The week before Christmas, as I've said before, was hard for me. Now that it is over, I feel so foolish even saying that as I only get that way because I get so easily caught up in what is going on all around me. Nevertheless, I sat in my husband's office that week and I told him how I was feeling. I even went so far as to say I hoped for a surprise for my kids. I just really wanted to bless them. I hoped something would happen that I wasn't planning (or paying for!). We sat there together that day and literally prayed for a way to bless our kids without spending any money or that there would be a surprise we didn't know about. I left his office wondering what God would do.
On Christmas Eve, out of the blue, my husband started to renovate our family room! And I'm not talking a small renovation. (Don't worry, it isn't costing money, it's saving us money!) He and I had been discussing for some time all the issues with that room. It wasn't insulated. It had a plumbing pipe in an awkward spot which meant we could never frame one of the windows properly. It had a bad door seal which sometimes made it feel like a wind was blowing through the room. We were never able to keep that room warm.
When I saw what he started doing, I immediately thought, "Maybe this is the Christmas surprise?" because the rest of the week nothing out-of-the-ordinary really happened to fit the bill of my prayer request. I was ok with that though as renovating the room was fun, it meant a complete demolition of the room. We literally gutted it to the studs and found NO insulation. It sure explained why it had been so cold and why we had such high heating bills. RM and the boys even went so far as to take out the drop ceiling (which I had never liked in the first place). This was where I got a huge surprise that we had really hoped for - beautiful, old, thick beams lay hidden underneath the cheap ceiling that had been there before. It was like walking into history. Every time we walk into the room all we do is look up. I thought, "Maybe that was the surprise!" as we just kept finding beautiful things covered up by cheap wood panelling and awful ceiling tile. Had we purchased those beams it would have cost us a fortune!
But it didn't stop there. The beams went down the walls, too, framing the windows. It got us so excited as we realized we never wanted to cover those up again. After all the walls were gutted, we did have to spend a very small amount and threw in some very high-rated insulation to keep the room as warm as possible and quickly threw up a few pieces of drywall on the outside walls. The room is already noticeably warmer, so it will pay for itself quickly. RM made sure he kept all the beams exposed where he could. It looks so good!
This week we'll move all the furniture back into the room (even though it isn't completely done) and start on the other side of the house in what we call the "homeschool room". We'll gut it to the walls, too, and insulate it as well. I'm sure we'll find the same thing in the ceiling which I'm excited about. I'm also excited to keep getting our house warmer and warmer. We are only renovating as the money comes in, so it will be a slow messy process, but I'm ok with that. I kind of like the wood cabin look!
On top of all this, it has been birthday season for two of our girls. The younger daughter turned 12, and the older one, 18. Both pretty significant dates. We like to celebrate and with my oldest daughter when she turned 12 we did a big thing. I wanted to do that with our next daughter, but it was just too costly, so we have delayed it a year. No rules are set it in stone in this house. However, it was still a fun birthday. I just did it on the cheap. We made homemade pizze (not store bought). We bought a video (didn't go to a movie) that they could all watch. They didn't even end up watching it! The girls all just sat and sat around the piano! Then the one splurge was to go for ice-cream on us, but the ice-cream store was closed, out-of-business! So they went to another place, for even cheaper! A great party.
For my oldest daughter, though, it was hard to just pass over her birthday as she was turning 18! She's officially an adult now! I didn't know what to do. Typically we have it planned well in advance, but as each day went by, we just kept putting it off. I kept praying that the Lord would give us wisdom and a miracle!
Other friends of hers were also having birthdays and she was always in on their celebrations, so I kind of half-thought, "Isn't that enough partying?!" But no, she still wanted to do something on her day as well. Ok, I can understand that, so we finally settled on having just two friends over on Sunday afternoon. My parents were going to graciously meet us for lunch and treat everyone to their favourite spot to eat, so I thought, once again, "We're good."
But, a couple of days before her birthday, out of the blue, another friend emailed her and said, "Are you doing anything for your birthday? Do you want to come here and watch a movie?" How nice, I thought to myself. That's perfect. But then, that same friend, called me personally and asked if she could turn it into a bit of a surprise party and invite some friends that she didn't know would be coming! She was going to give her a surprise party! This sweet friend of hers went and did the grocery shopping on her own (just got her license!), baked a cake, made snacks, decorated the house....basically went all out. I'm sure it cost her a pretty penny (if not her, her folks!) I was sooo touched! There was the answer to my prayer. God did hear me. He blessed my kids (the older four all got to go) with a literal surprise! I didn't have to plan it or even pay for it. God took care of everything using another young girl in my daughter's life. I was teary just thinking of it when she told me what she was planning for her.
We call the older four Team A. The younger four Team B. While Team A was out at the party, Team B got to go to a chili cook-off at our new church. They had so much fun trying out all the different kinds of chili and voting on all of them. The dessert table was pretty great, too! So God took care of them, too. No one missed out on having a good time.
I know God cares about even the littlest things. Blessing my kids is something I love to do. What parents don't want to bless their kids? To me, it usually means I have to spend money, but because things are so tight lately, I haven't been able to do it in a way that I normally do. Key word - normally. So I simply brought that request to the Lord and He took over. He got a party planner in place, a church event, even a demolition idea into my husband's mind and voila! Lots of blessings, and even surprises, overflowing for my whole family.
I have prayed for income this year. We don't know where it will come from. Perhaps because God has a sense of humour, He had RM wear a certain suit jacket that he hasn't worn for a long time this past Sunday. He put his hand in the side pocket and out he pulled $30! I don't think that will be our source of income, but God can do whatever He wants! All I know is that He answers our prayers, our very specific prayers. Our church will be studying prayer this new year. I can sure speak to the many answers He's given us.
No comments:
Post a Comment