Memphis Area Consignment Sales

This year, I'm gonna try to find clothes for my children at consignment sales in Memphis. You can get great, gently used clothing for good prices. These sales have lots of name brand clothes and beautiful smocked dresses. Since I did the research to find the sales myself, I thought I'd share the info about dates, locations and websites for 2011 Spring/Summer sales. Remember that if you volunteer at the sales, you generally get more money for the clothes you sell and you get first pick of the great stuff. Also, if you want to volunteer or sell clothes, you must sign up ahead of time, so check dates for dropping off clothes and volunteer meetings on the website of the sale you're interested in.

February 10-12, 2011

KidsTown Kids Consignment

Memphis, TN

http://www.consignkidstown.com/

February 17-19, 2011

Kiddie Land Consignment

Cordova, TN

http://www.kiddielandconsignment.com/

March 3-6, 2011

Children's Clothing Exchange

Memphis, TN

http://glossonchildrensconsignment.com/

March 4-5, 2011

Sycamore View Children's Clothing Sale

Memphis, TN

http://www.svccs.com/CurrSale.htm

March 4-5, 2011

Germantown United Methodist Consignment

Germantown, TN

http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/site/page/238/1/156

March 10-12, 2011

Oh Baby! Consignment Event

Southaven, MS

http://www.ohbabysale.com/

March 25-26, 2011

Everything for Kids Sale

Memphis, TN

http://www.everythingforkidssale.com/

April 1-2, 2011

Faith Baptist Consignment

Memphis, TN

http://www.faithclothingsale.com/curriculum.html

April 1-2, 2011

Highland Clothing Sale

Cordova, TN

http://highlandclothingsale.com/

April 4-9, 2011

Emmanuel Children's Clothing Sale

Memphis, TN

http://www.emmanuelclothingsale.org/dates.html

April 9-11, 2011

Mommy's Secret Consignment

Southaven, MS

http://www.mommyssecret.com/

Adjustment

As frustrated (and even depressed) as I sometimes get with this adjustment to staying home, I am beginning to find things that I really enjoy about it. There are times when I feel like there is something wrong with me because I haven't been enjoying being a stay-at-home mom. But perhaps I was just looking in the wrong places. With this opportunity I have been given, I really want to find ways to bless others and be productive. I was watching an episode of Extreme Home Makeover recently and one of the guys on there was talking about how (in the middle of his misfortune) he never felt sorry for himself and even kept a list of things he and his family wanted to do for other people. When asked about it, he basically said that life is not about helping ourselves (with entertainment, money, status, power, etc.), it is about helping other people. That keeps coming back to me and I have started to consider how much time I put into just surviving and entertaining myself. I want to find ways to spend my time investing in things that are more important (and eternal)! That doesn't mean that I have to neglect myself and I certainly can't spend so much time doing things for others that I don't have time for my family. But I think that I can start with some small things, like bringing a meal to someone who needs it. When I get to the point where I don't have a baby attached to my breast 24/7, I'd like to find some volunteering opportunities. It would also be good to find ways to just build relationships with other people. I'm happiest when I am in a community of people and just hanging out with others. Mike and the kids and I have had some great times as we have been having friends over more often and developing better relationships with them. I love it!

One of the things I am learning to do is SPEND LESS MONEY! Boy, is that hard! Since my job paid for almost all of the extra things in our life (like entertainment, parties, eating out, etc.), I am learning what a dollar is really worth. At first, I kicked against the idea of limitations and restrictions, but I'm finding that limitations really help your creativity! I have had fun finding ways to save money at the grocery store, finding free or cheap fun things to do, cooking and baking, and learning to budget (for real this time).

I'm also getting to spend more time with my wonderful children. I have been working with David on his colors, counting, shapes, etc. I get to just sit and look at Keeley for a while. She's starting to make sounds I think I'll be able to report her first smile soon! Since my day is filled with children, staying at home all day hasn't afforded me much more time to spend with Mike, but I'm hoping that as Keeley gets more independent, I'll get things done during the day so I can spend more time in the evenings with Mike. Right now, I can't wait for him to get home so he can help out with one kid while I get something done. I have to tell myself that this is just a phase so I don't get too discouraged with my inability to get things done the way that I'm used to getting them done.

Some of the things I'm considering doing as I adjust:
Make a folder of pictures of the way I want to decorate my house
Work more on writing my book about common sense business
Build a website for a business I'm considering starting
Build a blog/website with info about events and things to do around Memphis
Be more creative with cooking and baking
Take photos with the awesome camera Mike got me for Christmas
Do more crafty/artsy projects
Study real estate (maybe go to school to study real estate)
Read more
Plant and maintain a vegetable garden and do some landscaping

This week, I want to:
Find a good book to start
Write more on my book
Take some photos of Keeley and David and edit them
Take some photos at playgroup on Friday
Make a menu and some yummy meals
Find some photos on istockphoto.com for building a website
Put more music on my iPhone

Okay, before I go, I have to tell you what my David did yesterday. Hannah (my sister) asked him how much he loved her and he said "This much!" as he held his arms out. Then, when my sister, Berakkah, asked how much David loved her, he said... "A little less." The funniest part is that Berakkah is his favorite person in the world and he seemed to just be messing with her. When Mike asked him about it that evening, David said "kiddin!" Hilarious! David is so much fun!

Rally Day

I remember walking through the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, TN with my dad, when I was younger, trying to keep up with his long strides as we visited our representatives on Rally Day. My dad tells the story of us visiting one representative to explain how excellent home education was. My dad told the representative that he was teaching me (nine years old at the time) some New Testament Greek. I sang the Greek alphabet for the Rep. and then he said, "Well, I know some Greek myself. Can you tell me what 'anthropos' means?" I immediately blurted out, "man," leaving the representative a bit dumbfounded (or so my dad says). =)

This year, my dad, who is Greg Stablein (Coordinator for Gateway Christian Schools- Total Home-Education Department), went to Rally Day, along with my sister, Berakkah, my son, David, and me. Here is a photo of my dad holding my son (David calls him "Boom").

Even before home education was legal in Tennessee, brave home educators have been visiting the state capitol to lobby for their right to home educate (since 1985). It's been a while since I went to Rally Day and yesterday was my first time back in years. I must say that it's quite a bit more organized than I remember. The excellent folks at THEA (especially Lana and Claiborne Thornton) do a great job of showcasing the accomplishments of home educators in the War Memorial Building's auditorium, encouraging current home educators with speakers, providing lunch and opportunities to visit with representatives and senators, and much more. This year, we didn't get the chance to walk through the Legislative Plaza to visit our representatives to tell them of our appreciation for their hard work and ask them to continue to support home education as a fundamental right, but it was great to see home educators from across the state come together to rally for the right of parents to raise their children in the way that the Lord has convicted them.

listen & learn

So one of my friends told me that they really enjoyed reading my blog on myspace and so I went back and read old posts and it wasn't half bad. I remember that I really used to enjoy writing, but I always thought my writing was silly and not very good. I have given up a lot of things that I used to love. I think I still love them, I just don't make time for them anymore. Mostly, I love David, and he takes a lot of my time.

So if I start writing again, it might take a while for things to be interesting, but I'm sure I can come up with one or two interesting things to write... eventually.

I feel like getting older makes you deeper. I don't mean to go on about how deep I've become, but I do feel like it's harder to communicate deeper stuff that you learn as you get more experience and life. I remember my mom telling me all the stuff that I'm learning now and I just didn't understand it then. I guess there are some things that only life can teach you. Life is wonderful and hard.

Here are some things that have made me deeper:

I had a baby
I had a miscarriage
I started seriously considering adoption
I chose a church that I like (instead of someone else choosing it for me)
I run a lot of things at my work
I own a house
I know how to pay bills
I make a budget and am learning to stick to it
I'm getting out of debt
I look at real estate for fun
I think about what's good business
I've seen people for who they really are
I am learning to lead silently

Someone at work mentioned that I had my hands full right now and I was thinking that even though I don't talk to this person a lot, they recognized that my personal life was kinda crazy right now and it made me really appreciate their thoughtfulness. I don't know about everyone else, but I feel like I go through life thinking about my life instead of the lives of those around me. I want to see what other people are dealing with and let them know that I care. The more I experience, the more I think about things that other people deal with. I think about what a big deal it must be to have cancer... even if it goes away. I think about what it must be like to lose your mom or what it's like to be afraid of losing your mom. I think about what it must be like to live next door to people like us... with noisy dogs. =) How do I encourage the people that are living these things? Life is tough and we need to encourage each other to get through it right.

Wishing I were happier,
JT


www.gatewaychristianschools.com

My Little Cabbage Patch

He's such a doll in this photo, I just wanted to post it for the world to see! This was taken on Thanksgiving day. We had a great day! We ate and took photos and went to see a movie and ate pie! We considered going to Florida for Thanksgiving, but decided that the drive was too long and we need to save our money for Christmas right now. We need to head that way to see Mike's family before long though. I wish it didn't cost so much to fly. Life is good! Looking forward to the Christmas and New Years now!

Check out more photos of Thanksgiving day here.

So I've been staying busy... a little too busy, I think. At work, I've been building a website. I think it's pretty much ready to publish. Yay! It's been a little stressful because I like doing things right the first time and it's somewhat frustrating to have to mess around until I figure out how to do things. This is my first time building a website and I had to learn to use Dreamweaver (which is a great and easy-to-use program, by the way). I got mastitis this past week and it was nasty, but short-lived. Somehow, I must learn to slow down a bit. I get stressed out about trying to get my work done (with my son at work with me), spending quality time with my son, keep my house clean, spend time with my husband, spend time with my family, do swing dance stuff, church stuff, etc., etc. I enjoy these things, it's just that I don't feel like I'm doing them all adequately and that's what stresses me out. On top of that, I'd like to make more friends and spend time with the friends I have and also spend some time on the things I enjoy doing- like painting and playing music and writing songs. But by the time I get finished with all the things in the day, I'm usually too worn out to do these things. Oh well, one day it'll all slow down and I'll have more time! =)

David is cuter than I could have imagined he would ever get and he seems to get cuter every day. (Is that possible?) =) I'm posting a couple of photos here. David is a handful, but he makes my life wonderful! He is worth everything and more.

JT

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