Thrift Shop take-homes

Sooooo, Thrift Shop is over for another year.

Some random thoughts:

1. I feel satisfied in many ways, that I've helped the school out as much as I could during this big fundraising event. 
2. I had plenty of time getting to know people. The joy and challenge of Thrift Shop is the randomness of it. You never know who you'll end up working with and almost always meet new people. At the end of Friday I was exhausted with talking to people. The extrovert part of me is strong enough that I can't just sit and look at someone I'm paired up to work with, if the opportunity is there, I'll try to talk with them. The time I find most productive for meeting new people is working the registers on Friday, when there is often quite a bit of time waiting around for customers. The introvert side of me gets exhausted by all of that and I'll be enjoying some alone time in the coming days to recharge.
3. One person I met and worked with is the mother of another wrestler. She's Japanese and not a Christian as far as we know. I'm sure it must have been a Holy Spirit inspired moment when I heard the name of her Grade 10 son and connected him with wrestling. I don't normally do that well with Japanese names! We had a good time connecting. It is not often that I get to talk with mums of other boys who Love wrestling. She introduced me to a new Japanese word (slang): gachinko. It refers to "competing in earnest" and especially in relation to sumo and wrestling.
4. I got to use a power drill to disassemble clothing racks yesterday afternoon. It was a little scary how much I enjoyed having a power drill in my hands. I guess I've grown up with tools, my dad's an electrician and always had a shed full of tools. 
5. We also got some "stuff" bargains. I've heard that some of you enjoy hearing about our bargains, so I've snuck around our house and photographed some of them. Apologies that some aren't the best photographs.

A new thing for me this year was that I stayed after the shop closed on Saturday to clean up the gym. David had all the boys at a Track Meet (in freezing cold rain), so I was free to help out in the clean up. The reward for helping clean up is that they give the helpers 1/2 an hour free shopping before everything gets either thrown out or recycled (all the clothes and shoes went to a charity who sends them to another needy country).

These books and turtle-neck long sleeve shirt were freebies.

As were these brown pants. Amazingly, I picked them out of a huge pile of pants and didn't try them on! They fit me perfectly.

A spare lunch-box (with free wet-wipes and plastic container). This one wasn't free.

I bought me a spare umbrella in my favourite colour.

A free new Christmas hat that looks new—free.

Two frames for cross-stitches I've done and a free CD.

Our youngest son's our big shopper. He bought this pink snake!

This was a free light-weight wind-breaker. Puma brand. Free!

Another freebie. A larger charcoal BBQ for use when we're camping, especially when we go camping with another family, like we're planning to in August. This was free.

A new spaghetti container. It looked grotty, but washed up well.

Do you Aussies know what this is? I had to check with an American friend to be sure.

I bought this game of Risk for 50 yen. Over the last few months, our eldest has been making an Australian version of Risk, but has been wondering how to do the itty bitty playing pieces. He's planning to use the  "new" game's pieces.

A poor picture, but this is my school ID. They all come complete with a yellow strap. I'm tired of my yellow strap, so I've been looking out for a good replacement. At Thrift Shop I found some Cookie Monster shoe laces and used one to replace my yellow strap. My disappointment: not one person commented on it. Maybe I've shocked people into silence?

Here was my youngest son's favourite haul: some collectable cards.

I found a pair of shorts for my teenager. There were very few pickings in the boys clothes side for his size, compared to the girls. That's pretty standard, but always disappointing!

This was a bargain: 20 new Hot Wheels cars for 500 yen (AU$5), that's 25 yen each. Huge bargain for boys who enjoy racing them down ramps that we own.

Another poor photo: a green hardly-worn polo shirt for my husband and another pair of great ear muffs for bike riding in winter.

The dictionary on the left was still there at the end of Thrift Shop, the one on the right is the one my parents bought for me when I finished high school. I snagged it for free for our teenager's library. The Macquarie is an Australian dictionary. Our eldest son is sitting behind. He's enjoying his new dictionary! He also enjoyed his post-Thrift Shop youth group this afternoon. It is a tradition in the group to wear crazy clothes they found at Thrift Shop. This shirt was our find!

That isn't all we hauled home, but that's enough to put here.