God’s Provision and Where We Are March 2012

You might say we are in a tight space,  but we have been there before and God is providing and now that all family members know where we are and what is going on, at least in part, I can share here what is going on here.

The house is up for sale (current potential sheriff sale date is in early May.  We are praying the house DOES sell before then or that they push back the date –still in the reams of paperwork that it takes to figure all this stuff out.)  The house has a lot of issues (that we can’t afford to fix– one of the reasons we didn’t even attempt to sell in the past) and there are a lot of houses up for sale in our area so it is definitely a buyers market and there are NOT a lot of buyers though we have had a lot of showings.)

No, we have no idea where we are going.  Looking at our current financial situation, poor credit, and random freelance income combined with aneeding a completely mold and dander free place big enough for the 5 of us to  live and work, well, finding a place around here isn’t likely.  Also our families all have pets so that is a no go.

One of the things we are prayerfully considering is an RV– IF the Lord provides one that suits our needs (within our budget, big enough for our family, self-contained since our minivan couldn’t pull a big enough one, everything functioning and low maintenance since neither Shamus nor I is good with fixing vehicles) then that would be awesome.  The kids and I love to travel and love to be able to come home to family.  Shamus loves to stay home yet wants to be able to go to conferences.  The cost of living in an RV works well with our freelance income and the cost per month is within our means.  So far we have found a few that IF we had a check come we could afford and look to suit our needs so the idea is not too far out there.

Otherwise the Lord would either need to increase our freelance income or provide a place to stay for low rent or free until such a time as He does that.

We are currently at the “in-between checks” stage of the freelance life.  We just used up the big check we got back in November (and thanks to the Lord’s intervention in various ways we were able to extend it slightly further than expected– we expected to run out and need more in January and we just hit the end of it here in March– which is amazingly awesome.)  We have money we are waiting on from various sources and we know we will get it soon though whether soon is this month or next month we don’t know.  So, THAT is interesting. 🙂

In the meantime the Lord has provided for us here and there in all kinds of cool ways.

Currently we have just enough in the bank to make it to PAX East in a few weeks (we have to go this year for various reasons or we would back out knowing money was tight).  Since we plan to move soon we thought it best if we used up the food we have instead of buying lots of other groceries of the type that the family prefers.  In the process the Lord has extended our food supply in amazing ways.  We have had more than a few “stone soup” type meals: The last few grapes, the last banana, the about to go bad Mandarin oranges, and the pears I found in the bottom of the fridge behind something else made a wonderful fruit salad.  The broth I made from the last chicken in the freezer, plus the last bit of several bags of vegetables made a wonderful soup.  While searching the freezer for something else I found a lb of ground beef and made that up for Shamus (he is allergic to chicken).  While searching for something to go with noodles and meat for him I realized that the jars of red peppers in oil that I bought by mistake (was supposed to get fermented and missed that fact when buying) made an amazing “spaghetti sauce” that the family couldn’t tell from tomato sauce (which they can’t eat anyway so that was pretty awesome.)

The Lord has also extended the money we have when I do buy at the store– over and over again when I have gotten to the cash register the price has been way below what it should have been– either because of $15 off coupons given out because there is a new store in town or because I miscalculated or because the food was mis-priced.  This week I was able to supplement the food we hav eat home for the week by spending only $30 (I make everything from scratch and we buy our meat, eggs, and milk from the farm and our weekly grocery budget is usually around $200-$250.)

Also a wonderful group of friends, who knew a little bit about what was going on, pulled their resources and sent us $150– which has basically provided gas and groceries for the last 3 weeks and probably the next 2.

So it has been pretty awesome to see and while Shamus and I have been here over and over again since 15 years ago when we married and had a grocery budget of $10 a week the kids are getting a much needed reminder of God’s amazing provision.  It has spawned numerous conversations about how sick the Israelites must have gotten of manna (and how God did not appreciate the whining and complaining :)), God’s promise of provision, God’s plan for our lives and how He shows us which direction will be best for us.  The kids are old enough to remember past instances of this but it is a good reminder and they are doing better about it this time around then in the past.  We have plenty and they know it. 🙂

Also the Lord has blessed them in new exciting ways.  Rachel has had work recently so has been able to buy the things she wants instead of feeling deprived.  A friend who has been to Japan has given her info on a Japanese missions trip each summer which has further fueled her passion to GO.  The same friend is giving her a copy of Rosetta Stone Japanese (which is a cool God’s timing story in itself– a whole day flipped upside down and inside out just to get us outside the thrift shop at exactly the moment this friend was leaving.)  Family members have randomly stopped by and given us some of the kids favorite foods without even realizing that things were tight (we generally don’t advertise the fact wanting all provision to be obviously and clearly from God plus we don’t like people worrying.)  Issac is getting to stay with his best friend while we are at PAX East (the family is going out of their way to meet us and pick him up which is so cool.)  A neighbor out of the blue gave us a full working computer (it just needs a decent graphics card and it will be awesome for the stuff Essie does– and this happened the day after Es sent her Eee pc off to a fellow Christian unschooling family who needed a computer.  Her Eee pc no longer suited her needs and spent most of its time in her desk while she waited for a turn on the bigger laptop that can run Blender and Gimp so finding someone who needed a computer just for writing and communicating and being able to bless them was awesome.)

Shamus’ book is selling well though not nearly as well as Shamus had hoped (though VERY, VERY well for an indie author in a new genre.)  And he is working on a new book (in a different genre of course.  Sigh.:))  He has been very inspired and therefore writing on the new book nearly constantly which is a blessing in itself.

Shamus’ asthma had started acting up again very suddenly– we think we have finally tracked down the cause but also a friend blessed us with some Young Living Essential oils to try and he has been using the R.C. one on his chest twice a day and it has REALLY helped.  So that is another awesome blessing.

I am sure there are many other things that the Lord has been doing but those are the ones I can think of at th emoment (we have been so busy that this is the first time I have had a chance to write in a while.)

God is so GOOD!