I have seriously neglected my blog lately.  I think about it daily, but I just haven’t written.  I really haven’t had anything important on my mind.  Also, as is the case with most things, life gets in the way.  My days are so mundane that I spend much of my day on autopilot.  I get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, get up, and go to work.  I live 10 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean yet I haven’t been on the beach once this season.  That should tell you something of the monotony that is my existence.

I know that sounds dreary but honestly I prefer this to having an active social life or some other such foolishness.  I am very much a creature of habit and I am quite the recluse.  As long as I have music, books and a computer I am fine.  Oh, yeah.  And something to eat.  I think that is a product of being an only child.  I didn’t have playmates so I spent a lot of time entertaining myself.  I still do.  I can’t recall the last time I was bored although I can hear some of you snoring as you read this.

The weather here, like most of the U.S. is QUITE hot.  We have been fortunate here on the OBX to have the occasional shower and although it hasn’t helped with the temperature or the humidity, it has helped keep us from the severe drought other places are experiencing.  We could use more but God seems to give us just enough.

Speaking of God and His provision, I’d like to share a story from my life.  My husband and I came into a small settlement due to an injury he sustained on the job roughly 4 years ago.  Until tax season this year, we still had $9000 of a $10,000 lump sum payment.  We gave a tenth of it to the church we were attending at the time.  Well at tax time this year, we had to take $4000 to pay our taxes.  We each had a series of pay raises without adjusting our deductions and for the first time not only did we not get a refund but we owed big. 

At about the same time, my mother and her husband were struggling financially.  They own an RV that they live in.  My stepfather was working but my mother wasn’t because they only had one vehicle- a 1980 something truck.  They had driven this truck from the east coast to Arizona (where they spent 3 years) and back as well as the usual back and forth for work and errands. 

Well, my husband’s grandfather saw how hard we were working and how responsible we were and he was moved to offer his assistance.  We’d just finished paying for a 1989 Ford Escort, which we shared.  He bought us a 1999 Escort and gave us $6000 towards a pick up for my husband.  This was in 2004.

Because God had been so generous with us, we decided that once my husband’s truck was paid for (we put $5000 down and financed $1000 to build our nonexistent credit) we would take that extra money and help them get something to drive.  We ended up giving them my car (which only had 60,000 miles) and financing a 2004 Escape for me.  We put $4000 dollars of our saving down on it leaving us with $1000 in a CD as we speak. 

I said all of that to get to the point.  I changed our deductions last month in hopes that we won’t owe any taxes next year.  We are claiming no exemptions and having an additional amount deducted.  Rather than clearing $1000 every two weeks I am not clearing $700.  That is quite a cut.  Our last paychecks a week and a half ago were the first since the change.  We were paid on July 27.  On August 3, we had $23 and we won’t be paid again until August 10.  The rent was paid.  The car insurance was paid.  We had gas in the cars and we had food.  But there was nothing extra.

 I was tempted to worry.  I could feel the anxiety bubbling up to the surface.  But rather than feed it I prayed.  I confessed my uncertainty to God and I made a vow to trust Him in this.  Well just as my husband’s truck was on the verge of having an empty tank, we received a $200 check from a savings account we had closed.  We new it was coming but we weren’t expecting it so soon.  It arrived at the moment we needed it most.

Most people would see this as a happy coincidence.  Not me.  I see it as just another instance where God has provided something I needed but had no way of getting on my own.  We needed a second vehicle; God gave us one through Grandpop.  He lives 6 hours away and we never mentioned our situation to him.  My mom needed a second vehicle and we were in a position to give her one.  None of the people in this entry are wealthy yet we are GIVING VEHICLES!  Giving with no strings attached!  How is that possible?  God, that’s how.

E.