Oh, the laundry...

I opened up my bills for the month and thought my power and water bill were fantastically low. I gave myself a mental pat on the back for being so wise with our water and power use. . . and then I walked down into the laundry room and realized that those machines hadn't been used for a VERY long time. No wonder the water and heating bills were so low.

Food from the Clouds

Last night Naki taught our Family Home Evening. The Lesson was about having Gratitude in your life. I realized that I needed to vocalize my gratitude for recent blessings from Heavenly Father. Several months ago Naki and I analyzed our budget needs and knew that we would have to have more income to meet our needs. He searched and searched and searched for a second job and nothing seemed to work. We decided that there was a job available, but for me instead. As we worked towards that goal, neither one of us felt peaceful about that decision. We prayed and fasted one Sunday to find the right solution for our family. That same evening Naki received an email from a friend of his asking him if he was in need for a part time job, and that the facility where he worked was looking for some part timers. Not only did he get the job that we needed but they brought him in at the Supervisor pay. What timing! It's interesting to me how Heavenly Father works, because we've been in this same position before, except that the 2nd job never came when we could have really used it. I've learned that He gives and he takes, and that my timing isn't always His timing.

With this tight budget of ours, we are watching our grocery bill very closely. We were a bit frustrated yesterday when Naki's car, (which we just spent a hefty amount of $ to get running smoothly to pass safety and emissions), decided not to start. After a jump he was on his way to work, only to have it not start again later on. With our tight budget, we knew this repair would have to come from the grocery budget. Imagine our shock and gratitude when later that afternoon we discovered 5 HUGE boxes on our front porch, just filled with canned goods, cereal, light bulbs, granola bars, etc. etc. As we were standing there, just overwhelmed, Eli said, "Heavenly Father sent us Food from the Clouds!" We are indeed blessed, Eli.