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Day 24 – Odds and Ends (Throw)
I found a round tin with a Norman Rockwell print on the lid and inside was a shrine of sorts to my childhood and teen years. I couldn’t bring myself to part with a toy car, a “God’s Nightcrawler” patch, a Cincinnati Reds ring (which my Dad bought for me at a Reds game back when Pete Rose played for them – I remember sitting through a game where some drunk guy a few rows up from us continually yelled, “Pete Rose is a hamburger!” … I never figured out if that was supposed to be an insult or compliment.),…
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Day 23 – Two Space Heaters (Throw)
I threw away two space heaters. Our basement is always cold in the winter time. Melissa likes it warm, so we had three little space heaters which we scattered around the downstairs rooms and then stored during the warmer months alongside the Christmas decorations. At the end of last winter, only one of the heaters was still working. None of them oscillate anymore. One just kept shutting itself off. The other one would overheat and smell like burning dust. The Princess (age 3) got a small burn on her leg from that particular heater last winter. So why store the two broken heaters? …
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Day 22 – Chuckleberries! (Give)
I have found a box full of items which might be much tougher to part with than the average book has been. These are souvenirs with real significance. I know we, as a family, will be able to store a few things long term while we’re in Haiti (and anywhere else God directs), but it will need to be stuff that fits in a few small boxes. Some of these items might get that privilege. But I did find one or two things here that would be easy to part with. I took a plastic cup labeled “chuckleberries” to Kate and…
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Day 21 – Water Table (Give, and if not, Throw)
Years ago Melissa brought home a large plastic outdoor water table. I believe we were living in Indianapolis at the time. Caleb and Hannah played with it a bit when they were toddlers, but it was hard to keep the thing dirt and mosquito free. Ever since we moved into our current house, the thing has been lying on its side against the garage. It irritated me no end because dead leaves and … muck … would collect behind it. So now it is out on the curb in hopes someone will take an interest in it and adopt it. …
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Day 20 – Ancient Stereo System and Speakers (Throw) and Black Friday Fun
It’s Black Friday and, for the first time ever, I participated in the madness. My wife and I have agreed not to buy anything for each other for Christmas beyond a few stocking stuffers since we are trying to reduce the amount of things in the house AND save money. But we had been considering how useful a laptop computer could be for work now and for travel once we head overseas. There’s no way we’ll be lugging a desk top computer to Haiti. So Walmart had special prices for a couple of laptops within fairly easy reach; one was…
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Day 19 – Bowl and Vase (Give)
We spent our Thanksgiving Day with Melissa’s family. At the last minute before leaving our house, I was looking for something to take along with us to give to some unsuspecting family member. I pulled a bowl out of our kitchen and a matching vase out of a cupboard and asked for my wife’s approval. She said, “Dee gave us those for our anniversary one year, you know….” She paused, looked at my face and then continued, “I know: we can’t keep everything.” Dee was the secretary at the last church I served as youth pastor. I may be wrong,…
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Day 18 – Nerf Gun (Throw)
Dats (age 9) brought a nerf gun (from his nerf gun collection) to me because it was jammed. It’s one of those guns that spans about two feet in length and fires multiple darts from a cartridge. I worked on that sucker for at least 45 minutes. I removed about ten tiny screws but still got nowhere near the problem – the part that was jammed was stuck in place over a key screw. It’s hard for a dad to admit when he can’t fix something! But in defeat, there was this consolation: one more thing out of my house. After wasting so…
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Day 17 – Crossword Puzzles, Books and Underwear (Give)
No, not mine. I still need mine, but the Princess recently outgrew her first set of underwear. Fortunately, we have several friends with young kids of various sizes and ages and we tend to pass clothes around – until they get worn out. It’s good to see clothing get a second life – especially when I remember some of the kids in Haiti who were lacking clothes or wearing outfits that were way too snug. We got the chance to watch Steve and Keri’s kids for a while this evening while they had a couple of things to do. Believe me,…
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Day 16 – Plaque from LeMars, Iowa (Throw, possibly Give)
As an English teacher, I have an interest in teaching my students proper spelling, punctuation and grammar. It’s certainly not ALL there is to English class and I’m not the type to run my classes through worksheet after worksheet on grammar or to devote an entire unit to sentence fragments. I’d rather keep that stuff bite-sized (because a little goes a long way!), so this year I decided to do just that through the “Daily Fail.” I post a new picture each day of some sort of grammar, spelling or punctuation mistake that I’ve found on the internet (or the local…
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Day 15 – Outdoor Table (Give)
Over a year ago some neighbors got some new patio furniture and they gave us their old table and chairs. The set included two benches that we figured might be useful up by the pool. The table itself sat in front of the door to the garage and became a collecting place for assorted tools and pool supplies that I was too lazy to take a few steps further to put away properly. Tonight I put the table, chairs and benches out by the curb. Hopefully someone will come along and take a liking to it and cart it off. I’ll give…