Treasure Hunting for The Week

First, I must share a pic of Goose playing outside while I worked in the garden last night. My lawn mower isn't working, so Hubs took it to town yesterday and then brought over his dad's riding mower. He did a great job mowing the lawn (even brought the weed-eater over later) - plus he bagged the clippings and deposited them by the garden so I can use it as mulch. I don't mind mowing too much, but I don't care for stopping to empty the bag. If I put the mulching attachment on, I can just zip through it and the clippings blow out the side. So that was a blessing and it looks great! Here's hoping my mower has an easy fix, though. Oh, that yellow sweater Goose is wearing? It was Hubs's when he was a wee laddie. I smile every time she wears it.

Yesterday while I was in town, I made a quick stop at the dollar store to buy bubbles - Goose hadn't tried them yet and I thought she might enjoy them. I discovered they had some school/art supplies on sale, so I picked them up at $1-$1.50 each. And a few other things. :>) The two little tubs of colored "blocks" are plastic gel or something filled things that you freeze and then put in your drink to keep them cool. I've seen a number bloggers who use them for sorting by color, shape, etc. I think there are two paintboxes, and three to five sets of each of the markers. I should be set for a looong time! (It ended up too windy for bubbles by the time we got to them.)

And then today, I hit our little thrift store. I only had about half an hour of proofreading to do at the newspaper, so I had some time to kill. My MIL doesn't like it if I come back too soon and cut into her time with Goose! :>) I scored a number of great finds for $2.50. Not shown is a woven placemat I got to put on the backseat of the car as a rug of sorts for Goose. I've been letting Goose walk down the deck stairs and into the garage holding my hand. But then she gets the seat dirty climbing in - so this should help. I was thrilled to pick up the box of stationary as my collection is dwindling. I especially love the colors - brown and mustard yellow. I love picking up odds and ends of ribbon - these spools are pink and white.

Of the books, I picked up some random textbooks. They include two Spanish books, one on science, one American history, one speech, and two writing/grammar. The big coup for me was Teaching Montessori in the Home although mine is the 1968 version. :>) I was also excited about the guide to growing vegetables.

I can see Goose and her papa writing each other secret messages after reading Codes & Secret Writing in a few years. I loved Encyclopedia Brown as a kid, and I'm betting Goose will too. (1982 version) We also picked up 100 Pounds of Popcorn (great for entrepreneurship!), and three Scholastic books for when she gets into chapter sort of books.

I also picked up a book for Hubs. It's one I read in middle school that I did NOT like, called A Day No Pigs Would Die. I can't be exactly sure, but I suspect this is at least a large part of the reason that I gradually quit eating meat - it was about that time, wasn't it Mom? Sixth or seventh grade? Parts of it have really stuck with me through the years, and not at all in a good way. I told Hubs once he finishes it, I'm taking it back to the thrift store to re-donate.

Pretty good haul, I think! I'm not sure if they get new (to them) books in very often, or if I just all of a sudden see them after looking over them several times. It's so fun to see what I can find, though.