Day 26

Who's Your Daddy?

What a week! It seems I've been tested and tried and I hope that I have proven to be doing exactly what He is expecting of me. First, on Tuesday I was already thinking ahead to Friday. Every other Friday is payday. I am kinda obsessive about payday and have all the bills/payments planned a week in advance. I have every dollar of the paycheck planned and promised before it's even in the checking account. By Wednesday I am typically able to view the paycheck in the queue waiting for deposit before I even wake up on Friday morning. This Wednesday morning, however, when I looked, the paycheck was not in the queue..... .....Nothing....my first thought was, "uh-oh - Wade's first paycheck after he goes out of the country - where is it?" I thought about it for an hour or so, periodically going back to the computer to check and see if it was just posted late and still nothing....... I started thinking about what I could do if we didn't get paid this week. I'd pull money from different accounts to cover automatic payments already scheduled. After an hour of this, I was starting to get whipped up into a panic-mode. Deeper and deeper into this self-absorbed storm of worry, fear, and panic. Then I just made myself STOP!!  What was wrong with me??? First of all, even if I didn't get a paycheck on Friday - I knew that I was still going to get it eventually. Was I going to starve or go without food? Was I going to have to live on the streets or even sleep outdoors one night? After I smacked myself upside the head, I came to the realization that my life was not changing - the worse would be if I couldn't pay a credit card bill on time I might have to pay an extra fee. But my BIGGEST problem was that I failed to recognize Who was in charge of everything and my worrying and panic-induced frenzy was not solving anything. Father, I know you have everything under control and I surrender all of me to you. Well, (thank you God) later that afternoon the paycheck was in the queue where it belonged. I recognize that the enemy has been picking on me, but I need to firmly rely on my Father for my protection.

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us"

Romans 8:38

  
And I am still fighting little battles this week and I am determined to let my Father take care of these obstacles. I had an appointment on Thursday afternoon for maintenance on my car. I made the appointment a week ago and had two coupons - one for a free oil change and another for 25 dollars off any charge. I put the two coupons in the maintenance folder and got them ready to go with me. When I arrived at the shop on Thursday afternoon, I couldn't find the folder!! What happened to it?? Maybe I just left it at home. I've been known to put things in a "safe" place and never find them again. I never found the folder and went ahead and paid for everything. At least my car is ready to take a road trip next week. 
Thursday morning I was at my Bible study and bought some nuts and candies from a boy scout at our church. I wrote a check for the items. Now, this morning I decided to work on my checking account and needed to look in my checkbook to find the exact amount of that check to record. It was not in my purse. Not in my purse!!!!  Oh man! where could the check book be??? I dumped out my purse, rustled through the papers on my kitchen table, looked through my nightstand in the bedroom. Now I'm thinking the checkbook has taken off with the car coupons. I called the church to ask if anyone has turned in a checkbook. Nope..... So I take a big gulp and call the credit union and had a stop put on that particular packet of checks. She tells me that she can stop the physical checks from being cashed, but if someone has the checkbook - well they have the routing number and checking account number and can make purchases online with that. Great.................... So after thinking about it some more I decide to recheck the car. When I open the passenger door, I see MY CHECKBOOK on the floor, between the seat and door and almost pushed underneath the seat. Thank you, again, Father. I don't need to worry about unexplained charges on my account. So I press my luck and recheck the glovebox and VIOLA!!!!  There is the service folder with my beloved coupons nicely waiting for next time. How blessed I am - I know EXACTLY who my Daddy is!!!!  I did not however call the credit union back. I just tore up the checks that had a stop payment on them and I'm moving on. 

Here is a picture of our newest house/yard guest. This is Jared's pet - and HER name is Wally. She is an outdoor cat and sometimes sleeps in the garage. She is super friendly and will come up to me when I go outside. She also greets people walking up and down the road. Wally was found at Wal-Mart and brought home. I think she may have recently had a litter - she's still a little swollen. But even when she sits on the front porch my dogs don't mind her. She's not a very big cat. I try not to pay too much attention to her because she is Jared's pet and I want him to have the connection with the cat.  
Today was a partial-work day and I named it "FLOOR DAY". Thanks to muddy yards I needed to vacuum everywhere. All the dogs were sent outdoors and the door was closed on them.  I vacuumed all the floors, shampooed a couple of nasty looking spots in my bedroom  (they are gone!!!  yay!!!), and then I mopped the kitchen. Tiffany showed me the swiffer wet-jet and it works so wonderful. I even pulled out the buffet and the refrigerator and cleaned behind and underneath those too. I am posting a picture of the kitchen because it's so clean and I re-arranged the table a little bit. It may be harder to see, but I rotated it one quarter turn. I'm gonna see how that works for a while. I repaired Kelly's bench under the window and it should last for a while longer. 
Wade posted his first email today and I heard that he's had some responses already. That's good because he loves getting letters and mail. I took his email and also posted it with the pictures to his blog and advertised that on Facebook so more people might see it. I am putting together a care package to be sent to him on Monday. I need to go out tomorrow and see about finding a bug zapper for him. I'm not sure if they are out in stores up here yet, but he said that if he gets more flies during the warmer weather, well he just might start going crazy! I'll make a trip to Walmart and Lowes this weekend to see what I can find. 
Tonight is Friday night and Jaide and Jared are scheduled to come for dinner and will spend the night tonight too. They come up every Friday night, but they spend the night once a month. I have a few movies recorded: Up, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Plenty of choices. They've already seen them, but kids don't mind watching movies over and over again. I have frozen pizzas for dinner. Cheapies for them and a Weight Watcher one for me. I am hoping to take them out for breakfast at either Golden Corral or Frisch's, but if not, I have toaster strudels in the freezer as a backup.