Prayers answered...

Not too long ago, I posted a gruesomely long list of needs for my family and myself. I haven't been terribly diligent about praying for these things -- I need to get over my shame in asking God to provide what we've been unable to provide through our own means.

Well, some progress has been made. I got paid for the magazine I edited earlier than expected, and so we had the money for me to start the dental work (one visit down, two to go...but I may try to find a different dentist because I really don't like this one's methods. He's nice. Just a little rough.) I found two pairs of school pants for Zooey at a thrift store -- they were a third the price of new Old Navy pants. Also found snow boots for Edyn that looked like they were never worn even once. We're buying a new carseat for Laurel tomorrow -- could have last week, but I was hoping they'd go on sale. If they don't go on sale tomorrow, we'll just go ahead and pay full price.

Plus, my wonderful husband got his cousin to come over and babysit the children and dragged me off to Eddie Bauer to buy some new clothes for myself. What a splurge! I felt really bad about it, but he pointed out that if I'm going to be getting freelance gigs, I'm probably going to have some business meetings, so I'll need to replace at least a few items. He's better at judging hipness of clothes, and I'm better at judging fabric and stitching, so we make a good team working together. I can't believe everything I got -- A pair of jeans, a plum-colored shirt with varigated pink and khaki stripes, a denim shirt, and a ridiculously long and comfortable corduroy skirt in a warm light brown color they call "peanut". Now I can go to church and meetings to earn some freelance work considerably less ashamed of my appearance.

My father-in-law was here yesterday surveying the basement situation, and he thinks bolstering it with some pressure-treated lumber will buy us some time. We'll take it -- we can't afford a whole new foundation right now. I have a pleasant little daydream of winning a new foundation in some sweepstakes, but you know, foundations are rarely given away like that. We'll just have to get the freelance jobs that can help pay for it. Next spring.

Temperature was down to 27 last night, and our furnace actually kicked on, which was nice. It's completely unreliable though. We'll need a new one eventually, but if God can keep this one working through the next six months, I'll be happy. And my kids will be warm.

Speaking of warm, I have to get the clothes boxes out of the basement and transfer the kids' clothing from warm-weather shorts and tees to cold-weather jeans and long-sleeve shirts and sweaters. I'm immensely thankful for the "hand-me-down pipelines" I'm part of. I have two reliable sources for girl clothing and two occasional sources for the baby (from people who understand that Edyn's thinks are still off-season for Laurel, since they are 18 months apart). Boy stuff I have to thrift for, since everybody I know with boys has one Zooey's age or younger. I pass his stuff along when I can.

We filed another extension for our 2003 taxes, but we have the money now. We just have to gather everything together and get it over to the guy who does our taxes for us (two freelance incomes on top of regular salary make for a tax headache!)

So, thanks be to God for His generosity. Thanks to all the saints who prayed for us, and thanks to all of you who did the same.

--Sparki