it comes in threes

so we made 136 big smackers @ the yard sale yesterday. 'sat out there wheelin and dealin, whilst freezing my toes off. coldest day of the month so far~ so strange, for tennessee. and yet i managed to pull off a sunburn? bella guilted more people out of 50 cents for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, than was probably acceptable. i see CEO in her future. after asking her to sort thru her toys the other day, she'd come up with 4, count 'em, 4 items to put in the sale. she'd sworn that everything else in her room was sacred and that she couldn't live without them. i let her price the items, with her biggest seller a $2 tea-set.

my favorite moment was when a family with 4 kids pulled up. i'm not sitting on this side of easy street myself, but there was just a feeling i had, that things were hard for them. they quietly looked around and the 3 boys climbed back in the car with dad, while a little imp trailed behind her mother. she headed straight for bella's princess tea set and scooped it up in her arms. her mom shook her head and she gently set it back down and then walked back to the car.

bella had been watching the whole scene and whispered in my ear, "mama, can i give them some cookies?" i told her she'd need to ask permission, so she skipped up to the mother, who hesitated, then nodded. and bella cheerfully distributed cookies to the excited kids in the car. as the mom neared closer to our table, sifting thru clothes, i asked if her little girl had liked the tea set. she shook her head, visibly uncomfortable. "oh noooo. no. its fine. no."

i asked, "are ya sure? cuz she can have it, if you like." she looked almost incredulous and blurted out, "for free? you're giving it to her?".

bella jumped in and said, "yah. i know she'll love it cuz i've got lotsa years outta that puppy."

with my unladylike snort and, lets face it, with that kind of logic literally draped across her feet, the woman almost smiled and rushed to her car. her daughter jumped over the seat and scrambled for the tea set, hugging it to her chest, and ran up to bella to say thank you. she proudly carried it back to the car against the loud exclamations of her brothers, insisting she had to buy it. and with a defiant, "i don't hafta!" she giggled and settled in the front seat as they drove off.

that made me unbelievably happy.

i don't know yet, what my decision will be with school. registration is this monday. but i feel surprisingly "ok" right now. i've had a plethora of *tiny instances* in the past 2 days. i'm thinking. and praying.

yours are appreciated too. this helped a nice bit this morning. as did this ~ seeing the 3rd way where you can ....makes me feel not so quite alone. here's hoping you all have a wonderful weekend, filled with all your favorite things. this will be my last work weekend for the summer, at least. i plan on enjoying it.