It's the most wonderful time of the year

Last week was the annual St. Mary Altar Society Rummage Sale, a week-long extravaganza and collective parish event. You know, since I'm a minimalist and all, and since I've been a minimalist for like two years now (Eric swears we were minimalists before we were minimalists, and I think there's a lot of truth to that, but still), you'd think that I wouldn't have that much to get rid of at this point. And yet, I really did.

Actually, we all did. It's like a holiday of sorts in our house, where everyone (except Johanna) happily goes through their stuff and fills up bags to drop off at the church. It's kind of like Christmas in reverse, in that it takes months to prepare for and several trips to get it all done.

I don't know, I think I made like six or seven jaunts to the parish hall by the time it was all said and done. The church secretary was laughing at me when I brought in "just a few more things" as the altar society ladies were setting up, asking if my house was empty at this point.

Sadly, no. But man, what a difference! Our utility room was filled to capacity pre-rummage sale, and now it's echoingly empty. (P.S. Spell check hates "echoingly," but I think it has a nice ring to it, plus! I think I just made up a word!) My reading retreat was also filled to capacity... but it's still not empty. That's because there's a different kind of mess going on in there. But that's another post for another time.

I had thought I'd be able to help this year, but then my work schedule changed right in the nick of time, so whew! Dodged that bullet! (Joke. Um, kinda.) But Abby helped all week (she's already thinking about volunteer hours translating into scholarships), and when I came to pick her up her first day, she was wearing a pair of really funky pants, as follows:

Ugly pants with aforementioned ugly
Christmas sweater from Friday's post.

Ah, how proud she was of this find! She mulled over the thought of leaving them behind, but in the end decided they were too awesome to pass up for $1. She's actually going to use them for a chemistry class cover up next fall (she's taking two science classes, chem and biology. Is this really my kid?), and the thought just thrills her to no end.

Anyway, obviously volunteering really paid off.

As for me, I found three shirts that I was very excited about: A really awesome grayish-brown sweater (I know, sounds odd, totally worked), a light blue J. Crew long-sleeve t-shirt, and something that looks like it would be home on the ball field (gray body, black sleeves). Unfortunately, the sweater made me look like I had bat wings because the cut was weird (too bad, it looked awesome with my black pants), and the ball shirt was way too small (damn! I've always wanted one of those!), but the long-sleeve T-shirt fit nicely and, since it's in great condition, I'm considering that $1 well spent:

Nose shot. Also, see how grey my hair is?

So that's it for this year's rummage sale extravaganza. It feels good to be even lighter on the material front. I'm kind of hoping that I won't have quite so much to donate next year, just because that will mean we're finally getting somewhere, but I guess the good news is that if we do, at least we have an outlet.