Rule of 3's

There is the old adage that bad things come in groups of three. Using advanced logic I can only surmise that also means that good things also come in threes! After feeling so gloomy about how little profit I'm clearing on all the hours in the salt mine, today proved to be filled with smiles! Smile #1- Besides basking in balmy temperatures pushing the 80 degree mark, today's first smile was produced by a trip into the city to sewer's nirvana! A non-descript warehouse in one of the most culturally diverse section of the city houses a cornucopia of fabric. Wish I had thought to take a photo of the front door with it's hand lettered sign in FOUR languages telling one to PUSH the door open! I know my friend Diane is smiling right now as she reads this description....jealous, I know, but by the way I found the fabric for the new dance school's costumes!!!!! Owned by conservative Jews and staffed by Polish, Mexican, Guatemalan, and African-Americans, it is the kind of place where one can still haggle over the prices while rubbing shoulders with costume designers from the theater district. After scoring on the fabric I was in search of I went home to switch the salt mine from a pleasure production center to costume central. Besides having some dancing deadlines bearing down on me, I have to admit I make a much bigger profit on the costumes and must do them for a while. I HATE working with the stage moms and dance instructors but they do open their wallets in a big way....... Smile # 2- Since Julia is on summer vacation and my best, built-in babysitter is not, I caved in to a plea to allow BFF/Cousin come for a play date.

These two will go far some day!!!! After a seriously intense game of "Animal Cops" they moved on to fighting with bears?!?! A full bin of material scraps and a full imagination led to this pair of invalids who didn't fare so well in the bear brawl...apparently!!!!

Smile #3-

More than a year ago I began collecting shoes for Guatemala. It started very small with just a few pair at a time from friends and family. Then Mari's Girl Scout troop decided to adopt the shoe drive as their service project for the year and one thing led to another and suddenly I had 1700+ pair of shoes in my dining room!!!! It was a huge relief to pack them up and ship them out and since then I've gone back to the few pair at a time pace. The thing is, the Girl Scout leader had placed a blurb in our church's Sunday bulletin which has caused some of the members of my parish to label me the "shoe lady" and periodically I find bundles of shoes on my front porch with the note, "for Guatemala".

Yep, happened again tonight!! Went out to take the girls for ice cream cones and there on my porch I find two baggies full of flip-flops "for Guatemala"!!! Come on, that's gotta make you smile!