Generous

I decided it was finally time to drag out the maternity clothes.  I couldn’t do this however, without dragging out all the old baby clothes, both boy and girl stuff.  I had never really put anything away the right way, plus I had Angie and Emilee delivering clothes to be stored at all kinds of random times.  So, the bottom line was a lot of clothes.  I took all the clothes and figured the best way to start was by sorting them into girl, boy and pregnant person clothes.  The beginning of the sorting looked a little like this:

I had more clothes than I expected.  I realize now that I can wear all sorts of clothes for the next 4 months and if I buy anything for this baby, Greg should get mad at me (I didn’t say I won’t, I just said he shouldn’t be happy, I know I totally will anyway).

All I could do was sort these clothes, after that I was at a loss.  It was time to call for reinforcement…Angie!  After all, I don’t need any of the boy clothes, while she could use some in the future for Evan and perhaps she will have another boy.  She took the boy bin, I took the girl bin and we sorted.  Goodwill, save, consignment, garbage.  We sorted for hours and finally came up with a good pile for each and clothes we would actually put small children in again.  I washed all the maternity clothes, sent all the others to the garage, and loaded up the car with consignment and Goodwill clothes. 

Angie ended up with $8.00 cash and a $4.00 credit for the consignment store and I walked away with $16.00 cash and a $19.00 credit.  That sure felt good. 

And now to the point of my story, yes there is a point.

I had the Goodwill bag to drop off.  After a lovely day of running errands, meeting up with Greg, having a picnic in the back of our car and stopping for ice cream, it was time to make the stop to deliver the goods.  I pulled up, gave them the bag, took my receipt and drove away.  I was talking to Angie when the drop was made and I made a comment that I always worry when taking things to Goodwill, what if I delivered the wrong bag, or what if my favorite sweater just happened to make its way into the bag and tried to give itself away.  We laughed and I drove away to buy some hairspray.  Upon arriving, I grabbed my purse to get my wallet when I discovered it was not there.  It only took two seconds for me to realize that I DONATED my wallet to GOODWILL.  I was putting Ivy in her seat after the ice cream stop, holding her ice cream, mine and my wallet.  It was then that I decided to casually toss my wallet to the front seat.  I watched the little purple guy fly into the Goodwill bag.  I laughed to myself that I had better get that out.  By the time I hooked Ivy in, walked to the front and took the first delicious bite of my ice cream, all thoughts of the wallet had disappeared as I was much more focused on the ice cream. (Oreo and Mint Chocolate Chip). 

I yelled to the car of children, “I just sent my wallet to Goodwill in that bag!”  Owen started crying and pleading with me to hurry back there, to go get it.  Ivy pretended to care and faked cry a little bit.  We turned the car around, only a mere 10 minutes from the source of the drop-off. 

I hopped out of the car to about 8 guys working on gathering donations, and made my awesome statement, “I just dropped a bag of clothes off and the bag had my wallet in it.”  Boy, I sounded smart.  I received a few snickers and was told it was found and was up front with the management.  SIGH!!  Owen and I were so happy (and of course Ivy was too although she had no idea why).  Everything was there, the cash, the cards, the license and the Costco card. 

I like to give generously, but next time, I won’t give away quite so much.