So Grateful
Tonight, I am just so grateful for a number of things:
Our new van (that's it above): We recently felt that it was time to sell our car (a Mazda Protege5 wagon) in order to purchase a minivan for our growing family. Long story short, we ended up getting what seems to be the perfect van for us. It's a 2002 Honda Odyssey, with very low kilometres, a new transmission, no issues at all except basic maintenance, and the price was significantly below market value. Our budget for a vehicle unexpectedly went up yesterday, with some money we had not anticipated receiving, giving us the room we needed to allow us to afford getting such an excellent vehicle without going a penny into debt. Every detail of it all, including the timing of how it all happened, was so obviously ordained. We feel so blessed!
My husband getting accepted into a small business course: We have been waiting for well over a month, for Ryan to be able to go through the full application and interview process for an entrepreneurial course that he wanted to take as he begins our new family business. Last week, it began to look as though he wouldn't be accepted due to some silly eligibility issues, but just this week we received the wonderful news that he is accepted and begins classes tomorrow!
Feeling like I have my darling baby back: After 3 weeks of extreme fussiness and colic, our little Johanna is really calming down. Most of the gas and colic is gone, the baby acne she had has almost disappeared, and she is back to being much more of her calm and happy self. She's even recently learned to smile- so delightful! I think it is probably due to the herbal teas I've been drinking this past week, which I am going to post about really soon (promise!).
Being nearly done summer/fall preserving and gardening: We've planned one big yard/garden day to get the bulk of the garden stuff finished off for the season, and then I just have to finish up the last crops that are still growing and then mulch it over for the winter. As far as preserving, I still have pumpkins to puree, and I might make more dried apples or fruit leather, and then just root cellar storage to complete (carrots, turnips, beets, etc.). I'm freezing the rest of the tomatoes, and I'll leave the kale and lettuce as long as they continue to grow.
God is so good, isn't He? He's already met our greatest need for a
Savior through the cross, and yet He still lavishly pours out His
blessings upon us!
Life has felt so busy and stressful this past while, and yet I can really see some light at the end of the tunnel. I feel so relieved, and am so anxious to get back into more of a regular routine in our home, and on my blog as well. Thank you all for your patience with me since Johanna's birth!
What have you been grateful for lately? How have you seen God's hand of blessing in your life?
I’m thankful for autumn!
So glad to hear all your blessings, Stephanie…
Jamie
I definitely see a message from God in a message I got from my husband this evening from where he’s deployed. 🙂
Yikes, I hit Post instead of Preview! Sorry – wanted to congratulate you on the new van and on the small business course. YAY! So glad your little one is doing better too. 🙂
What a wonderful post. Thanks for sharing it. I am so grateful for His mercy, grace and love.
Funny you asked this…I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed lately too, and like God is really distant. I keep feeling like He doesn’t hear me, even though I know that He does. I really do know that. The other day I was going grocery shopping and I decided to pray first- something that I try to do, since I find grocery shopping very difficult, with the kids but also with the budget crunch. I started to pray and tell God that I feel like He doesn’t hear me, but that I know He does. Then I prayed for the grocery trip… Anyways, I was almost out of frozen bananas (we use them in smoothies and some baking) and I really wanted more…but bananas are so expensive to buy practically green ones and then let them go brown to freeze! I haven’t seen any discounted bananas for about 6 months in my store, either. So I prayed for bananas. I got to the store and there were SIX banana boxes full of brown bananas (about 45 pounds each) discounted for what worked out to be 11 cents a pound. A nice employee helped me load up two of them (baby was in the ergo) and I peeled and froze about 90 lbs of bananas during nap time. I don’t think I want to peel another banana any time soon LOL! I thought of you. I think while shopping I got quite a few looks…but that is okay. It was such a blessing for God to show me (even though I know) that He does hear me and that He cares about those types of things, even when there are other prayers that He doesn’t answer for years (or ever). I couldn’t stop smiling and it has helped me over the past few days as we are going through some difficult times to remember God’s providence in such a simple thing. I was even able to share it with many others (believers and non believers) which was a blessing or testimony to them to!
So thank you for sharing your blessings as that is a great encouragement to the rest of us. You’re doing a great job and I wanted to encourage you to keep putting your family first, I understand your priorities fully and I think you are doing the right thing.
It is good for us to be able to see how God is at work in different people’s lives! Thank you for sharing.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about your husband’s new job venture and wondering how it was going. My daughter’s guitar teacher has started traveling to the homes of students this year for a small additional fee. I jumped on it immediately. What a blessing to have her come here instead of me having to stop homeschooling all the family! It is well worth the extra money since I think I spent more than that driving to the teacher last year. Wish all the music teachers offered this option. I hope and pray this is working out for your family.
What a blessing in the new van!!!! We have been praying for one too, as we have outgrown our gas-guzzling Toyota 4-Runner. Your baby is so precious, and I can’t wait to read your post about the herbal teas you’ve been using.
Can’t wait to hear about the tea. I too have a fussy baby girl (born August 6th) and would love to hear what’s worked for you.
Ditto on the teas! How have they made you feel, along with her feeling better?
I’ve been feeling so blessed and grateful to have the extended family I do. Having recently moved (temporarily) farther away from them, I don’t take them for granted; I see exactly how fortunate I am, and can’t wait to move back to be near them and see them more often.
We have a “van story” too…when baby number four was on her way, we definitely needed to take the plunge into the mini-van world! (It’s not legal to strap a child to the roof or for one to ride in the trunk!…Of course…I am joking!!)
God had the perfect van for us and we have the same story as you…it was older with low mileage and we paid cash for it. YAAAY!! What a blessing to see what the Lord can do, isn’t it? BTW…we are still driving that van 7 1/2 years later. 🙂
“In everything give thanks…”
You have been a blessing to me today.
Camille
Gosh! The sooner you post about the teas, the better! My little one was 12 weeks yesterday and he still is just soooo grouchy! But I am grateful that he sleeps like a dream at night… if only I could figure out how to make the day more pleasant!
My family was also recently blessed with a great deal on a new (to us) vehicle. It was so much better than we ever dreamed of finding. But thanks to some fixed hail damage and a not-your-typical used car salesman, we got a GREAT deal on a 2007 Chevy Impala – a car that we wanted but couldn’t afford without it being discounted. God provided in a huge way! And I’ve grown to love the barely visible hail ripples on the top of the car. A great reminder that God can bless us even through the “storms” of life.
I have a bazillion tomatoes that have turned red yet and it’s starting to cool off. Any suggestions?
How do you cook down your pumpkins? I just got a fresh pumpkin to cook but am not sure how I’m going to do it yet. I’m looking for various options.
So glad to hear about all of your blessings! And I’ll bet the extra vehicle space is nice with all those car seats, too! 🙂
The tea recipes would have been a great resource when my son was a newborn. We endured over four months of colic. I was beginning to wonder if it’s possible to die from being tired. 😉