St. Joseph, patron of workers, please pray for us!

Well, we just have to face facts. My husband's job -- though he likes it and the boss, and he's good at it -- is not working out financially. We were waiting to see how August was going to go -- the second highest month for sales usually -- and it's still not going well. Sales have been down for the whole store, but because my husand is the manager and holds back to let the sales guys get first dibs (as a good manager should), his commissions have been down a lot. We figure about $300 less a month. When you were living paycheck-to-paycheck as it was, that's too much of a hit. And my stories for the paper aren't making up the difference.

What makes it worse is the cost of gasoline going up (at least 10%), the cost of our electric bill going up (9%), and the cost of everything else going up a little, too. My husband didn't even get a 3% cost-of-living raise this year because his boss doesn't believe in them. So he's suffered a pretty serious paycut when you add it all up.

In case you haven't done it for a while, hunting for a job stinks. So that's one reason my husband needs prayer. Plus, so far the local paper hasn't turned up anything even close to his field -- Lincoln isn't big enough to have more than two music stores, after all -- and the idea of moving...well, to be frank, it frightens me. I used to pick up and move to different cities without qualms when I was single, but now... There are the children. Moving them away from famiy and friends is hard. And moving away from this wonderful Diocese when there are so many iffy ones out there and we're still "babies" at Catholicism -- that's hard, too. Getting connections for my freelance writing work would be so hard. Finding a place to live, figuring out the best place to shop for inexpensive groceries, the best thrift stores, the most reliable auto mechanic, etc., etc., etc. -- that's all tough stuff.

But hey, if you have no other choice, you suck it up and do it, right?

Actually, choices would be nice right now. The horizon looks pretty darn bleak.

My husband has really been trying to get his side-business to grow, but he's had some major set-backs. He just gave somebody $125 to finish his demo DVD -- the fourth person who agreed to do it -- and so far, nothing. We're going to have to ask for the money back, I guess, and risk ticking off a friend (just a casual friend, but still). And we'll still be without the demo that he needs to drum up more business. He had a band in to record over the weekend, which was great, but the $400 is already spent. Zooey's tuition is due tomorrow, and we don't have it. Although I'm trying to reach the woman who owns the magazine to see if she can give me an advance.

So, that's the prayer request. We need a new job for my husband (either here or somewhere else) and/or more income from his side business, and a way to keep making ends meet in the mean time.

Please don't think I'm complaining -- I'm just desperate for prayer & I hope the few readers I have out there will be wiling to pray for us.

--Sparki