What I Did at School Today

I headed to an army surplus place today to try and the perfect wool blanket for a project; I’ve been thrifting for a bit now trying to find one. Of course, I found wool blankets at the surplus store, but nothing I couldn’t live without, especially considering the $25 or $30 price tags. The wonderful folks who ran the surplus sent me to a thrift store down the street that I hadn’t been to before, and I will be going back.

I found a giant apothecary jar! I’ve been looking for one just like it for a few months to hold the enormous bag of baking soda that we buy at Costco. I also found another vintage floral print sheet, two spools of cotton thread, and a cotton hospital blanket. Yep, a hospital blanket; it’s in pretty bad shape, definitely a cutter. That’s a huge hole over on the left, but the rest of it is pretty clean. And although we don’t have orange really any where in the house, I am in love with the orange stripes!

While I was paying for my not a wool blanket pile of stuff, a guy came to the register and borrowed a tape measure. As I struggled to get the toddler, our small diaper bag, and all my finds out to my truck, it became apparent that he was buying something rather large and that his friend who was supposed to help him hadn’t shown. I did the rather unthinkable and offered to help out. If you’re in a small town this may not seem like such a big deal, but it’s the big city here and I was in a not quite wonderful area of town. Of course, having taught in the inner city, I’m not afraid, but still cautious. Normally I never would have volunteered to drive a full size fridge to a stranger’s house without my husband present, but something in my heart wouldn’t let me leave without helping. And boy was God truly in this one! After we’d unloaded the fridge into his driveway, he offered me some cash for my trouble. And while money is not something we have a ton extra of these days, there was no way I could let him pay me for something that I had done simply because God had put it on my heart. Jewel, as he’d introduced himself, told me that he’d have a testimony to share on Sunday morning. I can just hear him telling his church about the white lady with the little kid and the giant truck who helped him! It was really amazing to be on the giving end of things, and I’m determined to keep my eyes open for other places I can help out.

I do hope that your thrifting or whatever you do this weekend brings you great adventure; ours sure did!