The Five Minute Goodwill Run

I seem to be running on fumes lately.  I go and go and go until I just can't go anymore.  To put it mildly...I am tired!  This to shall pass.  My Mom is doing so much better.  She got the good news a few weeks ago that her back had healed and now we find that her neck is healed as well.  She is out of her giant turtle shell back brace and is being weaned out of her neck brace the next few weeks.  It is so nice to see her without all that equipment on her.  She is still working on strength and getting her right arm and hand to work again.  She can do a lot now that she couldn't do before.  But, she still has things to improve.  But, my gosh, she works SO hard in therapy.  She never says no or complains - she just does it.  She wants to go  home so badly.  But, not until she can do certain things for herself like grooming and hygiene.  I can't believe all the things that she has been through and acclimated to being in rehab - like having a stranger shower you.  But, she does it because what other choice does she have, right?  The hardest part mentally has been having different roommates.  She got a new one tonight and she is a DOOZIE.  She is on oxygen and there for her COPD and guess what her very first question was?????  "Where's the smoking area?"  When they announced that it was smoke-free campus (as is our entire city) she CALLED A CAB TO TAKE HER HOME.  My Mom was happy that she was leaving since all she did was talk about smoking, cigarettes, not smoking and lack of cigarettes.  But, then her son went and bought her an electric cigarette and that seemed to pacify her, so she decided to stay.  She still needs to learn roommate manners such as deciding what to watch on TV TOGETHER and to NOT jerk the partition curtain back any old time she feels like it.   Anyway, I digress as usual.  The point is that my Mom is doing better!  I will be glad to get her home and out of there.

In between all my chores and responsibilities at home and the time I spend with my Mom, I sometimes still have about five minutes to pop into Goodwill on my here and there.  Here are this weeks five minute picks.

Two beat up old Disney Readers for the booth.  I sell a lot of old kids books.

A funny vintage BBQ tray.  I'm working on a BBQ/picnic display for the booth this summer.

A bunch of old shoe stretchers.  I saw something somewhere made out of these and told myself to find some.  So, now that I have found some, I cannot remember for the life of me why on earth I wanted them!  Any ideas?????

A neat stork with a baby honeycomb decoration.  It's from 1989, which is not vintage in my book.  But, it;s a Dennison and cute, so I picked it up.

Another old book with great graphics.  This one has crayon marks on a lot of the pages, so I will either sell it cheap or cut it up as ephemera.

A wooden Fisher Price Queen Bee pull toy.  A lady was standing about a foot away from it when I reached it to pick it up.  She let out an audible sigh when she saw it in my hand.  But, she had already worked her way down the aisle past it and didn't see it, so it was fair game.  It's really quite cute.

Lastly a small handmade felt ballerina doll.  Se sits in the palm of my hand.  She's really funny to me.  I love old handmade things.  

Today I had five minutes to pop into the Super Cheap Thrift and find a few things.  But, that is a post for another day.

*I'm sorry for my crummy photos. I'm never home much during the day to take nice bright outdoorsy photos.  Someday soon though!