Yard Sale

20 Sept 2014: My homemade bake sale signs.

About a week ago, Jacob and I were discussing how we could come up with enough money to actually eat inside the park when we go to Disneyland in a couple of weeks. Although I've found ways to cut corners and we are all pitching in to make this trip happen, the whole bunch of us are on very tight budgets these days. 

Jacob suggested that we have a yard sale on Saturday, since he didn't have to work that day, to raise a little extra money. I thought that was a great idea, but I warned him that he'd have to do most of the work. We only had 3 days to prepare, and my days are long and hectic now that I'm teaching an extra English class on my prep hour. By the time I get home, I'm sapped.

Around 6:00 a.m., Danielle finishes coloring in the last sign.

After he got home that night, Jacob called me three more times, first to propose the idea of having a bake sale along with the yard sale, and then to excitedly share his plans for various goodies.

He was as good as his word. Even though he and Danielle both worked over the next few days, they toiled hard to prepare a whole slew of sweet offerings to tempt our yard sale shoppers. Danielle, in particular, took on most of the huge job of baking while Jacob was at work. She also spent hours going through boxes of her old things to choose items they could contribute to the sale. Meanwhile, Jacob cleaned up the yard, borrowed long tables, and repaired the old signs my dad made for me when Mark and I first began holding yard sales, probably close to 20 years ago. 

Jacob and Dylan make repairs. These old signs have been rained on, blown over,

dropped, buried, and probably even run over a time or two!

Because we've had regular yard sales for so many years now, I don't have too many more things to put out for sale. I wasn't sure how successful we'd be. We started the sale at 7:30 that morning, and not a soul showed up for half an hour. I was beginning to worry.

Then promptly at 8:00, our neighbor Eugene came by and bought a loaf of banana bread. Our first sale! Before he left, another car stopped. By 10:00 we had made our first $60.

The bake sale table, which Jacob kept filled as items were purchased.

We discovered that most of the hard-core, early-rising yard sale shoppers weren't interested in the food. We didn't sell too many goodies until after 10:00. After that, many shoppers headed straight to the baked goods first. 

By the time we packed it in at 1:00, we'd earned $131.25. Not too shabby for 5 hours' work. Jacob made another $26 selling the remaining baked goods to his co-workers, bringing the total haul to $157.25. Plus several of his co-workers have requested more goodies, to be delivered next payday!

Jacob and Danielle await our first visitors.

We even experienced a little miracle that day. After almost a week of heavy, pouring rains from Hurricane Odile south of us, in Baja California, we had been nervously watching the weather reports. That morning the forecast called for a 50% chance of more thundershowers. I had whispered a prayer that the skies over our house would stay clear until at least 1:00 so we'd have a chance to earn the money we needed.

Around 11:00 we noticed dark clouds in the distance, rolling our way. By 11:30 there were rolls of thunder and we were feeling an occasional tiny drop of moisture, but we plugged on, hoping for the best. Around noon I looked at Jacob and said, "Oh no, here it comes." Living in the pines as we do, the sound of rain on the trees can be heard long before it reaches you.

Danielle's table was a child's delight!

The sound of raindrops moved closer and closer, and finally it was drumming heavily on the metal roof of our next-door neighbor's carport, less than 20 feet away from where we had our tables set up. And there it stopped. Jacob and I were stunned (Danielle had gone to work by this time). For more than 30 minutes the rain held off, splattering on the neighbor's driveway and missing us!

At 1:00 we decided we'd better pack up our stuff. We were just carrying the last of the boxes to the shed when, at 1:15, the rain began to pour down on our heads. We were grateful for this amazing blessing in answer to a quiet prayer!