What God Has Done For Us This Week

Last Saturday was a great day. I got up early and made it to the grocery store by 7:00 (ALONE) to get my shopping done. I am a morning person and would rather take a beating than go to the grocery store on a Saturday.........that early in the morning, no one is there! My new years goal is to pay cash for all my groceries this year.  That's a task that has seemed extremely impossible for me but I was prepared to do it last week. I had my list, my calculator and a few coupons in hand. I made it through the grocery store and back home in less than 1.5 hours and I blew my goal out of the water. Meaning I made it out of the grocery store $20 under my budget and I paid cash! Whoo Hoo!! I headed back home admiring the sunrise over the fields and barns and just felt like it was such a wonderful start to the day. I got home and unloaded groceries and then headed back to town to ship some stuff I sold on ebay (this all has a point I promise).

Once I got back home, Tim's brother was over at the house ready to grill/ smoke a bunch of meat for the week. After they filled up the grill with food, the oven with food and had a half hour to wait, they decided it would be a good idea to go to town to check out a store. I was left with a grill and oven full of food, and a promise that they would be right back. Well about 10 minutes later I got a call from Tim. He had heard a very loud BOOM and then it appeared that the van (which I had taken back and forth to town twice already) had blown a radiator hose and they were now headed to the mechanic and I needed to pick them up.
This means I was left with the 3 kids, all the meat cooking and a 5 passenger sedan. Do the math...... there was not room for the kids and 3 adults in the car. So because I have the world's best neighbors, Tammy came over, watched my kids, and the meat and I sped up to get the guys and rush back to grab the meat before it was ruined. The whole time I was just SO thankful that this did not happen to me while I was driving. It would have sent me into a anxiety attack for sure. At least Tim knew what to do and all was good.

Once we got back home, we had to laugh because we had just paid our van off that week and then this happened. It's always something right?!?!?

Anyways the guys got back to grilling and I was cleaning house. Tim got a call from the mechanic telling him it wasn't just a hose..... it appeared a bullet had ricocheted off the front grill, penetrating the radiator and the a/c condenser. SCARY! Once again I immediately thought of how GREAT God is, two feet higher and it would have hit one of them.

Later that night at the dinner table Rascal asks, what are we learning about tomorrow? We were a little confused and asked if he meant in Sunday School. He replied... No, What is Bro. Rick preaching on tomorrow? Can we read about that in our bible time tonight. My heart grew with joy. We read about the sermon on the mount which is what was going to be preached about the next day.
Then after dinner and showers, we all sat down in the living room to relax. Tim and I had watched a youtube sermon on our tv the night before and Scooter, asks.... Dad, can you find us another sermon to watch? I really like the one last night. My heart grew even more with joy.

So on a day that I would most definitely typically call a "bad" day, I was left seeing God's hands at work ALL day long. It was not a bad day at all.... it was a day filled with blessings.

Just to finished the van story:

We let the van sit until Monday morning, and filed it all under insurance (another HUGE blessing from God), got set up with a rental car and now we just wait for it all to be fixed.

Yesterday I got a call from the mechanic and they finally found the culprit to all the damage. A 3 inch long tire weight was found lodged somewhere under the hood, so it wasn't a bullet. That made me breath a little bit easier however if it can penetrate through a radiator and an a/c condenser... it could have still done some major damage to the guys. God is SO good. He has his hands over us protecting us at all times and this was just one of those times that I am glad he does watch over each one of us.