Yard Sale Adventures

Creativity Meets Everyday Life

I love it when I find an opportunity for my creative side to blend with everyday life, including family relationships. So often, as a mom of teen boys, my creative pursuits are something I have to do solo. They aren't into sewing. They aren't into creating scrapbooks, although they do like looking at them. They don't fully appreciate the benefit of a great chick flick. So it makes it a little more difficult to find ways to bond and spend time with them. But we do have one thing we both enjoy. 

We love to go to thrift sales and garage sales. They look for movies and books and I look for trash to treasure decorating ideas, craft supplies, and home decor. It's the perfect blend for spending time! You can probably imagine how excited we all were when I blocked out a weekend on the calendar to head over to the Twin Cities for the Woodbury, MN annual city wide garage sales. We spent Friday and Saturday putting on the miles as we explored the city with a map and a list of sales. 

We stayed at a budget hotel on Friday night and as we were loading up to get started on sales Saturday morning, we found another opportunity to bond. I noticed that the air compressor in the back of the van kept running, indicating air was leaking somewhere from the air shocks. It wasn't a serious safety issue, but I didn't want to burn out the compressor as we drove around all day. 

One benefit of having teen boys is that I have traveling mechanics. With my hubby on the other end of my cell phone talking to one son under the car attempting to fix the leak with a wad of gum and a band-aid, we had plenty to laugh about. But I'll admit there was a lot of tension in the process, mostly on my part. I'm not so great with mechanical delays. Still, in the end, we laughed and we were on our way.

We brought home some bargains, and a lot of free stuff my scavengers couldn't pass up, including a roll-away cot missing some important middle leg extensions. If their friends who stay over have swaybacks, it isn't my fault. I found some projects that satisfied my creative side. But most importantly, I enjoyed the time with my boys. Dad might take them to the Boundary Waters to bond, but I take them to the city.

What ways have you found to spend time with your family? I'd love for you to share your experience in the comments below.