Help is a blanket

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Help is a blanket.

It’s FiveMinuteFriday and I still do not have Internet. We have been in our new apartment for one month and installation is no where in sight. Usually, if I want to write, I hop in the car at six a.m. and head to Starbucks. I grab my coffee and then sit in he parking lot because I am usually not presentable to go inside. Today? I typed the entire post on my phone with my chubby little thumbs…even made my image with an app and it wasn’t easy. Most importantly, I hope this post about HELP will help you or someone you know who needs the encouragement. Happy Friday!

The year was 1983 and I had a busy life with a toddler, a husband, a house to care for and a job.

Then, I became sick. We were young, didn’t have insurance and I just thought it would go away as before. But a diseased gallbladder rarely stays too quiet. I laid on the couch in our living room slowly turning yellow, my mother had come to take care of me because the pain was so bad.

Finally, when I could stand it no longer, The Sweetheart insists I go to the doctor and I was immediately admitted to the hospital with severe jaundice and gallbladder disease. My doctor walks into the hospital room and mentions surgery.

Surgery? I was only 21 years old! He said it was the worst case he had ever seen and I was his youngest patient to operate on for gallbladder removal. Worrying about our lack of insurance, I asked if it could be put off and I just take medication. His words have forever stayed with me,

“I operate today or you die tomorrow.”

That will pretty much put things in perspective for you! I was petrified, letting the seriousness of the situation sink in, and fretting over my little one at home. Things happened so fast but someone thought to call our pastor and he was there to pray over me before they wheeled me away.

Can I say that this was truly the first time I had felt that supernatural peace of God? Before prayer, I was anxious, extremely sick and scared to death. Remember, this was before laparoscopic gallbladder surgeries. But as soon as he prayed for God to guide the surgeon’s hands and to give me peace and a quick recovery, it was as if peace was a blanket and they had just pulled it up over me.

image

Help. Jesus came to help me as a young mother almost 34 years ago to remind me down through my life that all I have to do is call His name and He will be there to help me. He didn’t miraculously heal me so I would not have to go through the surgery but He HELPED me have peace that He was with me and everything would be alright one way or another.

Are you facing a mountain or something that seems impossible today? Let Jesus help you by relinquishing control and that peace of God, that truly does pass understanding, will cover you like a blanket.

 

Update your Longaberger baskets!

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Update your Longaberger baskets!

I can remember the very first Longaberger basket I bought in the early 90’s and I still have it.  I can also remember my husband asking, “You paid WHAT for a basket?!” Yeah. The darning basket, $25, plus the liner and protector. That was nothing compared to what we were paying for them a few years down the road. But, back then, I loved them. They went with my traditional home and everyone else was buying them!

With my latest move to Tennessee just a few weeks ago, I was changing out  décor and updating things for a new change in a new city, a new state. Just as others are updating their honey-oak cabinets, woodwork and even furniture, why not get some more use out of expensive baskets that are still in good condition? I sold quite a few baskets and almost all of my pottery when I moved to Latvia in 2011 but still kept about 20 baskets. What to do with them now that they didn’t fit in the new place?

Enter Pinterest. I wondered if do-it-yourself-ers were painting them and how did they do it? I found a few but they were too detailed and too involved. There had to be an easier way!

Experience is the best teacher so I started with a can of chalk paint spray paint. It did a great job covering but I didn’t like the finish quite as well. Here, you can see how it transformed this basket.

spring basket

Next, I tried a satin and then a glossy spray paint and I liked them both. Unfortunately, I don’t have a “before” of all of the baskets…didn’t think about a post until I had painted a few! Here is what I call the banana basket because that is what I used to use it for. Before:

banana 2

And after, in the guest bath!

banana

banana basket

Here is the paint and color I used on all of the aqua baskets:

paint

Here are a few more I tried in blue ocean breeze, the first is the small trash basket, no, it doesn’t sit on my vanity, lol. Just for pictures!

waste

trash basket

The leather handles took the paint perfectly! Don’t be afraid! This one holds rolled up towels.
update your longaberger baskets

fruit basket

Even the little baskets that go in the cabinet to hold essentials received a makeover!

tea basket

Here are a few in the satin gray granite by Rustoleum:

oil basket

med gather 1

And my favorite, the large hamper, 25 years plus!!! The basket was still in great shape but the lid was looking pretty rough. This simple paint job really made it look years younger!
hamper

hamper lid 2

I did an old Easter basket in a very pretty cream glossy. It looks wonderful!

easter basket

Does this give you the nerve necessary to tackle your own project with your tired-looking baskets? Go ahead, give it a try! Pick your least favorite to start, and preferably a small basket, if you are nervous and just be careful not to overspray. Take a paint brush and dust off the baskets, doing your best to get the lint and dirt out of the corners, they are dirtier than you think! Then you can start spray painting. Just be sure to go back and forth lightly so it doesn’t run. Let it dry according to the paint can instructions, sometimes I could respray in an hour since I was doing it outside. Keep turning the basket and be sure not to let it stick to paper. Have fun with it and in no time you will have a room full of NEW baskets to enjoy for many more years to come.
Sharing with A proverbs 31 wife, Amaze me Monday, Modest Monday, Counting our blessings, Tell me a true story,Sitting among friends, Wake up Wednesday, Friendship Friday

How to build for a storm

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Today’s #FiveMinuteFriday word prompt is BUILD. So glad you have joined me and would love to have your input! Read other great posts on the same thought here.

Building a house can be an exciting time or your worst nightmare. A Methodist minister and his wife bought their dream home in North Carolina but the joy didn’t last long. They soon noticed cracks and bulges in the walls and defects in the flooring and discovered, to their horror, that the house had no footings beneath it and was literally falling off the mountain. They were forced to sell for the value of the lot alone!

Two builders. On the outside, their two homes might have even looked similar, maybe identical. They both went to church, they both participated in life groups, Sunday School, maybe sang in the choir. (You can read the story here.)

But one thing was missing. 

how to build for a storm

One builder had dug deep. He knew that his life, the life of his family, his church, his community, depended on the foundation that he would build his house. If it was all superficial, just looked good on the outside, but had no depth, no relationship, no firm foundation, it would crumble.

The other builder had started out on the top, on the surface, just building his house on the sand, so to speak. He had no depth, he had not dug deep, he did not keep going until he hit the Rock. He was satisfied with the outward structure, the facade of his house.

The dictionary gives the definition of the word build as to construct (something, typically something large) by putting parts or material together over a period of time. And there is where the difference will show…even though the houses looked the same on the outside, the foundations were hidden but showed up when the storms came. The storm would blow away the house that wasn’t built on a firm foundation, and the Bible says, “…and great was the fall of it.” But the other stood because he had not just heard the words of Jesus, he had done them.

Even though I have heard this story countless times in my life, today I looked at it as both builders being Christians because the Bible said they both heard His words. One acted upon them, one followed Him, one came to KNOW Christ whereas the other also went to church but just went through the motions and never pushed past the sand to find the Rock!

I’ve used this version from The Message before, not normally my go-to, but I like a couple of things it says here:

“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.” Matthew 7:26-27 The Message

If you just use my words in Bible studies, if you just go to church, if you just look the part then you are going to fall. You won’t be able to stand in a storm; you will have no foundation. And when your house falls, and it will fall, it will affect those around you because they thought you were like the other builder!

No one lives to himself, our lives are connected a thousand times over and if you are professing to be Christ-like, it will show…when the storm comes.