this woman’s work

I headed out to the thrift store today because I’m keeping an eye out for winter clothes for Madison. She seems to be growing every time I look away for a minute.

Because I love to do this, today’s scores — mind you I’m picky about used shoes so the ones I bought all have soles that look unworn:

3 t-shirts for Brett to go running in, two winter hats like the cool guys wear for Noah, one Madame Alexander from McDonald’s African American doll for Madison, another amber glass to add to my green & amber glasses, Star of David candle holder because my god, it’s hard to find Hanukkah decorations at thrift stores! (SRP — who knows)

Blue Airwalk clogs (like crocs) for me to wear around the house as this year’s slippers (SRP $15)

These Merrel slides (sadly not the hot pink or the purple) for Madison (SRP $50)

Eastland slides for me (SRP $50)

Men’s Nike long-sleeve running top (SRP $35)

Women’s Nike tanktop (SRP $25)

Chico’s hoodie (for when I’m having a Chico’s kind of day) (SRP $75, which is ridiculous)

Dr. Grind Skateboard Backpack for Noah (SRP $25)

This cookie jar (SRP $30 apparently but mine has no chips!)

Total: $29.07

SRP Guesstimate: $305 not counting miscellaneous items but I’m willing to knock it down to $250 in my little game because that Chico’s price — that’s nuts.

The last Wednesday of the month is 50% all clothes/linens at Ohio Thrift. Pure craziness ensues. We have to get there earlier to get a cart (we still may need to wait around for a cart) but I’m hoping to rake it in for either this fall’s clothes (shirts for Madison, shirts and pants for Noah) or next summer’s clothes. But mostly I’m going because a friend wants to since our needs aren’t urgent.

Anyway, if you’re in Columbus — last Wednesday of the month. Wear your comfortable shoes and get ready to haul in the goods!

The other day I came home from the thrift store with a child-sized glider — the kind they sell at baby stores — for Noah. We have a large-size one with which we could not have survived Madison’s first months and this little one was well-made and cute so heck, I bought it. The price was right anyway. (This is similar but ours cost $19.19 and has uglier cushions.)

We got it home and Noah was very pleased. He sat himself right down with a book and then Madison came behind him and pulled the chair so he almost tipped over and much yelling ensued but still, it was a good buy.

Now our glider — the adult-sized glider — bites. It’s just awful. We bought the floor model, which was marked down, but it was also fairly inexpensive to begin with. Take a cheap chair, let people use it as a floor model for a year and then bring it home. What happens? Insane squeaking and the seat breaks out. We’ve been using it anyway because heck, it cost us fifty bucks and it’s the only one we had and Madison would rather rock to sleep than not. But my back was killing me since with the bottom breaking out, your tush hangs there a little lower than intended and that’s a strain on a person’s back.

Noah spent the afternoon with his little measuring device from his spy tools belt affirming that our glider was not as well-made as his. He kept finding places where the wood was actually thinner and he pretended to be sympathetic but really he was thrilled to have the best seat in the house.

On Friday Madison, Noah and I went thrifting again (I got the bug) and we found a Little Tikes playhouse for twenty bucks. I wanted to buy it but didn’t have the van and wasn’t totally sure. See, I always wanted to buy a playhouse for Noah but Brett suffers from plastic-phobia. He was terrified about having big hunks of colorful plastic in the yard, feeling that they are unsightly. It took a tantrum on my part to get him to buy one of those elephant slides (I can’t find a picture but it’s one of those squat blue slides that look like an elephant from the side) for $7 at a Catholic school carnival five years ago. Sure, he didn’t want our yard cluttered with big plastic toys but who was supposed to find entertaining ways to keep the boy out enjoying the fresh air? That’s right, me. So the way I figured it is that my childcare needs trumped his aesthetic needs and after twenty minutes of haranguing and thirty minutes of pouting (pouting while 3-year old Noah took a pony ride, ate a cookie and lost a dart game), he agreed with me. That’s how we got the slide but a Little Tikes playhouse? No dice. Brett kept promising to build an attractive one out of wood but Noah is now eight and still there is no playhouse. I am not making the same mistake with poor little Madison so I’ve decided we’re buying one, dammit. Besides, we already have a solar clothes dryer — will a plastic playhouse really bring down our curb value that much more? I think not.

When I saw the one at the thrift store, I wanted it right off. It was missing the door (and the door is a big deal — toddlers and preschoolers like to slam other people out of places) but I figured I could probably call Little Tikes and get a new one. And it was smaller than I wanted because even though Noah is too big to really play in them, I want one big enough that he can still crawl in there because you know he’ll want to. Besides, was I really going to spend $200 more just to get a door and a bit more floorspace? Problem was the thrift store wouldn’t store anything for more than three hours and Brett was at work for another five. I wanted Brett to go back that night and get it but he said surely it could wait. It couldn’t of course and the house was gone by the time he went back yesterday morning.

The good thing, however, was that he found a glider there. A big person glider with really ugly 1980s cushions. But very very comfortable and nice wood and only $40. He came back and told me about it then hurried off with cash to buy it. Noah got his little measuring device back out and confirmed that it is indeed a nice chair. (I can’t find a picture of it but that’s because — if the abstract aqua and beige cushions are any indication — it’s from the 80s.)

So we gained a chair but lost a little playhouse. Brett is now voting that we just go to Toys-R-Us and buy a new one but that offends my sensibilities. I’m sure there’s one out there — faded and forgotten in someone else’s backyard. I’m keeping my eyes peeled.

Now playing on iTunes: “All I Left Behind” from the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions by Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris

As my regular readers know, I love love love to thrift shop. If I was a zillionaire, I would still want to thrift because it’s so much fun. I went thrifting tonight to accommodate the incredibly growing Madison and did pretty darn well. My best bargains for the evening (and these are all in perfect condition):

–Gymboree overalls with matching snap-crotch top ($3.97; suggested retail price: about $40)
–Babymini par Catimini shirt ($1.91, SRP $35+)

It gives me chills to spot a diamond in the rough hanging there waiting to be discovered. It’s like hearing the clink of your shovel hitting the top of the buried treasure when a striped shirt that could have been Old Navy turns out to be Hanna Andersson; it feels like you’re getting away with something. Plus it just makes good sense. I’m having to supplement Noah’s wardrobe with new clothes now because it’s so hard to find boys’ pants with the knees intact. I go to Target and leave shaking my head over my thinner wallet. $14 for boys’ jeans?! It’s highway robbery!

I’m a snob about brands though. I won’t spend $2 on something I could get for $4 new; thus no Garanimals every make it into my cart. Especially when you’re buying used, you want something that you know is going to wear. Buy it right and even your garage sale treasure is going to make it on to a couple more kids.

I remember a friend of mine, appalled that I made Noah wear used clothing, pointed out to me that Target has reasonable prices on kids’ clothes. I gently pointed out to her that while her daughter was wearing Sonoma, Noah was wearing Gymboree and I’d paid about half as much as she did. Besides which they’ve invented these things called “washing machines” that get those clothes right sanitary in a twinkling!

In Portland the thrift stores were sad, empty things when it came to clothes. On the other hand, I got much better books at the stores there. I really miss thrifting for books; that’s where I got most of my green books (Virago modern classics) and all of my Alfred Hitchcock presents short story anthologies. Oh well. I guess it’s an even trade but the only thing that rivals grabbing a Beetlejuice jumper for a buck is finding a perfect set of parenting manuals from the 1920s for $.25 apiece. I’ve got the jumper hanging in Madison’s closet and the books sitting on my shelves.

I haven’t bragged on Noah lately so I thought what the hell — why not? Forgive me for gushing.

I love this kid. He’s so bright and funny. I know, seven year olds are bright and funny (and also mouthy and moody but I digress) but since he’s my own particular seven year old, I find him awfully charming.

Recently Noah checked out the book-on-tape of Frindle, which is about a boy who invents a new word. Noah was very excited about the idea of it and we talked a bit about the way language is created. I asked Noah if he ever wanted to invent a word and he said no, absolutely not.

“The boy gets talked to by reporters and gets on television,” he told me. “I would hate that kind of a fuss.”

“You are someone who likes to fly under the radar,” I told him.

“And you like flying over the radar!” he said. How true. But Noah takes after his lovely yet retiring Daddy that way. (Although at one point Brett did try to start a new trend by using “Toblerone” as an expression of excitement/admiration. As in, “Hey, your new bike is toblerone!” This was in his early 20s when I first met him. My father still buys him a Toblerone candybar every year for Christmas.)

Then we bought Noah new shoes that were really expensive. We had a long talk about why I won’t pay more than $1 for a shirt at the thrift store but will drop sixty bucks on a good pair of shoes. I pointed out that buying cheap clothes allows us to afford important things like good winter coats and high-quality shoes. He’s becoming a master at thrifting and when we go out together, he minds the sale tags and looks carefully for holes. Smart boy.

Anyway, I told him his new shoes were “cool” and he informed me that he doesn’t want to be cool, he would rather be ordinary. Under the radar, indeed.

Noah is pretty popular in our social circles, in part I think because he’s so uninterested in the spotlight. He’s the peacemaker of the group. Once a bunch of the kids — I think there were six or seven there — got in an argument about God. One of the little girls is an atheist, being raised in an atheist family and then another little boy is very passionate about his spirituality, which goes beyond his Jewish upbringing.

“It’s wrong not to believe in God!” he told the little girl tearfully. She was adamant that there was no god.

Noah said, “Hey, guys, you know how people say God is in everything? That means he’s in that chair and you’re sitting on him!”

Later he told me that he was trying to make everyone laugh so they would quit fighting; it worked.

His interests are often very “boyish” — he can hold his own in Pokemon discussions, for example. But many of my friend’s daughters are planning to marry him and their mothers say that it’s because he’s so gentle. He is equally happy attending a tea party as he is playing Ninja at the park.

I adore him. This weekend he set up a desk area for Madison to use in two years (he says that he will share it with younger visitors until then). He added a little chair to the side, “So I can help her with math,” he told me. “She’ll probably like that.”

Ok, I’m gonna go hug on him a bunch before Madison wakes up.