Sanford and Son

For the past year I have been collecting items from people, roadsides, and my own house to have a garage sale. Our garage became half full with things stacked up on one another, crammed packed. AJ would occasionally ask if I really thought I could sell this junk, roll his eyes when I would see something on the side of the road that I could sell for $2.00!!! I would tell him, "People buy these things. It may be junk to us but it might be something someone else is looking for." Even the kids would yell out, "Mommy! STOP! There is something in the garbage we could put in our van for the garage sale!!!" What wise children I am raising. :) Well,as our garage became full, AJ was ready for me to have my garage sale to get all my junk out.

So thus it began, last Thursday I began dragging all my "junk" out from the garage to our carport with the help of my good friend, Julie, and her son, Jonathon. We worked all afternoon into the late night setting up all of our things to prepare for the next morning. Jonathon would say, "There's more in the garage?" sighing at the thought of how much we had. (Thanks Jonathon for all of your hard work and perseverance in helping move everything). Before bed that night, I prayed the Lord would bless me with $300.00 and then fell asleep.

Friday morning:
I open up our gates at 7 am in the freezing weather of 46 degrees with a windchill of 36! 36 degrees! Brrrrrr! What was I thinking?!? People slowly began coming in buying a few things here and there. As the morning progressed, more people came, with some making big purchases. Julie and I stayed busy, but perhaps not as much as AJ who was supervising the kids, getting drinks, fixing lunch, cleaning up juice spills, breaking up arguments here and there, running to the store, answering questions people had about electronics, and so on. We could not have held a garage sale without the help of AJ, who is always willing to help. (Thanks MY Man for your time and sacrifice on your day off!) As Friday came to a close, we had sold a lot but still had a lot left. My neighbor also asked if she could add some items ( which turned out to be quite a lot) for the sale Sat. I gladly said "yes" and so she began bringing her things over.
That night before bed, AJ commented," Do you remember that show 'Sanford and Son'? He was a junk collector. He would always say,' One mans junk, another man's treasure!' Then at once we both began to hum the theme song to the show and began laughing.

Sat. morning:
Once again it was cold. I bundled up again (AJ said I looked like a homeless bag lady because I did not match...but I didn't care...I was warm). People came, Julie and I stayed busy, with help from Jonathan again, writing down what each sold, exchanging money, etc.







At our slow times, Julie and I enjoyed each others fellowship, discussing everything from children, church,, vaccinations, to many other "rabbit chasing" conversations. We are known for doing this. Right Julie?!? ( notice Jonathan in the background, unfortunately this is the only picture we have of him)

At one time, I had the grand idea of "dressing up" and dance to the tune of "Sanford and Son". It took a little convincing of me to get Julie to do this, but after much begging, she agreed and AJ got us on video. I tried to upload it several times but could not figure it out.


During the garage sale, Kaylyn baked some brownies, with the help of her daddy, and sold them to our customers. This was her first experience selling something. It was good for her as she had to look and talk to people she did not know. It took a little coaching from me, and help with the exchange of money, but she did well. I wish we had a picture of her, she looked sweet but nervous. In the end, she made $7.40! I am proud of her "hard" efforts in this.


At the end of the day, after much cleanup, I sat down to count our money to see what we had made. And the verdict was......not yet....you have to wait...I have something I want to confess first, A prayer I did not pray because lack of faith.

You see, faith in God to do something is an area I don't usually struggle with. But this time it was. Remember how I said I prayed to God to make $300.00? Well, I did this, but in my heart I desired $500.00. I did not want to pray for this amount because I was not sure I would have enough items to sell to reach $500.00. So I prayed to God what I thought I could possibly make. $300.00.
At the end of the day, after counting what the Lord had given me, the Lord so graciously reminded me of my lack of faith. I was convicted and repented to God. He also showed me, in my weakness, He was going to bless me. Because I deserve it? No way! Because of my hard work? No. Because GOD IS MERCIFUL and full of compassion. In spite of my lack of faith, He wanted to show me HE still loves me and wanted to bless me because HE IS GOOD! It had nothing to do with me, it was all GOD.

So the final amount I made was...drum roll please...$664.00. But wait! God was not done blessing me! After counting up the money, we were $31.00 over. So I split the money between Julie and I. Which brought my total to $679.50. Again, wait, God was not finished there! The next morning, I was about to leave for church when I saw my neighbor. Remember she had put some items in the garage sale? Well, I went to grab her money and hand it to her and she told me to keep it. After some arguing back and forth, I accepted it, realizing the Lord was blessing me again.
And so, the final total of my garage sale is: $732.50.

With this total, we plan to put it in a special savings account to begin saving towards moving to the country, a vision we have for our family.

Remember when I said AJ did not think my "junk" would sell? Well, he has now created me a place in the garage to place other peoples "treasure" until I can have anther garage sale.

Well, this is the end of my garage sale adventure, I pray you learn from my experience to have faith in God in ALL experiences as I have.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOREVER AND EVER AMEN!!!