From Garage Sales to Patio Tables

Afternoon, all. I thought it was time to take a slight break from the usual recipe-and-meal-planning cycle here and catch you up on just a couple of the highlights of these past couple crazy weeks, plus talk a bit about why we’ve gone a little too long without a new recipe lately. Is your summer starting out as nuts as mine? No? Just me?

So first off… Yes, the kids managed to shatter my glass patio table last week. You have never seen such expressions of ooohhhh what did we dooooo…

Luckily, the table was safety glass, but a lot of safety glass shattered directly into a gravel patio does not make for a fun family afternoon. Here’s more about that — as well as the cute little ALDI patio table I picked up on clearance this week. (Or, as I have dubbed it: My new SerendipiTable!)

Then, I decided last minute that participating in our neighborhood garage sale this coming weekend would be just the kick I needed to start clearing some of the stuff out of this house. This is a slow, slow process, and the above is just one pile among many. After 18 years in the same house, we’ve somehow managed to accumulate way too much junk. Seriously, I don’t even know where some of this came from, or how long some of it has been sitting forgotten in the back of a closet or shoved up onto a shelf. 

One person’s junk, though, is of course another person’s treasure, so I’m hoping that some of it finds a new & happy home. Anyone have good garage sale tips for me? I’m planning to pull more stuff out of the house tomorrow afternoon, then will spend another chunk of time on Thursday pricing and sorting before Friday’s sale.

So then as I was cleaning things out, I decided to organize as I went — which of course has eaten up more huge chunks of time this week. I have but one question, though: How did I end up with all these beans?

But at least the beans are now nicely organized in order of expiration date and are sure to get used. Maybe in vegetarian white bean wraps, or maybe in garlic shrimp with roasted cauliflower, or maybe in a black bean, tomato, & spinach frittata. Can you tell I’m kind of itching to get back to recipes here?!

The past couple weeks have also included an inordinate amount of driving between various doctors, orthodontists, and kids’ activities, plus way too many home repairs and so much more. But after this weekend’s garage sale, things should hopefully settle back down and we will get back to what passes for normal around here.

So: How’s your summer starting to settle out? 🙂