Christmas money? Check.

With our extremely limited budget right now, the thing weighing on my mind is finding money to pay for Christmas gifts for my kids and Zachary's birthday.

We don't go all out, just little things, but I do like them to have a variety of fun things to open on Christmas morning.

I am THRILLED to say that the yard sale today was a huge success. I gathered all my stockpile overage, priced it over the last few days and loaded it in the van. My Mom's employer had a huge yard sale today which was nice b/c I didn't have to advertise, set up tables, etc.

I sold 90% (or more) of the items I had out (including all 40+ bags of charcoal) for
$700.

That's right my friends. $700.

Christmas is more than handled. And I can also get some new glasses (which I have been putting off- haven't done in three years), treat my family to dinner out tonight (a very, VERY rare treat) and add to my "van-tire" fund.

Woohoo!!

SO far so good

The freezer seems to be holding up. After checking it out last night, it seemed to be cold, so I stuck a few packs of buns in there to see if they would freeze and this morning, they were solid.

I risked it and went and picked up our food and loaded it all back in this afternoon. So far, everything is still frozen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it just needed to be defrosted and now it's all better.

Happy freezer= happy Mommy.

Every stockpiler's worst nightmare

I pulled into the driveway after my daughter's gymnastics class and my husband runs out in the driveway waving his arms

THE FREEZER ISN'T WORKING!!!

oh NO!!

I go in and look and sure enough, everything is thawing. the ice cream is almost to runny point and all the meat is thawed. ARGH! I think fast. Ok, we'll put it all in coolers and go get ice until the freezer thaws and maybe it just needs to defrost then it will be fine. Hubby gets some clothes on and we start moving stuff into coolers. I run next door to the neighbor's and give them three half-gallons of ice cream, some pork steaks, bacon and waffles.
Meanwhile, a thought occurs to me. A very good and sweet friend who lives nearby may have a deep freeze. I call her. She answers her cell phone, thank goodness. And yes, she does have a freezer and it happens to be mostly empty.

*Whew*

I load the coolers in the car and drive to her house and load up her freezer (filled it up!)

Thank goodness for friends!

Meanwhile, my freezer is sitting in a puddle of water in the garage. I have been sopping it up occasionally and hoping against all hope that a good defrost is all it needs.

Mama can't afford a new freezer!

Please send freezer-healing vibes. :D