You did what?!

Don't worry - I'm just getting started.

Prepare yourselves, Montessorians, for some sad/happy news:

I sold all my Montessori materials.  

Yes, I did.

My husband wants 

to be gone.

And who can blame him?

All this was in storage in our garage/workshop, and it has to go.  

It was all part of the "process."  Do some of you get me? 

After I sold the Montessori materials my husband told me he thought they were a good investment in our children.  It was nice to hear (though a little late).  

We weren't using them as much as I'd hoped, and both my older children attend Montessori schools.  Very few people were checking them out as part of the library.

On the plus side, a teacher needing to set up 4 classrooms said, "I'll take it all."  That made me feel good.  The day before, a teacher bought some good stuff, and another teacher saw the stuff and was sorry she'd missed it (She also bought a lot of great materials).  

The one who took "everything" came right as another lady (from 2.5 hours' drive away) called and begged me for 10 minutes not to sell my glass beads.  

So I sold everything.  Including all the boxes of things I'd separated to keep (I removed a few things).  And I didn't look through all the boxes to be sure I wasn't selling something special to me (now I wish I had).  

I feel incredible excited about the sale, though.

1)  My husband is job hunting.  We can really use the money.  

2)  In addition, I paid off the "loan" I gave myself to start this business.  That means I own this business, which is incredibly awesome.  The business does not have any debt.  All my "mistakes" (things I paid too much for or whatever) are gone because I've recovered what I spent.  I don't have to feel guilty about spending on inventory.  I still have a lot of inventory (see above) to sell for a little extra profit.  

3)  Someone valued the things I collected (I'm sure my husband saw this as a very expensive collection of things I'd have to sell at a garage sale for nothing).  She also saved a lot a time and money collecting all these special things for her school.

4)  It was great to see so many boxes of "stuff" leave the house.  There is too much right now.  It has taken a lot of work to sell all this.  I'm hoping to sell some more large lots.

5)  I have learned a LOT about buying, selling, business, etc.  The business is picking up momentum, and good things are happening.  Going through this process has helped me figure out what I want to do.

I really love finding this cool stuff!  

6)  Finally, I learned something about the financial value of what I'm doing.  My Montessori training helped me accomplish this, and I can use the money from this venture to pay for P.'s Montessori school tuition, etc.

I just got booked for an Earth Day event in April.  For a rate I never expected.  And I've got some fantastic things planned already.  

I'm setting up some fundraising events for local schools.  

I'm setting up school specific game lending collections.  

What a rocking awesome setup!

7)  And after all, what an adventure we've had.  We still have amazing games, and we've spent hours of family time testing them.

I can always buy more Montessori materials, right?

And in other news, I've had as many blog views in the last 4 days and I had in a whole month a little over 2 years ago.  :)

Here are the latest pictures for anyone who's thinking "Who cares?  I just come for the pictures."

Cards