Confessions of a Homemaker

Okay, I admit it.  I hit the garage sales when I was supposed to be cleaning.
I promised to pick up Homegirl Lisa when she dropped her car off for repair.  We had a couple of hours to kill, waiting for the car, so we cruised the sales.
It was a big garage sale weekend, with two newer neighborhoods hosting sales.  We were so disciplined.  We had our own personal shopping lists of things we needed.  We strictly swore off knick knacks.  If it wasn't on the list, we didn't stop to consider it.
In the end, our self control worked to our advantage.  We ended the shopping trip with a few pieces of clothing (jeans, shirt, and a skirt for her, two pairs of jeans for me), a choice mirror for my bathroom for $5, and a free refrigerator for her garage, all for less than $25.  When we returned with the truck for the fridge, I scored a great old Singer that had a buttonhole option for free.
I could have bought scads of clothes for my daughter.  Had she been with us, we would have been overrun with more toys than we could carry.  I'm always tempted by books, but I controlled myself.
Good thing I did, I hit one last sale in an older neighborhood and asked about #1 on my shopping list, old metal wash tubs for my potato garden.  It NEVER hurts to ask, and this time-- success!  One couple replied that they had some old metal wash tubs that were taking up space in their garage.  They promised to bring them with them to the sale the next morning and I told them I'd return with my truck.  My long search is finally over and their garage was free of more stuff.
My father-in-law helped me with holes in the bottoms of the rest of my bins and I got them planted with the rest of my seed potatoes.
While digging a spot for planting my sunflowers and squash starts, I found a blue potato that I missed last fall.  It was beautiful, deep blue-purple, bigger than my fist, full of eyes and ready to go.  I planted a 20 gallon garbage can with half of it and will give the other half to Lisa.  When I cut the potato in half, it looked very firm and healthy.  I felt confident planting it for a new crop.  I dug up a second potato, a red, but it didn't look as good as the blue.  I threw it in the garbage.  If it had been diseased, I would not want to compost it in case it may infect my compost as well.
Now my potato/squash/sunflower garden is planted.  I got my house clean in the nick of time.  I made it to the garage sales of the season.  I'm ready for a rainy weekend.  I think I'll check out my new find, this old Singer!