More photos, still cleaning out my drop box. These photos are all teacher related, I have been hitting garage sales and resale shops looking for classroom supplies for middle (early ed, special ed).

These first photos are all from a retired teacher who was selling classroom items.

You can tell these were well loved, they are very worn. A retired teacher was having a garage sale. She said something like these were place finders or markers. She did NOT say book marks. Can anyone enlighten me? I still have her address, I will go knock on her door to clarify if needed.

ADDED LATER - I found them.

"Kids love these handy little Spaceman and teachers love the way they help students remember to use proper spacing in their compositions. Spacemen are a perfect blend of goofy fun and instruction! And now they come with their own Space Capsule for easy storage, and a space on the back for students name!"

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Books with CD's.

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She very kindly dug through two big boxes of books to find ones she though middle would like.

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Middle can use these herself or have them available for room mothers working on projects if her kids are too young for this type.

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Number line goes to 120. The shells and the markers are for counting. The two boxes are math alternatives. Middle needs a wide range of things because children with autism can need more advanced materials for some subjects.

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The top two bags are matching or reading puzzles. The bottom two bags are magnet matching.

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The fly swatters are for board work. Can be relay races. One looks for the right answer on the board, runs up, and swats it. Poker chips can be for markers or counting. Wrap ups are very fun. We have many. These are subtraction. Google them if you are interested.

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Reading, phonics, sequencing.

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We now have quite the collection of puppets. Several dozen. These are the latest.  Last year middle and I found a puppet theater at a garage sale. Cleaned up nicely, has a tiny curtain and stage light. Middle is the type of teacher who would have a room full of children, each reading to their own puppet.Or one child with autism, reading to all kinds of puppets, if that is what worked.

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These balls are deflated in the picture. The idea is that one inflates them, and then tosses the ball around the room. Where your thumb lands is the question to answer. Very fun.

Main characters were
The setting was
My favorite part was
At the end
In the middle
In the beginning

What is the setting
Who are the main characters
What is the title and who is the author
What was your favorite part
How did it end
What happened in the story

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Wall Pocket Charts. There are 5 little and 7 large in this pile. One came with numbers chart. The white ones on top are 28 individuals with magnets.  If you don't know what these are, see the next picture.

These next pictures were all found at regular garage sales -

This is a pop-up tunnel, tied for storage. The next picture shows it open. This is the third one I have found for middle. 

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Great storage. Bags are washable. 

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Very old, classic, wooden puzzles. I remember these types from when I was a child. 

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The tent, assembled, is the next picture (below). As you can see, above, it disassembles easily. It is made to go on top of a twin size mattress. But the mattress is not necessary. It will support itself, just setting loose on the floor.  I love that it has a mesh top, so kids can see out, teacher can see in. 

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I have been collecting board books everywhere I go - garage sales, Target's $1 bins, resale shops. 

When I think of asbestos, my mind goes to Almanzo Wilder, Laura's husband. Do you remember he sold asbestos mats/pads for people to use in their homes?

Almanzo, I believe he actually died of heart attack(s). I am not sure he had cancer or anything asbestos related. And if you are trying to remember what he and Laura had (when Rose was a baby) it was diphtheria, the D in DPT (diphtheria, pertussis/whopping cough and tetanus). He had lower body paralysis and weakness (I think for the rest of his life, to some extent) from the diptheria. And I think it was somewhere in that time frame (within a year maybe) that Laura gave birth to their son who only lived a short time.

Kids' church bag and story of my paternal grandmother's purse

Added later - this is my follow up post with my own church quiet bag and the Baptism gift that followed.

We have sat in a pew in front of a desperate dad, with a grouchy toddler, and only one toy in the diaper bag which happened to jingle.

Last week we were at mass with our six year old who wrote notes, attached star stickers and passed them around (there were 7 of us in pew/together).

Neither one of those particularly bothered me. But I NOTICED.

I am collecting stuff for a Kids's church bag as I see it.

The rule on my bag is only one thing at a time. If you want the next great thing, have to put the first great thing away (no passing).

And all my things will be pretty silent.

And if they can be church related, that is preferred.

Board religious books (with great pictures, maybe no words) are the first thing to come to mind.

Other ideas please?




Story of my paternal gradmother's purse.

I remember my grandmother well. But actually I do not remember this "magical" aspect/fact about her purse (at all).

My mother has always said, very fondly, that my paternal grandmother could easily, quietly passify many children with her sort of magical purse.

My grandmother had a sixteen year spread between between the oldest and youngest of her own four children. And her first grandchild arrived when her own youngest was about 4-5. So I think she never got out of "mom thinking". Her head stayed in the game.

My mom said magical things would appear out of grandma's purse and be passed down the pew or across the table. Colored pencils, bits of fun paper. I am not sure what all. I do not think any of this would have been purchased for kids. I have a feeling she kept her eyes open and picked up samples and bits and simply stuck them in her purse.

My mom did not actually do a lot with kids. She really never got IN the game, so I can see how obvious things in a purse would seem magical to her (and normal to me as a child).

And if she was somewhere with a fussy child (and had nothing) and her MIL always had an answer in her purse, it would seem great.




To this day, and starting very, very young, my own kids ALWAYS bring things with them. A book, homework, earbuds/music/audio book, something.

I do not care for a fidgeting, bored kid. We are a busy family. Sometimes there is a wait or delay. Sometimes one thing leads to another. They all have learned to think ahead, bring a sweater, wear the right shoes, bring a water Kanteen and perhaps a snack, and something to do.

I am Christmas shopping, birthday shopping, graduation (2015) gift shopping, BIG TIME, actively working to get it all done, and because I am doing it now, things are in stock, prices are good, and it is, very, very fun.

Back to school, college/dorm stuff is on sale now. A lot of the people on my list are in that age range.

I have a friend who will have one in college next year, I have been taking screen shots of good sale items that (next fall) freshman will need and sending them to her. She is ordering now, while things are on sale. She will be very glad next summer.


I bought a total of three vacuum cleaners. Identical, on clearance/sale. Earlier I bought one for middle for her dorm room. It picks up hair off her rugs. Really well. That is hard to find in a small vacuum. So, I knew it was good (for $ and size). Second one is a high school graduation gift for next spring/summer. The third is for oldest for either his (January) birthday or Christmas. Oldest was borrowing a friend's vacuum until she moved out of state. He does not have another vacuum connection. He will be glad to get it. 

I also bought a solid gray, back support/leany pillow for middle's boy this fall. We were all looking but could not find one that was firm enough. So I bought the firmest one I could find, opened the bottom seam, stuffed a whole bag of stuffing in, resewed the opening. Husband helped, it required multiple hands. Works well for him. I bought a second one, in the black dots below, for a girl graduating from high school next spring.

Middle's boy has his birthday this next week. I thought of something very good for him that they can do as a couple. I had both of them mark a specific day on their calendar. The information is in his birthday card, envelope sealed tightly. He has the card. They are both sort of dying of curiosity. Having the date marked on their calendars and the sealed envelope adds to the fun. I did a (really) good job with this.




Nephew graduated from high school this spring. He is going to auto body school rather than college. He is sharing apartment with three other boys. My brother is condensing his own household in preparation for moving in with his new wife. Translation - nephew does not need good, new stuff. So, I have not been able to think of good gift (his sister got laptop case from us for graduation and all her dorm stuff for her birthday/Christmas). We try not to send $. Nephew leaves in a couple weeks to start school. I (finally) sent 9 card games. My middle and oldest have card games (their own sets, that stay with them). They LOVE having their own. They love to play. Nephew loves cards too. I think this will be very good. Maybe the four roommate boys can play cards and stay out of trouble . . .

Of those shown below - Monopoly is our favorite,
Fluxx is beloved by middle and her boy,
We all love Uno, Phase 10, Skip Bo.
I have heard good things about Pit and Rook.
Dutch Blitz and Ratuki looked good, but I don't actually know.

Oldest and youngest have January birthdays. I birthday shop for them at the same time I Christmas shop.

I thought of an idea for youngest. It is a collection type thing. I have been looking for them and ordering them. This is a good idea too. Very youngest. Very clever.


I have been actively, seriously shopping. Christmas, birthdays and graduation. I will be totally done and wrapped by Thanksgiving. 


I have been doing most of this on line. I pay as little shipping as possible (almost always free, I have had to pay a little for youngest stuff because it is coming from odd places).

There is NO stress. I have been enjoying this hugely. My husband has enjoyed it too.

Control top undies, helps hold excess skin

I had a flier in the mail that Macy's had all kinds of underwear things on sale.

I needed new underwear, couldn't remember the brand/style, decided it was easier to go in and inquire in person.

My underwear comes in packages of two.

Regular price is $36.

In the store, on sale for $14.99.

I need a medium. There was one package of 2 nude and one package of 2 black. I bought both sets.

At that price, I wanted more. So, I ordered two additional 2 packs of black and 2 packs of nude (order placed at sales counter at store).

So I was originally writing this post to say - if you like these too, great sale in process.

When I looked these up on line (to post the pictures/info for you) I discovered the $14.99 price was in the stores only (copy of my receipt is second picture below). On line sale price (first picture below) is $26.99.

So clerk at store, placing order for my additional sets, gave me the store sale price. And waived the shipping fee.

Naot, dress shoes for middle

 Middle has to be in supportive shoes. And she loves shoes, especially unusual ones.

We discovered Naot a while ago.

They are not quite supportive enough for me for every day  (I have to have major metatarsal support on the top in addition to arch support on the bottom), but for middle they are perfect.

This first pair are flats, she got them about a year ago. They are her go to pair of shoes for many things.  She has worn them to church, to events like an outdoor summer wedding, and just running around town. No high heels to sink in grass/lawn. They are extremely comfortable. Perfect amount of support for her. They go with her slightly unusual dresses. In fact, they go with most anything. 

Once upon a time, about sixth grade for both girls, they each got black, strappy heels.  

They wore them each time they got dressed up. 

Those strappy heels were fine for 6 through maybe 8th grade. They started grating on me about 9th grade. As soon as middle graduated from high school, I could not stand to see her in those shoes. Not enough support, not sophisticated enough. Just ridiculous.

Her pair went to Good Will. 

I just went to look for youngest's to take a picture.

No luck.

They might have gone to Good Will too. . .

Yea!


So on the day we were cleaning out middle's closet and the hated black heels were circling the Good Will bag, we went shoe shopping for great dress shoes WITH support. A tough combination.

We went to our shoe store for ideas. They did not have what she finally ended up liking in stock, we had to order. We confirmed the correct size and then ordered through the store. 

She got two pairs -

The shoe store carried other versions by this same company, so she was able to confirm the size. We were 100% sure the shoes would fit and she would like them when we placed our order (I can't remember if there was a restocking fee or a no return policy, but I remember we had to be sure. In fact, we went home and thought about it, compared styles/colors from their on line site, and then went back and ordered the next day.)

When she saw the similar shoes in the store, the first day we were just looking, she thought these were old lady shoes. Mostly because of the heel. However, when she put them on, she thought they were very chic and modern. And they are. Very sophisticated. 

If I had someone getting married, or was attending weddings, and really needed a dress up shoe, our shoe guy and I would be combing through this company's catalog looking for shoes with enough metatarsal support to hold me. I think he could add a slight arch cookie to give me a little extra support with no problem. And if I chose carefully enough, I would only ever need the one pair to get me through many events. 

Middle has worn her two pair several times now and really loves them. 

Skunk recipe

I am copying the whole thing over, so I am putting it in comments.

No, we did not get skunked. I just happened to see this recipe and wanted to save it.

Photo albums, continuing project

You might remember I had lots of DECLUTTERING to do as part of my straightening out my life process.

I cleaned out my quilting/sewing/crafting stuff in several stages. Garage saling, re homing, donating, organizing.

I What Not To Weared myself/my closet. I continue to sort through my closet regularly.

I have sorted out the kitchen, cupboards under the stairs, closet under the stairs, attic regularly.

In one epic summer I cleaned out a very bad garage, with a very effective 10 items a day method. A couple years later we cleaned out the only slightly messy garage, in one fell swoop.

Middle and I cleaned out her closet earlier this summer. It took several days, but is now REALLY organized (it is a HUGE closet).





Oldest is home for two weeks. He expressed an interest in photos. So, I am back in the photo albums again.

You might remember I do not do creative albums. I do the slip the print in the sleeve kind.

You might remember we have a set of house photo albums and a set of albums for each kid (3).

At whatever point I decided to do the kids' albums I started with pictures from that date and went forward.

To give you an idea of the volume/ratio, we have 6 filled house albums. Each kid has 3 albums in their set. So far.

This week oldest went back through the first two house albums and pulled all the (early years) prints that need copies made for the kids' albums. He did not pull every print. Just key prints that all three kids will want.

Half of those prints (one album's worth) went to photography store today.

Other half (second album) is going in the morning.

And I pulled pictures out of the albums I bought at hobby lobby a couple years ago (when I thought my company was out of business) and HATED. I very happily moved the pictures into my beloved albums (when retailer went out of business, manufacturer decided to sell them directly so available again, yea!!!).

I have a very good helper, because oldest is a very logical worker. He and I CRANK. (If I was doing this project with either one of the girls, we would crank too).

Also hunted for pictures of previous generations to put in the kids' albums (grandparents, greats, etc). These pictures were still in stuff from husband's mother's house, boxes, framed pictures, Etc. Having duplicates of those made too.

For albums, do 4 X 6 matte with no border for most prints. A few are 5 X 7. A very tiny number are 8 X 10.

As oldest was choosing prints, he knew to pull things his sisters would like. But I also suggested he think about the future. What pictures would his (future) wife want when they have a new baby and she wants to see who the baby looks like? What pictures would all the various grand kids want? What key pictures might he and his sisters want in frames for future apartments/houses? We have not yet had those copies made. I will actually look for (sale) frames first.





I feel better, always, when I complete a project that needs done.

Doing what needs done is satisfying to me.

I do not feel better if I try to clean the whole house in one day.

But cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, keeping up with the kitchen, sorting a drawer, working on a big project over several days, doing one bigger project with someone helping me over a weekend, does wonders for me.

Baby Swaddling Blankets - we are making them again

Okay, this first one, middle had everything wrapped before I remembered I had not taken pictures.

Luckily I had fabric scraps to show -

This box went to the east coast. Oldest sister of one of youngest's best friends had first baby. A girl.

We put an instruction sheet in with each set of blankets. Not sure if swaddling is common knowledge or a lost art.

This second set was for a baby shower middle and I attended last month.

Yes, these are the same style headbands I posted a while ago.

2 new card games, geriatric cards, our favorite games

Middle came home from college loving Fluxx. She and her boy had played it at (freshman year, bonus baby) friends' house. We ordered this game for middle from Amazon. Fun. (This is a game that has to be played around a table where everyone can see cards. The game rules and goals change as players put down cards. Have to be able to see all those cards. So this is an "around the kitchen table with good light and paying attention" game.)



Oldest played Monopoly Card game at his friends' house and loved it. The card game is in keeping with the spirit of the board game, just much faster, simpler, smaller. Bought one set for home and another set for middle. Oldest has his own. We all seriously love this game.




Other card games we play with regular decks -

If there are four of us, we play Euchre. This is a very popular game in Indiana. It is oldest's favorite.

If there are a lot of us, and an even number, we play Canasta in teams. Usually girls against guys. This is played with many decks dumped together. We have a large bag of cards we use for this game. (Picture below) This is my favorite card game. Only four hands, but it takes a while.

If we are at a restaurant, we often play Golf. The games are short. Each person plays with six cards in front of them. Youngest loves this one too. Inevitably someone forgets, turns over their last card, without meaning to end the game.

If there are 5 of us, we often play Hearts. It is a good restaurant game too. We also think of this as our train station game. We played it at the Washington DC train station (in the cafe section) a couple years ago.

We play Tic, a lot. There are 14 hands so it takes a while. We have been known to save score sheets to finish a game later. We have been known to save score sheets to prove who won an epic game.

We play Gin or Gin Rummy if there are just a couple of us.

We also play Crazy 8's. Does not require a lot of room or brain power.

Middle loves Speed if she can find a partner. Most of us will not play her, she is too fast, even if we restrict her to left hand only.

Youngest's favorite is Kings in the Corner. Need a flat surface (table, floor, bed) to play. She has been playing this since age 3-4.

This is our bag of Canasta Cards. These are all old decks which no longer shuffle easily, or cards which have had water spilled on them and no long lay flat, or decks which are difficult to read. Full decks always including wild cards go in this bag. I am not sure how many decks are included.

Middle calls these the geriatric playing cards. We buy them at Walgreens.

Regular playing card on left. Geriatric card is on right. Much easier to see with bifocals, in bad lighting, from a distance. Three decks of geriatric cards live in my glove compartment. Three more live on the kitchen table. The three decks consist of two blue and one red. So then we can (easily) pull out the red for two decks of blue. Or play with all three decks. Or pull out the red for one deck. Because different games, number of people, require a different number of decks. And we are often playing with a lot of different combinations of people over the course of a week/weekend.

Trying to stay awake in order to fall asleep

Paradoxical Intention***. I thought - I have pretty good power of focus. I am worried I could make myself stay awake for hours. And then I thought - self do not think you are smarter than the questionnaire or the field of study. Self - Do not think you are the exception. Self - Try it."

***Is this where your mind went? Did you say to yourself - please don't anyone go out and buy a truck load of their food drug of choice thinking they will stare it down in the name of paradoxical intention. That would not be the right name, it would be self sabotage or self enabling or denial. I say that with a smile and I know there are those of you, reading, whose minds went the same way. But I have SEEN that type of paradoxical intention in blog land before. In book land and TV show land too. Can you take an alcoholic and have them stare down an alcohol warehouse? It is the same thing to me.

What brought this back to mind is this post, Suffer from Insomnia? Try this Counter-Intuitive Trick, when it popped in my email inbox earlier this week.

Yes, I left Gretchen a note about Viktor Frankl.

Giving Keys

I worked my way through a DVR backlog of ABC World News yesterday, a couple weeks worth.

One of the stories was on The Giving Keys.

Really great gift idea for a wide range of people.

Be sure to read the About Us section. Great story.