{ The past week }

I am so glad to see Friday come around.  It's been one of those weeks that I have not enjoyed, but I will tell you more about it in a moment, along with a testimony that has left both Curt and I with open mouths. 

 

First though let me flood you with little snippets of my past few days.

 

We've had quite a few rainy days, with one specifically being so severe that it knocked out our power for 10 hours.  On days like that, there is not much I can do.  Everything is online, everything requires electricity or internet.  We have become so dependent on this that I wonder what we would do in the case that we ever lost power completely.  My word, can you imagine?

 

Thankfully for me, I love reading, so I took the day to catch up and finish the book I was on, and start the next one, which I have also finished.  I will show you below which one it was. 

 

We have a lot of stray cats on the property, that we feed.  One of the females had kittens a few weeks ago.  These sweet babies have decided to hang out on our front porch, and I couldn't be happier to see them laying there.  How adorable is this baby? 

 

One of the first things I do, is make my bed.  This sweet comforter set is one I got recently, for the summer season.  It's actually a duvet cover which I have started enjoying the past few years, because it makes doing the laundry much easier than having to lug huge comforters into the washer or the laundromat. 

 

I am a creature of habit, and I follow practically the same morning routine during the week.  Once the bed is made, I get ready for the day, then get started with all the homemaking chores.  

 

While I do this, I will turn on my audio Bible, it helps me to read the Bible every day and it makes it easier when I'm not having to find moments to sit with the physical book.  I am currently in Judges.  

 

I want to show you these two plants below and give you a tip that I recently learned, about 6 months ago and it's been life changing for me.

 

Anytime I try to grow anything in water, the water goes rancid and I'm constantly having to change it.  While watching a Mexican lady on Youtube one day, she showed how she keeps her water clear without having to constantly change it, and how the plants thrive as well.

 

I figured I would give it a try but honestly deep inside thinking, this is not going to work.  Well it did.  All you have to do is add about a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and a splash of vinegar.  That's it.  Look how clear that water is, and this is 3 weeks down.  

 

Watering plants is a weekly chore, but in the summer months I do it twice a week, and I have a lot of plants growing now.  I'm quite the plant lady at this point, and very proud of it I must say.  hahaha

 

I also brought down all the curtains and washed them this week.  It's not a job I enjoy but it's so rewarding when it's done and looks and smells so fresh.  

 

I finished the Tessa Afshar book, then started and finished Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin.  I had heard great things about it, but it was just ok for me.  There was nothing spectacular or special about, and definitely not a book that will stay with me.  

 

That is how books go though, right?  You get some that stay with you forever, change you, you can't stop thinking about them.  Then there are some that get set aside because you can't get into them at all, and then there's others like this one, that were ok, a quick read but nothing memorable.  

 

My next one however is a monster of a book.  Huge chunker that I have been wanting to read for a long time, and think now is the time.  

 

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.  It was originally written and published between 1920 and 1922, in Norway has since been translated.

 

Overall, a normal week you would think but something happened that really upset Curt and I.  I actually cried when it happened because I was so angry and so frustrated, I could not believe it.

 

Back on Wednesday Curt noticed a pending charge on our account for $437 at Sam's Club.  Now we do have Sam's club but we don't go often, and it's always in store, matter of fact last time we were there was beginning of May.

 

He asked me if I had bought something and obviously I said no, but we immediately went to check our account, and the day before a transaction of $498 had gone out of Sam's club as well.  We were shocked.  Both transactions had been done using my bank account, which I always have with me.  I got on the phone with Sam's Club and they looked into it and assured me that there was no transaction made from our account, if something had been done using our card at Sam's, it was online and not through our account.  They even sent me an email to send to the bank as proof.

 

After sitting on the phone with the bank for a while, my card was cancelled and I have to wait for a new card to arrive in the mail.  We were told that we had to dispute those transactions but it can only be done after it's cleared the bank, so at that time, the one for 498 could be disputed for fraud, the other pending one we can't do anything until it clears.  So basically $1000 stolen from our account.

 

I won't even tell you how much I detest hackers and scammers and people who commit fraud.  It is the lowest kind of thing you can do to people, stealing their hard earned money.

 

Anyway, this was Wednesday around 5pm when we noticed all this.

 

Thursday morning, I went to our online bank account and disputed both transactions, because the pending one had cleared.  I was told by the bank that not only could they not tell us if this was done online, if it was the same state, or what or who, but that an investigation would be open with their fraud department but basically there is nothing we can do.  We were told it would most likely take months and there was no guarantee we would have those funds refunded.

 

I felt so deflated and so heartbroken over this.  Any money being stolen is horrible, but $1000 is a lot of money.  I put it in God's hands, prayed over it, and let it go, resigned to the fact that would be handled by God and determined that those funds would be returned to us, even if it took months.

 

So, money stolen Tuesday and Wednesday, disputes opened yesterday Thursday in the afternoon, and this morning, both transactions were fully refunded and returned to our account.  To say Curt and I are shocked is an understatement.

 

God has always provided and come through for us, through many difficult moments, but this is unheard of.  The bank itself was shocked that it was resolved that fast, because that is unheard of.

 

For us, it's just another testimony to add to the hundreds of others that God has given us through our lives.  

 

I needed to share that with you all, to give you hope, to serve as a testament of the power of God and what He does for his children.  We remain faithful to Him through all of our trials and He in turn continues to show up and show off.

 

What a mighty wonderful God we serve!!!