Yard sales of the Bible

There’s a whole lot of thinking swirling around in my head, and I’m trying to figure out a way to tie it all together to make sense of it.
By all accounts it is now officially summer. DH is done teaching, the boys are home from school and it’s been hot enough to turn on the air conditioner for some weeks now.
Last summer was really frustrating for me, and I am trying to come up with a plan to keep everyone busy and get some projects completed this summer so I don’t feel so crazed this year.
As it happens, several cyber friends at the website www.twopeasinabucket.com are joining together for two separate projects.
The first is “The Incredible Shrinking Pea.” I have joined, and am making a half-hearted attempt to drop some poundage. It is something I really need to do, but I’m having a hard time getting my mind in the right place to do it. As one of my friends says, “It’s not my season.” But I have stopped drinking cola altogether and am in the process of weaning myself from any sugary soda pop. I figure if I can get rid of the soda in my life, I’ll be dumping a whole lot of calories. I haven’t brought as many sweets into the house in general.
But I don’t weigh myself if I can help it, so I’m not joining in the weekly pound loss tally.
The other, and to me more pressing group is those of us trying to simplify our lives by digging out, tossing everything we don’t need and taking care of the things we do have and want to keep.
I spent several hours today charting a plan. But my beloved L ~ who always want’s to keep busy has just gone ahead with the first goal to tackle the laundry room, clean out all the dressers and toss everything that doesn’t fit, is faded or stained or otherwise unsightly.
Saturday he decided the time had come to move his brother’s dresser out of his bedroom. So while DH was fixing breakfast, he brought all of A’s clothing into the living room, dumped them in a pile and requested we sort them.
Then, he spotted a neighbor having a yard sale and convinced me I need to take the outgrown but still usable items over to sell them. We made a grand total of $1.50 ~ which the children pocketed. They also picked out a chess board and a chalk board at a collective price of $13 that we just “had” to have.
I wasn’t immune. I picked up some picture frames to alter as I saw Debbie do here http://www.scrappintrends.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1308&cat=547&limit=views . Some of the yard sellers are Ya-Ya Scrappers. So I did get to visit with my friends as we watched people pick through our rejects.
Truth to tell, I try, I really try, but I don’t understand yard sales. I know good deals can be had, but mostly people end up buying stuff that clutters up their house for a while before they decided they have too many possessions and haul them out on the front lawn to sell them to someone else.
I was pondering this phenomenon during our Sunday school lesson about Ruth today. Then I had an Ah Ha!! moment. Ruth was a gleaner. She supported herself and her mother in law by gleaning the fields, or picking over what was left behind by the field workers to find grain. In a sense, those who follow the yard sale circuit are gleaners, too. Granted, most of the time they are not looking for food to keep them from the brink of starvation, but it is the same general principle.
I still don’t see myself hitting yard sales on a regular basis, but now I understand the impulse behind it.