Just Grace Goes Green (11 page)

When I woke up the next morning I just lay in bed under the cozy covers and looked around my room. Sometimes a big idea can happen when you are not even expecting or thinking about it.

LOOKING SOME MORE

BIG IDEA

BREAKFAST

I asked Mom for some French toast for breakfast. French toast is something I like to eat when my empathy power is hard at work. It's my superhero breakfast. Mom said, "French toast? Well, you haven't had that in a while." She was 100 percent right. I have not been feeling my superpowers lately, even though I am supposed to be a superhero of conservation on top of my regular empathy power.

I was glad that tomorrow was Saturday, because that was perfect for my big plan of action.

PRESENTATIONS

Today was the first day of presentations. Mimi, Gwen, and I don't have to do ours until next week. This was perfect, because mostly all you have to do during presentations is sit in your chair and look like you are paying attention. So I had lots of time to think about my plan for tomorrow. I even had time to draw up a poster.

When it was lunchtime I could hardly wait to show my poster to Gwen and Mimi. I was surprised when Mimi said she wanted to be part of the sale too. She loves her stuff so much, she usually doesn't even let other people borrow her things. It was hard to
imagine her letting anything go ... even for money. Then, when Sammy found out Gwen was going to be there, he said he had some stuff he could sell too. We didn't see Max at lunch, but I was pretty sure he was going to want to be there as well. Pretty much everyone likes the chance to make money.

The good thing about having other people selling stuff was that it madethe sale bigger and more exciting—plus they could also help put up the posters. There was only one rule and that was ... you can't sell junk!

MISS LOIS SAYS YES

At the end of the day I asked Miss Lois if having a yard sale counted as a thing for the conservation chart. She said that getting people to reuse products that already exist counted a
lot. She said she was sorry that class was over because she would have told everyone about my sale. Then she said that she would be excited to hear all about it on Monday morning when I came back to school. Having Miss Lois be excited about me and my project did one big thing. It made me smile.

WHAT MOM SAID

After school I had to go home and ask Mom for permission to go to the photocopy store. She doesn't like for me to wander all over town without knowing where I am. She's lucky that a new photocopy store opened up only three blocks away. That way she doesn't have to do anything but say yes when I
ask her. Before that she had to drive me to the old one because it was too far away to walk. Mostly she doesn't ask what I want to copy, and if she doesn't want to know, then I don't tell her.

If I were a mom and saw five kids who were me, Mimi, Gwen, Sammy, and Max all waiting to get permission to go to the photocopy store, I would be suspicious. I would think, "What are those kids up to?" But not Mom. I think she just thinks,
Oh, good, they're leaving—now I can get some peace and quiet.

ADVERTISING

You have to put up posters everywhere or else people won't know you are having a sale. Mostly the best places to put them up are at corners. That way the customers
see them from all the directions. After the posters were up, we didn't hang around together at all. Getting stuff ready for a sale is hard work and you have to be organized, so we all went home to get ready.

WHAT IS NOT EASY TO DECIDE

There are some things that you just know are going to be easy to let go of and that is because they are not so special.

There are other things that are much harder than you thought, and that is mostly because they have a story with them.

When I was all finished organizing, I had two whole boxes filled with stuff and my room was much neater and more organized. Mom could not be unhappy about that.

Secretly I was hoping to make twenty dollars—that way I could buy something fun and new to wear to Gwen's birthday party. Mom gives me money to buy presents for parties, but unless it's a special occasion I don't usually get to have presents for myself too. If I try to ask she just says, "You've got enough stuff already."

I was lucky about my conservation jour
nal tonight. Mom forgot to turn the light out in the bathroom when she was finished.

Turned out light that was not needed since no one was in the bathroom.

SAVING THE EARTH ON A SATURDAY