I read Meredith's post this morning before Dan left for work and I left to pickup our vegetables and found it very convicting. Maybe I have been having no "luck" at garage sales recently because I'm seeking to satisfy wrong desires in spite of my husband and in spite of our budget instead of seeking to honor him.

For a change, I asked Dan what he would like me to buy.

"A bike helmet for John and 6 chairs."

On the way to the boxed share, there was a garage sale where I got 29 books, mostly Caldecott Honor books or books I remembered from childhood, for $5. Dan didn't specifically mention them, but I knew he would like them.

On the way home, I drove past our house - just one more street! But then Click and Clack were discussing a problem in a car one model year later than ours but that our car has been having, too, so I continued on another few blocks, hoping to see some more garage sales. One sign was a bust (last weekend, maybe?), another was a bunch of teenagers, and the third appeared not to have much stuff.

I got out at tht third anyways and there was a Kettler tricycle for $4. Not bad! But no bike helmets. I noticed an ice cream maker very similar to a trash-picked one Dan and I are storing but which doesn't work. $2? Great. A little boy who was missing two front teeth was selling lemonade, so I asked his mom about helmets. She hadn't been planning on selling any, but maybe she had some. Sure enough, she brought out two! I put one on John and thought it fit OK, but the father came up and adjusted it until it fit perfectly. Price? $4.

I couldn't have used more than 1 gallon of gas, so my total cost for the day was $18, at least $7 less than a Wal-Mart helmet which has been on the memory-list for about a year - since the time I bought a child trailor for a bike for $10 at a garage sale.

One deciding factor for buying the tricycle is that our new landlady has three sons, 4, 6, and 8 and has decided to fence in our yard (the Home Depot guy came on Thursday). With the .6 acres, it'll be like living in a park.

Now to cook some freezer beef so that I can make sorbet!