going to do.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could help a young engaged couple that does not have a budget for flowers? Or maybe you you could do a class at a nursing home or.....
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Patti