Green IKEA

I have an awesome story.  Wanna' hear it??

K.  Here it goes.

A few weeks ago, I needed 'Trek' clothes for Speedy.  I wanted to get some pants that I didn't care if he totally trashed because I knew they had four river crossings, Speedy is hard to fit, and he is super hard on his clothes.  I didn't want him to ruin any of the ones we had for school.  So I headed out to the thrift store to fine some.  I did!!  I found one long sleeved, but light-weight shirt, and two pair of pants that would work, for $10.00 total!  Score!!

While I was there, I had the thought to go check out their dinner ware.  So I did that.  A green set of dishes, five dinner plates, five salad plates, and five bowls for $10.00 for the set.  We had broken all of our cereal bowls.  I had two left, we had been using the china ones and that week we had broken one.  When I saw the set, the only thing I cared about were the bowls.  In my head, I did the math, because it was so hard.  Well, let's see, I only want the bowls, so I am paying $2.00/ bowl.  Yep, I am willing to pay that, and I bought the set.

Ya....this set, minus the cups, which I HATE.

After I washed them and we began using them, I noticed that I LOVED them.  They were awesome.  I also decided that I needed to have more bowls, so on my next trip to Target, I checked out their dinner ware.  I found some clear glass bowls, the same size and they were only $1.59/ bowl!  Score again!!  I bought five.  I figured out budget could handle that.

Fast forward three weeks.  I really like those dishes.  Then I thought, it's too bad I don't have any more of those IKEA dishes.  But I like those Target bowls.  I think I'm going to go and get some salad plates to match those bowls and then in a few months, I'll get some dinner plates and I'll just put my own little set together of glass and green IKEA.  That will work.  Drew asked me to go to Target today.  So I'll go and check out their dishes.

Bummer.  No salad plates!  I guess I'll just have to order them on-line.  Whatever.

Drew called me later in the day.  His co-worker is moving out of the area this week and trying to off-load his stuff.  We have a young man we are aware of just setting up his initial residence.  Drew's co-worker was wondering if he needed some of his stuff, including a set of dishes.  I knew the young man didn't need dishes, because I was there when another friend gave her set to him.  But, I thought, I might want his dishes.  We arranged a meeting between the two men and I came along to move the stuff because our young man friend doesn't have a car.

There were plenty of things given to him that I drove to his house.  The co-worker gave me the dishes.  They were all packed up in paper and a paper bag.  So I just took them home.  Then we had guests over when I arrived, so I left them in the car until our company went home.

I went out to the car and brought the dishes in.  Sun and I started unpacking them.  Wowser!  It was a serving for six.  Six dinner plates, six salad plates, and six bowls!  Guess what ??  They are IKEA dishes!!  AND, they are green, just a slightly different shade of green, but GREEN!!  If I alternate dinner and salad plates and bowls, they look interesting and beautiful, and look like they belong together!  Can you believe that!!??  Three weeks apart, a set of five and another set of six that match, that I LOVE, that cost me $10.00 and a little bit of gas!

They look like this, only with a greenish glaze.

And now I have a matching set of dishes.  I know that shouldn't be important, but it is to me, even though it is stupid, and not important in the eternal scheme of things.  It was just another testament to me that Heavenly Father loves me, thinks of me, cares that I have the things I need and some of the things I want and if I will listen, He can provide them for me in a manner that my budget can afford!  (And now I can let go of all of those odds and end dinner wares that have been just hanging around because we couldn't afford to do something else.

Thank you Heavenly Father!!  Thank you for my IKEA dishes!!  (PS, the story is cooler because we do not have an IKEA store anywhere even close!)