{ So cold, and needing to trust in the Lord..... }

The temperatures have dropped so much here lately.  We woke up to 20 degrees, and I know those of you in areas that are used to this and much much lower, are probably rolling your eyes and possibly calling me a whiny baby.  That's ok.....I fully admit that I'm whiny at times.

I opened the door for Marley this morning and a blast of icy wind smacked me right in the face, it actually made me lose my breath for a second.  So cold!!!

It doesn't exactly incite visions of wanting to get out there and get busy, more like images of taking your behind right on back to your warm comfy bed.

"You know you don't HAVE to get up with me in the mornings, you can stay in bed!", he says.

He always says, almost on a daily basis when he hears me moan about the alarm clock going off.

"I know, but I don't want to, I need to make you coffee and lunch for work."  I tell him this every single time too.

It's a repetitive conversation we have quite often, and it honestly makes me smile.

See, I know that I don't have to get up, I could easily just sleep through the alarm, let him get up and ready and off to work, and I could stay in my warm cocoon, only to emerge hours later.  I am after all, a stay at home mom.

But I take my job seriously, and I feel that since he has to go off to work every day, and I'm blessed to stay inside where it's warm, the least I can do is get up, fix him a hot cup of coffee and a nutritious lunch and see him off to work.  It doesn't hurt me in any way, and he does appreciate it.

A hot cup of coffee, some warm clothes and with my grocery list in hand, I headed off to base for our shopping.

Our groceries for the next two weeks came to $260, so I managed to stay under budget.  For many many years, the budget was $250 but we recently upped it to $300 because it's getting harder to shop with everything being so expensive.

After returning home, I got everything put away, cleaned up the kitchen, did some dishes and then sat down at my computer to pay bills.  That's never the fun part of my day, money comes and money goes right out, but we are blessed to be able to afford all our bills and have food on the table and a roof over our heads, everything extra is just that.....extra and can be done without.

But even with that in mind, we are stretched quite thin and it hasn't been easy but I've left it all in God's hands and He continues to surprise me with blessings here and there.

For the first time in many years, 5 years to be exact, we are getting a tax return, it's not much, but guess what, it's enough to get the car part we need to fix my little red car which has been sitting in the garage since October.

Of course as a Christian, I know that when a blessing comes our way, not soon after some obstacle tries to steal that joy.

We have had two issues come up that impact our finances, AGAIN.  It's like rowing against crazy wild seas and going absolutely nowhere, so we could use some prayers right about now, just for the Lord to show us the right way to go about it and to place the right circumstances in our path.  I'm not worried, it's actually quite funny how much I've grown as a person and as a woman of faith.

I have lived most of my adult life in a constant state of worry, if it wasn't one thing it was another, to the point where I made myself sick at times and became intolerable to be around, even to myself, and that is something.  Goodness!!!!

I don't let obstacles worry me anymore, I give them the attention they need, I try to figure out what to do, but always with prayer in the back of my head and always in constant conversation with God, and the changes it has made in my life and my attitude, have been nothing short of miraculous.

One step at a time, right?

Well the day has come to an end, and I'm about to get into bed and catch up on some reading, that's how my crazy Friday nights go.  How about yours?