(I'd like to give the whole money can't buy happiness theory a try for real!)
I finally made it to the YMCA book fair today. I went to it a few years ago, and was dumb enough to go on the first day. On the first day, it opens at 4 pm on a Friday, and people camp out overnight on Thursday waiting for it to open. I'm not kidding about that...I didn't know that the first time I went and showed up on a Friday at 4:05. I parked 10 miles away, and I waited way too long just too get in, and there were so many people it was a madhouse. I never went again. Really, who camps overnight to get into a book fair? Oh, those who are there looking for rare books that they can buy for a few bucks and then sell on Amazon or eBay, that's who.
So on Friday morning, I was watching Today in St. Louis, and they were doing a story about the YMCA bookfair. They were at the rec center where it is being held, interviewing people who had been there all night. Mind you, it was 6 am, and the bookfair didn't even open until 4 pm, remember. And it was HOT. All I could think was no way on God's green earth would I want to be in a crowd of people browsing for books who had been sitting out in the heat for 24 hours. No thank you. I also thought of those same people when around noon on Friday, some major thunderstorms blew through complete with tornado warnings and thunder and lightening. I hope those die hards make a lot of money on eBay for enduring those kinds of conditions just to buy some books.
I'm not a die hard. I just want books to read and I want to pay as little for them as possible. Especially now. I was going to go on Saturday, but then I heard that Tuesday was going to be half price day, so I decided to wait.
I felt so guilty for going. I kept telling myself, no matter how little money it is, I absolutely should not be spending money on books.
I'm so glad I DID go. I could have spent all day there, but I went with only $10 and no debit card or check book so I would control myself.
And I got all of THIS:
For THIS(Imagine a drum roll here if you want to):
$9.25! NINE dollars for 11 hard back books. I think they should last me a month or two. LOL Probably longer than that since all I really have time to read about these days are funeral rituals. But oh boy, when I am finished with that book, it's so nice to know I have a good stash of reading material for my porch sitting times in the cooler months ahead.
Speaking of porch sitting time, I had an idea today. Well, actually, I started formulating the idea over the weekend, and decided today to put it into action. I'm going to write about here so that hopefully someone will make me stick to it.
I have a few blogs that I like to read, and one of them, that I have been reading for about a year, is written by a person who I will never meet, but really inspires me. I have never even responded to one of her posts so she has no idea who I am, but I read her blog at least once a week. She was recently diagnosed with MS, and the day she received her official diagnosis, she wrote a post titled "Thank God I have MS!" She had been having many issues for a while, and she was saying thank God because it had been narrowed down to a brain tumor or MS, so she was thankful to have MS. She has 4 little kids, and I don't blame her there.
That's not why I read her blog, though. I just enjoy it. She is also a really good photographer, and I love looking at her photographs. Why am I telling you this you may be wondering?
Well, one of the things she writes about is one of the things I have always enjoyed the most about reading her blog. One year ago, she and her family moved into a new house, a house that she always admired from afar and told her husband, "someday, we are going to live in that house!" She loves her house so much that she named it. The house needed a lot of work, and she blogs and takes photos of her work along the way. When she moved in, she decided that every week, she was going to write about and take pictures of something she loves about her house. She calls them "Pemberley Appreciation." (Pemberley is her house's name). I love reading those posts. She writes about silly stuff at times, and I'm sure it's been hard for her to come up with 52 things she loves about her house. Off the top of my head, I can think of quite a few things I love about my own house, but 52? No. It would be much easier for me to come up with 52 things I don't love about my house. That would take me only a few minutes in fact.
I was thinking of her today, and how she made a commitment to do something, and kept up with it, even when the only thing she could think of to write about was a door in her house. Or once, the dinner bell that hangs outside the kitchen. Thinking of her made me think of myself and how I am having a hard time coming up with things to enjoy about my day. Today was easy...a bunch of books for under $10...I may be able to ride that good feeling wave for a few days. But other days...not so easy.
Also, thinking about her gave me another idea. I'm not going to name my house, but I thought that maybe each week (or so!) I could write about something I love about my own house. I won't commit to that for a year, though. And hey, it will give me one day a week that I don't have to come up with something else! So starting next week, I'm going to take a photo and write about something I love about my house. Stay tuned for that...
I will close with sharing something else that made me smile today. (No, I'm not going to post another picture of a trash dumpster). Justin, who is a sensitive caring kid who does pretty much whatever he can to make sure no one knows that, thinks I'm the greatest mom in the world. No, he didn't say that, but I am inferring it from what he did say. I made breakfast for dinner. My kids LOVE having breakfast for dinner. Justin told me that it was the best thing I've ever made. :-) I think he exaggerates and was just starving after cross country practice.
What awesome finds!!! I'm just like you getting excited days before something like that.
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