Jehovah Jireh - Our Provider

Here we are in our 6th year of graduate school, and based on the tight job market, we may be here another year as well. I'm a full-time homemaker. We live on a small stipend. By God's grace (often extended through our families), we have no debt. But even having seen God's faithfulness in our finances again and again, I've been getting concerned as to how we'll make it another year and a half. So this past week God decided to remind me that He isn't so concerned. Our week in a nutshell, starting with last Wednesday:

Wednesday - Attended a UT Housing event where both Matthew and I won raffles - a children's bike complete with training wheels and helmet (the boys didn't have a bike) and a $50 gift card to a local TexMex restaurant. My cooking entry lost the main prize, a cooking class, but I wasn't disappointed because our evenings are already so full that I wasn't much interested in that anyway. But when I went to pick up my platter, a judge informed me, "You've won a consolation prize! A $25 gift card to a local restaurant supply store!". Oh so much better.

Thursday - My mom (who is here to help Laurel, who is doing great, by the way! And so is James!) watched the boys while we had dinner with Matthew's advisor and friends (and Mary Clement. Dr. B had told Matthew that he'd fail his dissertation if she didn't come), and I received the most beautiful hand-knitted blanket from one of our friends (especially made for MC!). Then on the way home we stopped by CVS because they had 90% off Halloween items, and picked up two costumes for the boys' birthdays. $1.60 each! This was to add to the lion and dragon costumes we had gotten for them at Old Navy last week for $2 each! Birthday done for $3.60 each!

Friday - A local grocery store is having a "grand re-opening", and had coupons galore. I spent about $40. My receipt said that I'd saved "$100.04".

Saturday - The Crooked Still concert we were going to attend anyway turned out to be free! And it was marvelous. Additionally, Matthew took Jackson to a UT football game (yes, the first game we've attended!) and Jackson's ticket turned out to be free (though with concessions and tailgate party and t-shirts that was probably a wash!)

Sunday - Our friend Matt who's in Princeton for the year was here for the week, so stopped by to say hello. The people he's staying with sent gifts. 4 lbs. raisins, 7 lbs. fancy nuts, and some hot chocolate mix in an adorable tin. We never buy nuts because they're so expensive, so it was like God had those just for us.

Monday - won a $5 Amazon gift card from Blingo, that toolbar I wasted time installing (see my narcissistic day post)

Today Wednesday - A friend of Simone's was getting rid of bags and bags of nice 5/6 boys clothing, and she claimed them for us. We decided to meet in Saledo (about an hour for each of us) for playtime and clothing exchange. When we arrived Simone had a full birthday party for the boys, complete with cupcakes and presents. And even dinner for me! When I arrived home from that, I put MC and Harry down for naps, sat down to check my email, and saw that a fellow homeschooler had culled through her home library and had hundreds of books she wanted to give to a homeschooler. I grabbed Jackson up (thankfully Matthew studied at home today!) and we came home with boxes and boxes of beautiful, quality, marvelous books (and a recorder with 2 books on how to play it!)!

See all that? And I've left out the birthday presents the boys have received from our parents and friends. Our cup is running over. There are clothes and books and nuts all over our little apartment! So, Lord, if I start to doubt again, will you do that next week too? :)