I attended the sweetest funeral yesterday, for my dear Aunt Chris. She’s the wife of my dad’s brother. She passed away peacefully on my grandma’s birthday a week ago. I love going to funerals because I feel the Holy Spirit confirm to me that because of Jesus Christ’s atoning blood and resurrection, I will see these dearly departed people again. I also love funerals because they are mini-family reunions, and a little taste of what heaven will feel like because family and friends are together. Some may think that odd, when a funeral is a time of mourning. Yes, a funeral is a time of mourning because of death and temporary loss, so I do feel sadness, and I cry. It’s also a time of rejoicing in the gifts of the deceased person, a reminder of what we have to look forward to when we are with that person in heaven and their gifts again. I just love hearing the stories family members and friends share about the deceased loved ones when they speak at funerals, talking about the traits and gifts of the person.
The sister of Aunt Chris, Suzie, told the cutest story about Aunt Chris. Aunt Chris had progressive pulmonary fibrosis which made it hard to breathe. She and her family knew that she would be passing to the other side of the veil soon. Aunt Chris and Suzie were not only sisters, but they were BFF. They had many adventures together. Their biggest one was probably going to the Country Living Fair in Columbus OH. After they arrived in Ohio and went to the rental car pickup, the desk person apologized that they wouldn’t be getting a car they expected to rent. The only car left for them was a bright red Ford Mustang. Instead of being disappointed, they were excited! Imagine two cute little old ladies, each barely around 5 feet tall, tooling around OH in a roadster. They had the time of their lives driving through the rolling hills and farmland, going to the fair and checking out antique stores. I wish I could have been there, it sounds so fun!
As Chris slowly declined, sister Suzie realized she would be saying goodbye to her big sister soon. In the hospital, she asked Chris if Chris would send her a sign from heaven when she got there, to let Suzie know that she was there, with their parents who had already passed on, and that she was OK. Chris said she would. Suzie felt so assured by this promise. Knowing her sister, who was a good obedient girl, she knew Chris would get permission in heaven before she sent the sign.
Suzie shared that she got her sign. Last Sunday, she and her daughter and granddaughter went to the cemetery to get ready for the burial. On the way home from the cemetery, she saw a bright red Mustang zoom ahead of her in the next lane. She said that was her sign from sister Chris! I love it! It reminds me of the signs from God that David Boice felt when was has checking out 52 churches in 52 weeks. He saw a cardinal bird that he felt was a sign for him that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the church for him to join. (You can read the story here.) I love the truth of signs. Heavenly Father blesses us with many signs to speak peace and joy to us. I love that he gives universal signs for all of us, and personalized signs just for each of us, because He truly does know us.
If you’d like to learn more about signs, here is a beautiful story of one man’s experience with a physical sign and how it helped him understand the importance of spiritual signs. Here is a basic overview of spiritual signs. Then here are signs of The Second Coming of Jesus Christ. If you want to go even deeper with signs, then propheticappointments.com is the best place to go, and watching the Prophetic Appointments YouTube Channel. You will learn of amazing signs of the constellations in the heavens regarding Christ’s birth. You will also learn of the signs in the heavens of Christ’s Second Coming, including the solar eclipses that happened in 2017 and 2024.
As interesting as all these signs are, the most important sign for me and you to learn about, is a sign we are to develop within us. It is the sign of charity. A person who shows charity shows the sign of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Aunt Chris had charity. Thank you Aunt Chris for your example! Her children, sister, and bishop spoke of how she was always serving. She shared everything she had. She showed up at every funeral, every service project, every event in her congregation, and helped. She took food to the hungry, like fixing a dinner to deliver to her niece and then driving it one way for 45 minutes when her niece was on bedrest during a pregnancy. She went to her grandchildren’s milestones events. She gave money to people. She showed love by doing, not just with words.
As Paul said, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”- 1 Corinthians 13:1-2
Today I’m sharing how to get thrift store prices on books without leaving your home. This is such important knowledge, if you are a book lover and/or homeschooler! If you are not one of those, just skip this post. Go learn how to make Greek yogurt here, read some review of date night movies here, or read about my trip to Orchard House last year here.
OK, if you love books and love thrifting, read on. Say you are stuck at home because you have a lot of little children that preclude you from having a reasonably sane shopping trip at the thrift store, or you are ill, but not so ill that you can’t do some online shopping, but too ill to go out shopping. Maybe you don’t have any one of those situations, but you need a specific book for your family read aloud time, a hobby of you or your child, your book club, or a class at your child’s homeschool co-op. Or maybe you just have a need for a dopamine pick me up that comes from finding just the right book at just the right price that fits your mood that day.
However you fit into the above categories, if you have read this far, you probably share this overall condition with me:
Isn’t that the cutest shirt ever?! Go here to get it! It would make a great birthday gift for a bibliophile! Image Credit: etsy.com at the just mentioned link.
Any excuse to buy books right?! So let’s talk about thrifting for books from the comfort of your couch at home, poolside, sipping lemonade, in an airport, or up in the mountains, still with an Internet connection.
If you are thrifty book lover, or a bibliophilic thrifter, however you describe yourself, this is going to be your best non-human friend ever! You’re welcome!!
You’ve probably bought used books online from thriftbooks.com or alibris.com or even amazon. Well, this site allows you to take all of your online book shopping to a whole new level! It allows you to find deals on books you love, and on books you are going to love that you didn’t even know existed!
The reason addall.com is so swell is because it does all the comparison shopping for you at used book websites all across the Internet, at the sites I just mentioned, and more.
OK, so when you are at addall.com, just type in the info of the book you are looking for, and voila, in less than a minute, you can find the cheapest price for the book across the Interverse (Internet universe). For the book’s info, you can use either the author, the title, the ISBN number, or even just a keyword.
Here is what my phone’s screen looks like when I looked for a treasury of Beatrix Potter stories.
The overall price is the red number in the red box: $8.97. That includes shipping, at least in the continental US! True, this isn’t a huge bargain like if you found the book for $1 or $2 at your neighborhood thrift store or used library book sale. It’s still a great deal though, since the retail price of a new copy is $19.99 on amazon. If you had to drive a long ways to find this at a thrift store, and counted the cost of gas and the cost of the time it would take you to hunt down the book, the addall price is probably worth it for you. It just depends on how much you want this specific book and how far you’d have to go and how long it would take to find it. As they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If you can find it this cheap on addall.com, get it while you can, even if you could possibly get it cheaper at a thrift store with only the possibility, not the certainty, that you could find it.
So, if you wanted to buy this BP Treasury copy at the price shown in red above, click on the word “Amazon” in green, inside the green box. It will take you to amazon and then you buy the book there.
So addall is like having your very own personal shopper’s assistant, or a thrifty girlfriend, who goes out and scouts out the deals, showing you all the used copies for sale, from the lowest to the highest prices. So go ahead, bookmark the site now. You’ll be having a lot of fun with it!
Here’s another search I did, for a Reader’s Digest songbook. So far I have the Christmas, Popular Classics, and Children’s songbooks in the RD series of songbooks. The series has 14 in all, according to goodreads.com, here. I got the Christmas songbook for my 16th birthday, and the other two I found thrifting just this past summer. I love being able to play the Indiana Jones March, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Christmas songs, and so many other fun songs from these books.
These books are so wonderful for a piano player! Each book has dozens of songs, is huge, so easy to read, and spiral-bound, so they lie flat. (Every single book out there full of sheet music should have lie-flat spiral binding, just sayin.’)
So you pay $3.57 base price, $4.59 for shipping (sorry, the shipping price above is covered up by the privacy terms symbol) which totals $8.06 for this songbook of tunes from the 1950s. This would make a perfect gift for someone like my parents who were teens in the 1950s, or anyone who loves 50s music. Elvis, anyone?
Is your mind starting to go wild with the bookish possibilities of what you can find with this website?
Here are more examples. Below are some books any homeschooling mom would love to find at a thrift store, with how much you can get them using addall, as of the day I did the search, 9/3/25.
Say, you are doing Five in a Row, a curriculum for preschoolers. This is a fun unit study plan where you read aloud the same picture book five days in a row. Each day, after you read the book, you do a different activity related to the book. One day it’s an aspect of the book that relates to geography/social studies, another day, it’s science, another day, it’s math, another, it’s art, another, it’s language arts. It’s super fun! (I attempted to do it one year with my two oldest but was just not organized enough to keep it up but if you are organized, go for it.) Anyway, one of the books featured in this curriculum is the classic book, The Story About Ping. So say you are doing Five in a Row and can’t find a copy of Ping from your public library, which is not surprising since public libraries are getting rid of children’s book pre-1980 more and more these days.
Cheapest addall’s price: base $1.80 plus $3.99 shipping for a total of $5.79. Score!
$1.24 + $4.49 = $5.73
I’ve been wanting the above book for years. I’ve been surprised that my public library doesn’t have the picture book versions of Narnia. What a great buy for such a splendid book!
How about some Anne of Green Gables?
$2.36 + $3.99 = $6.35
Guess what came up, this beautiful edition above. Not a paperback copy, but a beautifully illustrated cover book in a slipcase, perfect for gifting! Only $6.35 total! Amazing!!!
If you are like me, you thought you had all 8 of the Anne books in the series from when you were a teen, and you just discovered that #3 is missing after moving and finally having a place to shelve all the books. You can find it on addall! This one is $1.37 + $3.99 shipping, total $5.36. If I hadn’t have found one when I went thrifting back in July, I would have gotten it here.
Now, here’s a classic book that I never knew about until I homeschooled. The book below won a Newbery Medal in 1956. It’s the story of a real man, Nathaniel Bowditch, who was the founder of modern maritime navigation. He grew to manhood in Salem, Massachusetts, overcoming many obstacles, including having to go work full-time as a young teen to help support his family. The Modern Practical Navigator, authored by him, is carried on every commissioned American naval vessel to this day. You can even buy it on amazon here. This biography of Nathaniel, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, is such a great book! It’s often required reading for LEMI’s Pyramid Project, a math and science class. If you haven’t read it or had your children read it, you are missing out! Get it and read it! At the price below, you can read your own copy. You can listen to it free in YouTube here.
$1.34 + $4.49 = $5.83
How about something for mother culture?
Anything by Susan Branch will fill the bill. Here’s her book Christmas Joy.
99 cents + $4.49 = $5.48. What a great deal! You can see my review of her Summer book here and her Autumn book here. Reading these books is like chatting with a dear girlfriend, filling you to the brim with yumminess. Her books are all so fun!
Now, how about, the DK Complete Book of Sewing? As of today, this book on amazon is $25.06, base price, without even adding the shipping cost.
Using addall.com, you can get it for $2.75, plus $4.49 shipping, for a grand total of $7.24. Sweet!
I still have my Usborne Puzzle books that I bought in the late 1990s for my older children. The series has about 8 books or so, and I bought most of them back then. Each has a different theme like castle, mountain, planet, etc. These are delightful books that involve “seek and find” activities along with mazes and other visual activities, following a super fun storyline of a child or a pair of children going on a themed adventure. All 7 of my children have loved these through the years, and now I read them to my grandchildren. My married daughter loves them so much that she wants to collect them now. Sadly, they are out of print from Usborne. Addall didn’t have any individual ones the day I looked but had books that were 3 titles in one. Below is the price for Puzzle World.
$4.04 + $3.09 = $8.03. A great buy!
.99 + $5.49 + $5.48. I’m totally going to get this book for my drummer son!
$4.45 + $4.49 = $8.94. I’ve read two of Patricia St. John’s books and love them. Now I want to read her story. It’s hard to find this book at any library. Listen to this podcast below to know why she’s so amazing.
Want some motivation to read aloud to your children? Here you go! This book is only $2.29 + $4.49 = $6.78. If you want to know all about the book, go here, where I have a podcast episode about it from Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com
.99 + $4.49 = $5.48
$1.29 + $4.49 = $5.78
$5.43 + $4.49 = $9.92. I needed this book once for a class my teen daughter took at our co-op. It was all checked out at the public library, and then over $20 on amazon, not available through Prime, and took over two weeks to arrive! Her class discussion was over by the time it arrived. If only I had known about addall.com back then.
Here are some tips for using addall.com:
Don’t expect to find newly-released books by bestselling authors. But do expect to find books that have been out for at least a year.
2. Have the spirit of treasure hunt thrifting. That is, you might not find exactly what you want, but be willing to be grateful and surprised with the unexpected treasure. You might be looking for, say, The Lord of the Rings and can’t find it at a low price but instead you find the Hobbit devotional book, above for $2.29 + $4.49 =$ 6.78. So awesome! Get that instead and keep waiting for the LOTR to come down in price, while in the meantime you borrow a copy from the public library or a neighbor.
3. Think about a favorite book of a loved one, then use addall to see if you can find a deluxe version, like the Anne of Green Gables book in the slipcase I showed up above, a pretty boxed set of a series, an annotated version, a cookbook inspired by the book, or some kind of treasury from that author, to give as a gift. If giving the item as a gift, be sure to check the notes about the item to make sure it’s in giftable condition, not with writing inside or tears, or a bent cover.
4. Be willing to go back and check the prices for a much wanted book. Prices can change daily and I’m assuming books are added to the searchable inventory daily as well.
5. If you are new to homeschooling/collecting books/reading for education and fun, have a list from one of these sites of recommended books below, and keep them handy on your phone or in your purse so you can know what books are worth buying and keeping.
It’s the day after Labor Day, so that means it’s the reasonable, appropriate first day of school, because Labor Day marks the end of summer for many people, at least in the US. I’ve been working on a post about Why and How I Homeschool. It’s not quite done so I’m sharing today three videos to encourage any one out there who is on the fence about homeschooling, to do it, and if you are homeschooling, to keep at it. It’s one of my passions and I talk about it whenever I can!
It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to involve any curriculum other than math, at least in the 12 and under years.
I homeschool for four reasons: faith in God, family, freedom, and fun. So like I said, I have a post coming up about that.
These videos all mention at least one of those reasons in some way.
The first is from Marcie Holladay, of singlemomonafarm.com, a single mom of 10, with 5 children left at home.
Now this one is from Megan and John Knorpp of knorppandsouth.com, parents of 9 children, including 5 adopted.
The third is from Sarah Janisse Brown, mom of 15, and founder of funschooling.com.
Just three more weeks until we get to watch a new season of Relative Race, Season 16! I’m doing a happy dance!!! This is a show with such amazingly joyful reunions of adopted children in search of their biological family. A clip is here, with a lot more here.
Go here to find out what Relative Race is all about and why I love it so much. Then go here to read the things I have shared about Relative Race.
Then here’s a new interview below with Dan Debenham, host of Relative Race. Skip to about the 8 minute mark for when the part with Dan starts, in a Zoom meeting. The meeting is courtesy of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group (UVTAGG). The first 8 minutes involves announcements and business of that group. It’s from April 2025.
Then go watch these videos with Dan Debenham here and here. If you are ever having a bad day, just watch an episode of Relative Race! You can them watch on BYUTV here, and some episodes are at RR’s YouTube channel here.
It was just this week that I asked my son “What is the difference between contention and conflict? And is contention always bad?” We were having Morning Basket for homeschool, and somehow that question came up after we read something together. After all, as I told my son, Jesus created conflict, and contention, when He cleansed the temple by overturning the tables of the money changers and chased them out with a whip. (See John 2:13-16)
Then I noticed that today’s video of Connor Boyack’s Sunday Musings addresses that very topic. God delivered the answer to me in the form of Connor’s video! I love it when I get answers so quickly, especially if I didn’t even pray about it.
In the video, Connor talks about the scripture, shown at the top, 3 Nephi 11:29, from The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Then he gives other examples of scriptures that show contention as a negative thing.
He also gives the Noah Webster 1828 Dictionary definition of contention:
1. Strife; struggle; a violent effort to obtain something, or to resist a person, claim or injury; contest; quarrel.
Multitudes lost their lives in a tumult raised by contention among the partizans of the several colors.
2. Strife in words or debate; quarrel; angry contest; controversy.
Avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law. Titus 3:9.
Then he gives scriptures that speak of contending and contention as a commandment from God, as something positive to do. We are to contend against the church of the devil.
Have you noticed that the Book of Mormon says that the great godly hero Ammon went to “contend” with the bad guys scattering the king’s flock of sheep? I never noticed that before, until Connor pointed it out!
We are told to contend for faith in Jesus Christ, in the Bible.
So interesting! It’s OK to contend for truth, and not just OK, it’s godly, it’s a commandment, it’s something we must do if we are to follow Christ. As Connor says, if we are following Christ, spreading truth and light, it’s inevitable that we will have conflict with evil. We are not to give in to evil. We have to keep contending for truth if we are to stand for truth and continue to fight for truth. Watch and learn!
“Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation…”
Those words are from the revelation that Joseph Smith received from the Lord Jesus Christ on 27 February 1833. It’s recorded as verse 4 of the Doctrine and Covenants Section 89, commonly known as the “Word of Wisdom.” This is what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use as a health code. In this code, we are told by the Lord to avoid tobacco and alcohol. Tobacco is not for the body, but to be used as “an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.” Alcohol is also not for the body. That makes sense to me, as another form of alcohol, rubbing alcohol, is great for cleaning, especially removing ink stains on clothes.
I’m grateful that the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith back in the 1830s that tobacco is not for the body, meaning, internal digestion by the human body. This is an example of the value of revelation from God. The Lord Jesus Christ knows everything. Man does not know everything. The Lord knew and knows that tobacco is not for internal consumption by human bodies before men knew. It is good for external use, for bruising, and for cattle. So the Lord revealed this knowledge to Joseph Smith. He taught it to his fellow Saints. Decades before the general consensus of humans agreed it it is toxic, generations of people were already avoiding its addictive nature, the Latter-day Saints, because of this revelation. Eventually, scientists caught up to revealed knowledge by discovered nicotine’s addictive qualities, and nicotine’s link to illness and death. This contributed to the U.S. federal government requiring a warning about the dangers of tobacco to be put on every cigarette package. The Lord not only knew that tobacco is toxic to humans, the Lord knew that “conspiring men” would exploit its addictive nature to make more money. So the Lord gave this Word of Wisdom not only for people to avoid addiction but to warn people not to consume it in order to avoid losing money to conspiring men.
Could it be that this warning was just the tip of the iceberg regarding conspiring men exploiting substances for human consumption in order to make more and more money? Yes, I believe so! The book, Salt Sugar Fat by investigative journalist and author Michael Moss gives compelling evidence for us to answer “yes” to that question.
Watch the video below to learn more.
Sister Lili Anderson refers to Salt Sugar Fat in her video below, in her commentary on the Word of Wisdom and Doctrine and Covenants 89-92.
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At the 39:08 mark, she mentions Salt Sugar Fat, saying that her whole family has read the book. She then tells a story from the book at the 40 minute mark. It’s the story of Jeffrey Dunn, who was an executive with Coca Cola. He was in charge of bringing Coke to Brazil. Here’s the story as told by Sister Anderson, paraphrased, using the transcript feature in YouTube:
“Jeffrey Dunn years later went down to Brazil because they wanted to expand the Coca-Cola market by creating a product that was smaller. I believe it was a 6 oz Coke and they thought, you know, these people don’t have a lot of money in Brazil, but if we make a smaller container of Coke and try to sell that, they might be able to afford it and we might open up a lot more customers there. So he went down and visited in Brazil and went around those areas and came back and concluded. He said, ‘You know, these people need a lot of things, but one thing they don’t need is Coke.’ And it kind of was a come to Jesus moment for him. He ended up quitting his job, his dream job at Coke, and he went to work for Bolt House Farms, which is, you know, vegetables and stuff. And in fact, I think he was involved in the production, he may have even spearheaded the production of these snack size packets of mini carrots, baby carrots for kids, like for their lunches or after school. And he’s really been on a campaign since then to try and he goes around and speaks about it and stuff that he’s trying to make, you know, it fun to eat fruits and vegetables, especially for kids because it really finally hit him that like what are we doing? You know, we’re just trying to grind the faces of the poor by giving them stuff that’s really no good for them and charging them money when what they need is like something so much better and healthier.”
Wow what an amazing story of someone willing to do a 180 degree about-face in his career and his food philosophy and probably his money-making! Good for him!! In the video above with Michael Moss, Mr. Moss must be referring to Mr. Dunn when he talks about a guy who used to work at Coke and now uses the same tactics he used marketing Coke for promoting carrots, as part of his karmic payback.
Here’s a video with Mr. Dunn below when he was with Campbell’s talking about how evil it is to put money over health, especially children’s health.
Want more stories from Salt Sugar Fat? Go read a few more here on the website of the Weston A. Price foundation then watch the video below.
I also highly recommend reading Sally Fallon Morrell’s Nourishing Traditions for even more juicy stories of conspiring, corrupt men in the manufactured food industry. The pages have sidebars with fascinating stories about nutrition and the food industry.
I hope this is enough to get your mama bear chemistry flowing at a tsunami level!!! Let’s take back the rightful job of mothers to nurture our children and not turn it over to Lunchables. Let’s protect them and ourselves from the “evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men.” These people put profits over our health by getting us hooked on manufactured sugar, salt, and fat that target our bliss points, making us sick and fat.
Here are some great sites to find yummy recipes from whole foods:
It’s not #thriftingthursday, it’s Saturday, but I just have to share about thrifting anyway. this post is all about my August thrifting hauls. I’m doing a happy dance here!! The Provo Deseret Industries opened again after over two months of remodeling, which lasted from the end of May to the middle of August. I did a lot of thrifting in June and July at other places and told myself I wouldn’t go thrifting again in August until the weekend of my wedding anniversary, which is August 17. Since then, I’ve been four times. Two times at the newly re-opened Provo DI, once at the Orem Savers, and once at the American Fork DI. So here’s what I got. I stuck to my commitment.
The two photos above and the one just below show my first haul of August, which was also my first trip to the Provo DI after it closed for remodeling in May. You would think that the floodgates of the Nile river had opened. So many people were there, looking for what we all thought was a pile of treasures that had accumulated in the warehouse during the remodel. On the Friday after the Monday that it opened I went looking for a flowing white skirt as part of celebrating my anniversary. I didn’t find it but instead find these fun little gems. A fun new bright floral top, above, and some other delightful goodies.
In the home decor section I found the sign about Christmas. It’s small so won’t be hard to fit into one of my Christmas decor boxes. It perfectly captures my sentiments about the holiday. I already have a TON of Christmas decorations for my small home, but this was just so perfect. The Ninjago book is for my grandsons. Then the board game was only $2 and looked fun. I love social deduction games where you write stuff from a prompt and you guess who said what. Then a book by Merrilee Boyack, who I love (mom of Connor Boyack of Tuttle Twins fame). These are fictional stories that are inspired by the Book of Mormon. I want to read these to my grandchildren. Then I opened it up and noticed Merrilee had dedicated it to her grandchildren. We think alike! I just read aloud the first one last night for bedtime to my two oldest grandsons and enjoyed it. You know how sometimes stories meant to teach and/or inspire can be tedious? This one wasn’t and I hope the rest of them are just as pleasant.
Then these church history trivia cards. The pack was $1.50. They are so beautiful! I love trivia and I love the story of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ so I had to get these. I love that the artwork is so realistic. Probably done by AI. I love the rendering of Lucy Mack Smith, she looks so lovely. You can play three different games with these cards: Saints, Timeline, and Trivia. The set is #1 of a series about Church history, done by the B.H. Roberts foundation. You can see all of the four sets of the series and order them here.
Here are some of the cards below.
You can also buy them on Amazon here. Below is an image below from amazon to also show how beautiful the cards are. Each of the four packs retails for $19.95 so $1.50 is a great deal! I hope to find the rest of the packs when thrifting.
Image Credit: amazon.com
In addition to all the above, I also got these things below from that first thrifting trip, which was also to celebrate my anniversary. I found a table runner for St Patrick’s Day! I’ve been wanting more decorations for St. Patty’s Day. Only $3. It will look great with my springy-floral tablecloths as well as my gray and white patterned white tablecloth. Then the two blue outfits are for my new grandson. $2 each.
Then we have some books I got when going to some Little Free Libraries with my husband on a date. This was part of our anniversary four-day weekend celebration of Aug. 15-18. I rented a tandem bike for my husband and me, and then we learned to ride it in our neighborhood park in the afternoon. I wanted to ride it to at least 5 or 6 Little Free Libraries after we learned how to ride, and trade out whatever number books we brought for new-to-us books, but by the time we got out, we only had time for two stops, before we had to get back for our family game afternoon and pizza and ice cream dinner before our night of temple sealings. So we drove to the first Little Free Library, bringing four books. We traded two books for two books in that first Little Free Library, and then rode the bike to the second free Little Library, where we traded in two more books. So we brought home four new-to-us books. The Mulberry Street book was in great condition, and I felt a bit rebellious in adding this sometimes banned book to my Dr. Seuss collection. Then the Ben Franklin book is a Landmark book, which I do collect. I’m just bummed it’s not hardback with the pretty binding to match the others on my shelf. Oh well. I hope to read it aloud to my last child I’m homeschooling as well as to my grandchildren. I’ll also use it for my Independence Day decorations. Then Expecting Adam is about a woman who gets pregnant and then finds out her baby is expected to have Down’s Syndrome. It looks so good. Then the Little Toot book looks vintage and fun.
Then the following Tuesday I went back to the Provo DI and found the above goodies. Yes, those are baby wipes in the bottom left. The bag is still sealed, Kirkland brand, so high quality. It was $3 so cheaper than if I bought them brand new at Costco. I had just been thinking in the past month or so that I had run out of baby wipes and wanted to replenish. I don’t have babies or young kids at home on a daily basis but I like to have these on hand for quick clean ups when the grand kiddos are here.
I just love the two shirts! One is super thick, high quality designer brand, by Isaac Mizrahi. Only $3! I’m always looking for the perfect plain basic white shirt and I think I’ve finally found it because it has a flattering fit and feels so soft and thick. The other one is a fun T-shirt with a theme I love: a butterflies and nature. I can wear it with black pants, a black skirt, my red polka dot skirt, and my gingham checked black skirt. Word Flip is a Discovery Toys game. This is one game I like to keep in my baskets by the dining room for easy mealtime entertainment and connection. I got a copy of this game decades ago as a Christmas gift from my sister and we’ve used it a lot over the years at mealtime. Two of the tabs broke which was annoying because it meant that sometimes two of the letters on the card underneath where two tabs are supposed to be, showed through, if the word was longer than 7 letters. So then the game wasn’t as fun. So when I found this game at the Provo DI for only $2, and the game still had the original factory seals, I thought, “Hey I can ‘fix’ the old game for only $2 by simply replacing it!” Done!
Then here’s another rectangular basket to use for bedroom organization. One of these days I’ll get my all the toy shelves and my bedroom organized by baskets. I have plenty of thrifted baskets now, I think, I just need to take the time to do it! We shall see when it all pans out. Then we have two of my favorite things from that particular day’s haul.
First, a book about Jane Austen.
I’m so excited about it! Here’s the book summary from amazon.com:
“A comprehensive and entertaining celebration of the classic works of the nineteenth-century British novelist includes a host of offbeat trivia about the author, facts about Austen’s life and times, a detailed filmography and bibliography, quotations, sidebars, and information on literary themes.” I wish the cover art was better, it’s too cartoony for me, but the book will still be so fun! It’s amazing what happiness only $1 can buy!
Second, the Reader’s Digest Children’s Songbook. We had this book in my childhood home as I grew up and I don’t know what happened to it. I inherited most of my mom’s piano music but not this one. Our family’s copy was a different edition, it was yellow with red lettering, as shown below. All the songs, though, are the same inside with the same typography and illustrations, just green and gray and black instead of orange gray and black. So it was so fun to find this. I got it for $4, and it’s used on amazon for $4.05 plus shipping so not a huge savings, but still cheaper. It still has the audio CD inside the front cover and the lyrics booklet in the back. It looks like new!
It has so many fun songs, like The Rainbow Collection, Do-Re-Mi, The Muppet Show Theme, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, It’s Not Easy Being Green, We’re Off to the See the Wizard, The Good Ship Lollipop, The Pink Panther movie theme, and so much more. Definitely worth $4! Just having the songs from the Sesame Street/ Muppets and the Wizard of Oz alone is worth the $4!
Image Credit: amazon.com
This was a fun follow-up to finding the Reader’s Digest Popular Classics Songbooks that I found this past summer, over here.
I already have the Christmas songbook, from my 16th birthday. It gives me a lot of joy to play piano music and sing along. We sometimes do family and friend singalongs as well. After I do walking or strength exercising I reward myself by playing a song or two. Playing music is just such a quick way to dazzle my heart.
The third week of August, I went thrifting twice. I dropped my 16 year old son off for the Heroic Youth Quest and stopped at the American Fork DI on the way home. Here’s what I found, below.
I just love, love the floral skirt above. It gives me all the gorgeous flowery Ivy City Co vibes without the hefty price tag! It was only $6. I felt blessed to find a matching top in exactly the right shade of hot pink for only $3. (I folded up the top in the photo to cover up the grease spot that came at my son’s birthday dinner party when I greedily ate the last bacon wrapped onion ring while standing in the kitchen instead of properly sitting at the table where the grease would have fallen on my plate.)
I’ve always loved Heather Farrell’s writings about women of the scriptures on her blog. So I was excited to find her book, Women of the Old Testament, for only $4. Then Katy and the Big Snow is a classic picture book I can add to my winter picture book collection and read to the grandchildren. It’s one of those books I’ve checked out from the public library every year from our Morning Basket and now I don’t have to any more, so yay!
The basic Scrabble game I’ve been wanting to find, in order to add to my Gardening Scrabble to see if it makes it more fun to make the game last longer. Last time I played it just felt like it ended too soon when we ran out of tiles. The Bob Ross game I already have, but this one was still factory sealed. My old one, which I also found thrifting a few years ago, has dried out markers so I figured this was a way to fix the game just like with Word Flip above by simply replacing it with a new one. The thing on the top called Loving Families is piano sheet music from 1976. It’s a lovely song about family togetherness.
Then I got a small rose gold picture frame, for only $1. I’m going to fill it with one of my 19-year-old daughter’s adorable baby photos and put it on my desk. The science book has a totally boring ugly cover but is very interesting inside with lots of photos, illustrations, and text about basic science concepts. Then the London thing is a card deck full of cards about walking tours in London. It was still in the shrink wrap, only $1.50. My firstborn moved to Ireland this summer with his wife. I hope to visit sometime and tour London with them. These cards will help me plan a walk or two in London. I can also just use them to tour via Google Earth. I might just put it in my stocking as a stocking stuffer for Christmas and act surprised when I pull it out, LOL. It’s from Chronicle Books and retails used on Amazon for over $16.
Then the background is a flat sheet which I bought for use as a tablecloth. My fantasy self wants to sew it into a cottage core/milkmaid dress, LOL, we shall see.
Then here’s my last thrift haul for August, from the Orem Savers, below. I went looking for some supplemental birthday items to go with my son’s main birthday gift. He asked for a double bass pedal for his drum set. So that was on its way, but I also wanted to get some some other things inexpensively. I was hopeful to find something he would love.
I found the books below. The bottom two were for him. The top three I added to my Dr. Seuss/Bright and Early Beginner Books for the grandchildren. With my 20% coupon I got them each for less than $2. they each looked brand new! I got the Merlin book because he loves knights, medieval times, and sword fighting. That’s why he loves the Heroic Youth Quest, where he was acting the role of a flag-bearer that day as I bought the books. I discovered by reading the back of the book that Madeleine L’Engle endorsed the book, so that sealed the deal for me buying it. I got the Schwarzenegger book because he’s into weightlifting. He goes everyday to the rec center with his buddies and lifts weights, as inspired by his older brother, now on a mission. Older brother went to the gym every day but Sunday for a few years before the mission and competed in weightlifting competitions. He was so good he joined the 1000 club, which means he lifted over 1000 lbs total in one morning’s competition in Idaho. I realize that bodybuilding and weightlifting are not the same thing but I figured he would love the book. I wasn’t going to get it at first. I had picked a different book for him, but when I got to the check out register, the Holy Spirit told me to go back and get the bodybuilding book and put the other one back.
I’m so glad I did! The book elicited a huge grin at his family birthday dinner party as soon as he pulled away the tissue paper around the book after lifting it out from the gift bag. We also had lots of laughter, from him as well as from his cousin, his aunt and uncle, and the rest of us. His Aunt Sally said that just the day before her husband had watched the Conan the Barbarian movie. The book even has a photo of Conan! I also got him two fun T-shirts, a BYU football shirt that I had picked up at DI the day before, and then this Subway shirt below, because he loves to eat at Subway, plus two of his cousins work at one in Maine so he talks about that with his boy cousin.
So that’s it for my August thrifting hauls! I’d love to hear what thrifting treasures you’ve found so please share below in the comments if you want.
If you want more thrifting juiciness, please go here to see all I’ve blogged about thrifting.
I missed my #thriftingthursday post yesterday which I’m hoping to make a habit. Ah, there’s always next week. Since we are in back-to-school time, go here to see what educational/school supply/homeschooling items I’ve found when thrifting, if you missed that post. Today’s post relates to thrifting too, even though it’s not about a thrift store. It is about a store that bargain hunters will want to visit!
It’s about Daiso, a Japanese dollar store. So if you are thrifty shopper, you definitely want to know about Daiso! Read on so you don’t miss out on some great deals!
If you live in Utah County, UT, you are sooo in luck!!! A new Daiso just opened up a few weeks ago in Provo UT. I got to visit just this morning. I was thrilled, and overwhelmed, to see the variety of offerings.
I’ll definitely be going back!! I didn’t even go through the whole store. So many cool things! Think of Dollar General/Dollar Tree meets Sanrio and TJ Maxx! It is a bit confusing when you first walk in. Everything is labeled in Japanese, with the prices in yen. So you have to follow the charts posted on the store to know the prices.
Basically, if there’s no price, then the price is $2.25. If there’s a price in yen listed, then check the price chart to translate the yen into US dollars.
When I was young, like 9-18, I used to go to the Sanrio/Hello Kitty store in the Orem UT mall. I spent my babysitting money on lots of Hello Kitty/My Melody/Tuxedo Sam stickers and doodads, plus Anne of Green Gables books at the BYU Bookstore. So a bit of nostalgia came back as I saw the Hello Kitty stuff today. As one Daiso YouTube vlogger mentioned, I’m still just a 7-year old girl at heart, bedazzled by all cute bits and bobs!
Below is what the outside looks like at the Provo Daiso. Such a modest storefront. You can’t tell what adorable, functional treasures await for you inside!
Below are some shots of what’s available. I only spent about ten minutes. I’ll definitely be going back!!!
Check out the glass food storage offerings, for all crunchy moms not wanting to store food in plastic stuff.
Lots of non-crunchy mom plastic stuff abounds, too, LOL.
Umbrellas!
Some baskets!!!
These zippered pen pouches are just so dang cute!! They remind me of the Sushi Go! card game.
Daiso abounds with lots of organization tools for office, home, and homeschooling. Look at those darling bookends!
All the sewing and craft notions will make any of you want to attempt some creating.
Believe it or not, I managed to leave with just some hair clips, for $2.25 each.
I’ll be going back for sure! I didn’t even get to the kitchen gadgets and dishes, the stationery, cleaning supplies, or the food.
I’m hopeful to get my Japanese sister-in-law to come with my other sisters-in-law and me for a fun girls day out. She can coach us on all the wonderful Japanese goodies, like the black cotton swabs shown in the video below.
This video shows some random stuff.
In the meantime, I have some YouTube videos to help me navigate all the offerings, so I can decide what I really truly need and want. Watch above and below.
This video shows a bunch of crafting stuff you can find at Daiso.
Who knew that I might need a case for a single banana, a Ramen noodle spork, an electric eraser, or a portable toilet small enough to fit in my purse?
Bonus blessing for me: the Provo Daiso store is just down and across the street from one of my happy places, the Provo Deseret Industries!!! So now I can hit both places on the same run. I’m excited to go there with my mom, my daughters, my grandsons and my Veggie Gal girlfriends. These items will make great add-on birthday gifts, stocking stuffers, and ministering sister gifts. I can tell Daiso will be increasing my hygge this coming winter by exponential factors!
I listened to this video below a few days ago and loved it. It features Stephen Jones interviewing Don Bradley about the significance of Joseph Smith’s childhood leg surgery. Don is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now, but for a time he left the Church, after being a life-long member. He claimed to be an atheist. After coming back to the fold, his testimony of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith is solid. Watch the video to hear his story, as well as all about a fascinating insight he shares into why Joseph Smith’s refusal of liquor during his excruciatingly painful surgery relates to Joseph Smith Sr.
Here’s the summary from YouTube:
“What would make a 7-year-old Joseph Smith refuse alcohol before undergoing one of the most excruciating surgeries imaginable—decades before the Word of Wisdom was ever revealed? Once an ex-LDS atheist, now a faithful Latter-day Saint and renowned Joseph Smith expert, Don Bradley shares one of the most powerful discoveries he’s ever made about Joseph’s life. This isn’t just another “Joseph Smith refused alcohol” story—it’s a window into his character and the cultural and historical context most people have never heard. Don opens up about the heartbreaking loss of his own young son—and how that experience gave him a deeply personal window into Joseph Smith’s life, particularly Joseph’s own experiences as a child and as a father. That shared lens of love, loss, and empathy adds a profound human dimension to both the history and the man behind it. We also explore Don’s personal faith journey—leaving the Church, the discoveries that shaped his perspective, and the path that ultimately led him back. From Church history to raw personal experiences, this conversation is real, unfiltered, and full of insights that could change the way you see Joseph Smith and the Restoration.”
I highly recommend you watch it! You will deepen your knowledge of the sacred eternal nature of family relationships, the noble character of Joseph Smith, the plan of salvation, and the grace of Jesus Christ.
Jessa Duggar Seewald dropped a video recently, announcing the name of her Baby #6! It’s Edward Owen. I got half of it right! Weeks ago I guessed Edward, but I didn’t get the middle name right. You can go watch the video here.
Above is big sister Fern Seewald loving on Edward. That and the photo below, so adorable! This baby is blessed to have three mamas!
Then here’s big sister Ivy Seewald loving baby Eddie too.
Then we see some of the Seewald siblings having fun at Grandma Duggar’s home. Cool tricycles! I want some!
Ben is such a loving dad.
I love seeing the art and craft projects that Grandma Michelle provides the older kiddos at her home while she tends them as Jessa adjusts to life with six children. This is the same atmosphere I cultivate for my grandchildren, by not getting rid of my arts, crafts, homeschooling books, and other supplies, and my Closet.
Want to see the rest of the story about Jessa’s labor and birth? Go here and here.
Tree of Life Mothering 