Coincidence? I think not.

Call it what you will . . . . whether you see the hand of the Lord in your life . . . or having "tender mercy" moments (see definition here) . . . but just don't call it a coincidence. The past 18 months we've had a build up of so-called coincidences--without this little bout of unemployment I doubt Darik or I would have ever noticed the many little ways the Lord has prepared us for it. And that may be a blessing in and of itself isn't it? To be put in a position where you are more aware of the Lord and his lovingkindness; of the blessings he sends every day. . . .

I can’t describe it any other way. It’s like everything has worked together for our good . . . seemingly insignificant everyday things that we were doing or that happened to us are making it possible for this to feel like a two week vacation, instead unemployment.

• For the first twelve months we lived here we spent quite a bit of our extra money on buying canned goods, flour, yeast, sugar, rice, noodles, paper goods, diapers, etc.; basically just bulking up on the basics and having them on hand. By having so many food staples on hand it really dropped our grocery bill to an all-time low. We also bought a second freezer for our basement which we also tried to keep stocked. It just so happened that two months before we were laid off there was a “yearly truckload meat sale” at the grocery store that I went to and went crazy at. Darik thought I was nuts bringing home hundreds of dollars of meat, and I just thought I’d scored a sweet deal. We are loving all of that now (and I believe it stays good in our freezer for like two more months!)
• Both times Darik's parents came to visit this year they came bearing gifts of food storage. Lots of wheat, powdered milk, oats, etc. That was about six months ago and Darik and I have already learned how to incorporate all of those seemingly yucky, weird things into our diet every day. So it’s not like now that we have to use it we don’t know what to do with it.
• Two really good friends gave me great gifts this past year: one gave me an electric wheat grinder (those cost at least $250) and the other gave me a breadmaker. I’m using both of them all of the time now.
• Three or four months ago I watched Oprah’s Debt Diet show and it really motivated me to get seriously serious about los finances. We weren’t spendthrifts or anything, we had the "living below your means" (LBYM) thing down, but things still felt tight. So we felt strongly that we should get it under control – Darik took over the finances (we actually do them together now) and I handed over my cards and received an allowance in return. And miracle of miracles, it took me three months of practice . . . but November was my first month of successfully staying in my budget and not feeling like I wanted or needed more. So even though our paychecks have stopped our checking account kept on going up or staying the same because we had already curbed all of our extra spending.
• When we moved here from Vegas three or four weeks of mail were lost in the mail and never recovered. It was drama drama dealing with the USPS about it. It just so happens one of the things that was lost in the mail and never made it to us was a $400+ escrow refund check from our last home we sold in Vegas. I guess in all the hustle and bustle of moving and lost mail we didn’t miss it. We received a replacement copy of the check a week before Darik’s last day at work.