Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Sweat, tears, and Blessings

This is a draft from June 2015, that never got posted.... guess I'm backdating old posts.  Anyways, it should serve the purpose of documenting my good intention. Sometimes it is so hard to find that pesky Publish button!

I haven't decided how I'll title this post.
I'm still deliberating about whether I should add a *whine alert at the beginning of this post.

Ugh.
I'm so hot. Not as in, "oh, baby I'm hot", but as in..."Oh MAN I AM SO STINKING HOT!!"
However, on further introspection, I realize that my house, rather than myself is hot.
It started out with my husband's loss of work.  Yes, yes, he's still unemployed. There are a few roasters in the fire, but they are roasting slowly...as am I in this hot house. (I did warn about the whining right?)
As we evaluated our finances, we decided that our pleasantly cool home could be sacrificed for a few bucks. As in, we went from 72* to 78*. It doesn't seem like much, but let me tell ya...anything above 74* causes me to break out in a sweat.  As in literally pouring down my face (and chest and back) if I move kind of lovely sweat.
It's okay. I've been surviving, and daily grateful that we installed overhead lights when we moved in, and that they included ceiling fans.  We've been surviving.

Until the AC went out.  Just about the same time that we began looking for new work, our AC started making weird noises. Mind you, we've had to have someone out twice in the 2.5 years that we've owned our home. We have a dinosaur of a system. It was supposed to last for 12-15 years. I believe we are now at 17 or 18. We may have reached our limit and may get to bury this prehistoric beast.

They say when it rains it pours... we've seen that too. (Where is the rain? I wouldn't mind some of that right now. Unfortunately, in Florida, the rain comes down warm).  Yes, my brain is wandering in strange heat induced circles...and my children are asking if they can make soup. Really??!

My saving grace is the swimming pool. I can survive there until the AC guy comes at 3.  I hope.
Or a friend just invited us to the movies...except that there's nothing worth seeing. Even for $1. Perhaps Cinderella again?

Okay, on to the good parts. There's always a silver lining right?
We've been blessed. Oh, SO blessed.
Here are some of the highlights:
7 new music students - just sort of out of the blue showed up this summer - helping us to keep paying our mortgage.
We had planned on a trip to the west to see family, but were unsure of the finances to get us there. A friend called and offered the use of her car while she was here in Florida.
A family member moved and doesn't have a specific airline serving in their new area - she had some flight points that she gifted us that helped us get back home.
My husband's previous job required him to travel...he had enough points to fly out after an interview.
Our children's music teacher has continued to work with our kids.
Both girls were able to participate in band camps with their schools this summer.
We refinanced our Co. home just as all of this hit, so we had 1 month of not having to pay the mortgage.
SO many blessings that have been showered upon us from up above.

Sometimes, life is just about learning to smile through the tears, or sweat drops, and learning to LOOK up, because when you do, you see God's hand - outstretched, as He reaches towards you and lifts you up. His vision is not our own. We've been cradled in his hand this summer. We've been immensely blessed. Our problems, are first world problems. We are healthy (we did have a weird bug bite this summer, but all is well), we have a roof over our head, and ceiling fans that work. We also have a pool out back, that I'm going to go jump into, and I'm going to float on my back, and ponder on the goodness and mercy of a God that loves and cares for me, more than I can ever imagine.