gather ye rosebuds . . .

Ahhhh. . . May 1, May Day. I hope all you lovely ladies out there were up early to catch the morning dew and pat it on your face so that you will stay youthful and beautiful all year long. I remember reading about this old tradition during a British Literature class decades ago while we were reading poetry by Robert Herrick, “gather ye rosebuds while you may . . . Corinna’s gone a’ Maying. . .“

Well, it’s worth a try, right? So teen daughter and I try to keep the tradition alive. You never know. Hmm, this year May 1 falls on a Saturday, maybe I can lightly dampen her face while she is still in bed and allow her to sleep in and still get her beauty dew.
I, on the other hand, will be Yard-Saleing instead of sleeping in. Spring means yard sale time is beginning again after the cold, dark, cooped-up Mid-Atlantic winter, and there is no time to lose. The early bird gets the good stuff!. I actually was successful in luring my husband into the world of yard sales a couple of years ago. Sure, he'd had his own yard sales to get rid of unwanted items lots of times, but he never went to other people’s yard sales to buy. Until a couple of summers ago when we had just moved into our current house. We finally had space to spread out. And actually a lot of empty space for a while.  (Okay, a relatively short while.)  It started with me whining and complaining about missing out on some great pieces of furniture that I did not want to commit to purchasing without his okay.  The next weekend he came along just in case he was needed.  And then he kinda got hooked as well.  He was the one who started cutting the ads out of the newspaper and circling the times and neighborhoods, planning our defense to cover the largest geographic area in the most efficient route.  We started keeping the minivan backseats in the garage to free up possible storage space, to keep supplies of cash in the form of small bills in our wallets, to keep the alarm set on work week time even on Saturdays.  We would be up, washed, dressed with commuter cups of hot beverage and toast in a napkin and driving to our first location by 7:30.  We could cover 7 or 8 sales and be back before the kids woke up. 

And then?  Well, the new house started filling up and we needed to learn to slow down and think before purchasing.  Maybe only 3 or 4 sales per Saturday.  Keep a mental list of items we actually need, and try to avoid those impulse purchases.  The slower pace has worked pretty well.  We unloaded some unnecesaries at a yard sale of our own last summer.  We keep a limited amount of small bills in our wallet and stop when those are depleted.  We've learned to control our habit.  And now, the kids have even started getting up early some Saturdays to join us. 
Looks like we've started a new tradition.

keeping a grip, deb