Today I found a vintage (40's, probably) large-pebble-grain black leather Schell doctor's bag at a neighbor's garage sale for $5. After a liberal application of saddle soap, it's a gorgeous thing, 17" x 10" x 9" with leather covered handles and working hinges and latch. I have to find a box before I can list it on Ebay though. The shipping will be really something, it's heavy, at least 5 lbs. I don't have a box the right size here, or anything close to the right size. These things seem to go between $20-50 on Ebay depending on bidder mood and item condition. Evidently they're very collectible....this one looked like it had been sitting in somebody's garage for 40 years, it was that dusty. It looks beautiful now. I sent it up with MIL so FIL could look at it, because she and I wondered if it might be elephant hide, or was it just embossed cowhide? He says cowhide.

So that was this morning. Then MIL and I went out to Ruby's Diner with the girls for lunch, then across the street to the nursery for primulas (not primroses, I've been mistaken all this time), then back across to the Hanna Andersson outlet for, I thought, a few pairs of tights for the girls. But she kept finding wonderful little outfits on the 50%-off-lowest-marked-price and they got an outfit each, and Emmaline got pajamas. Plus all the tights. I would never ever ask her to do this, but I'm grateful when she offers, because Hanna clothes are such wonderful quality and they just wear like iron. And even at 50% off the last marked price they're usually $10 a piece, and so are the tights (actually more like $15 each) so I don't go shopping there for 4 kids very often. I think it's fun for her to shop for the girls. She only had boys, herself.

I have to figure out what to do about my poor right foot. I may have mentioned before that I suffer from inflammation of the plantar fasciitis, which means my foot had terrible burning pain in the arch. I thought my arch was collapsing, that's how severe the pain was. I went to the foot doctor for orthotics - which I got - but they don't work right if I wear my Birkenstocks (I mean, I cannot feel any support under my arch). I have worn nothing but Birkenstocks for oh, 15 or 20 years, because when I wear anything else I get blisters between my toes. So I've put these orthotics in my workout shoes and have been wearing no other shoes but these since. I think you can predict what has happened. A nasty blister between my little toe and the one next to it. The skin actually cracked (I got it to heal) but mostly right now it itches like mad. I don't know what to do for it. If there's a toe-separator device out there, I'd like to know about it. But it has to stay *on*. I've tried the little gel-lined tube thingies you put on your toe...they slip off. I've tried bandaids. They stay on, but they're not thick enough to hold the toes apart and keep them from rubbing. So my foot feels fine except my little toe and the one next to it itch like mad. If I have to choose between the two evils....I don't want to choose between the two evils.

I suppose the next option is to get different shoes, but I've never yet found a shoe with a generous toe box that also has adequate arch support.

I got my ebay listings done earlyish today. That is to say, I listed 2 of the big stack of items mom gave me to list, that she bought and was going to sell but never got around to, and 2 items I'm selling for a friend, and did pictures of the leather doctor's bag. That's about all I can get done. If I have pictures and measurements done (these days, I'll usually do a whole bunch of pictures at once, and edit them...that's one day's work; then I'll get all the weights and measurements, that's another day's work....then I'll go through and do a bunch of store listings at once, because all I really have to do is write the descriptions and work down the list of measurements and weights. On a really good day I might get 9 items listed, but it's taken me 3 days to get there. I don't know how people do hundreds of items a day (and some do) unless they're selling dozens of identical items (and some do). It's all I can do, to do what I'm doing....and keep up on the laundry, the meals, reading to the kids, overseeing their "paperwork" (workbook stuff for math & English), cleaning...I hardly have time to MUSH anymore. But instead of sitting up late as I often do, writing ebay descriptions after the kids go to bed, I got done early and I'm going to sleep early.

There's a lot to be said for sleeping early. :D