Thursday, December 13, 2012

Tis The Season

This is the season of cheer and giving and family, and in my house baking, and crafting, and all those merry things that come along with this time of year. This season started out happy and cheerful, after all it is my favorite time of year. We got our tree a few days after Thanksgiving. the kids were so excited when we walked in the door and surprised them with a tree. Doug put in up and the kids and I put "snow" on it. We decided to put clear lights on this year. We thought we would avoid any ornament breakage, so we went out and bought two small things of plastic ornaments, one blue, one silver. Looked like a petty classy tree. I got the feeling the night we put it up we were going to have a battle on our hands with Judah. While we were still putting the "snow" on, he was taking it right back off. Sigh...the joys of a two year old. Maybe it was just that we were playing with the tree, he thought he had to, too....or maybe not. In the days to come the tree was bald, no snow, no balls, and the needles started falling off too....talk about a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, that's what it was turning into.
     Ok so the tree was looking bad, doesn't mean Christmas is ruined right. I started to go though my budget to see how much money we would have to spend on Christmas. Every year I try to shift things around in our budget so that Doug's last check before Christmas, we have a few extra bucks to go shopping. Looking over our bills, our shut off notices and what had to be paid I quickly realized there would be no wiggle room to spend ANYTHING...and our grocery bill has been growing tighter and tighter so it seems every week. How is it this crew can polish off a $10 tub of p-nut butter and four loaves of bread in 48 hours? It's not like that was the ONLY food I had in the house, but this is what they chose to target this week. It's ok I had one last reserve.
    Every year starting in the spring I start filling my closet with gifts. I see things on sale I know the kids would like, and put them back for Christmas. This always fills in the gaps at Christmas time. I went up to my closet the beginning of this week to see what was in my reserve. I make sure things are fair for everyone at Christmas time. I am careful and calculate right down to the dollar for every kid (and Doug too). Ok first on the list Doug $100 not bad, Josiah $100 so far so good, Joel $100 I'm really doing good. Then I get to Jada $17, Jonah $12, Josh $55 (little better), Judah $0. How could I have not gotten Judah a single thing all year? How do I make this right? What can I do to give the kids a decent and fair Christmas....all the questions brewing in the back of my mind.
   Like any good parent I started brain storming. What can I do, where could I get money? I baby sitt our neighbor kids every morning. They owe me for about 13 weeks, maybe I could ask. Doug and I went over and asked, still waiting on an answer. Well maybe we could get a big gift though Rent A Center and pay it off when tax money comes. Checked and it really was a bad deal. So it would seem, every avenue was a dead end. Then during the kids classes yesterday our internet, phone and cable all were turned off. I called them begging to let it on till Friday. I explained it is in my budget for Friday, but I only have 20 bucks to my name till then. Not only will my kids be truant from school, but I have no way of calling our FSC to tell her our inter net is out....no deal. They really didn't care and the only way to get it turned on was to pay in full. After talking to one dept after another they agreed to turn it on for a deposit of $50. Well that could have as well been a million, cause I didn't have it. After scraping every corner of our house for change and taking a pair of jeans we got Josiah back to Kmart, we put it together. While in all the craziness of the day, Josiah saw his one and only gift I got that would have surprised any of the kids with, a WII guitar.
     Officially I was bah humbugged!!! When will I ever learn when all circumstances in life seem impossible, that's when God shows up. I got this message last night "
Guess what?!!! A wonderful woman from our church contacted Mike yesterday and wanted to know of a family..her family could bless. And guess who that's going to be??? YOU! You are getting target, walmart, and whatever else gift cards coming your way!!!!!!!!!! Jehovah Jireh!!! Get up and dance girl!" I don't know how much it is,(nor do I care) all I know is I'm humbled. Today I went to the mailbox and there was a check in a Christmas card from my dad and his fiancee. Once again God has let us know HE has not forgotten us. NO ONE knew what we had been going through!! HE saw and HE knew. He never stops showing me this, I don't know why I doubt! Thank you Lord for you continued blessings!