I’ve been thinking about all the recent blessing in my life that I’m grateful for for a bit and a recent comment on one of my posts prompted me to share this today. I so easily forget to stop and “count my blessings” and foster a grateful heart. God has been so generous to us and has graciously given us so many blessings. Rom 8:32 say that if God didn’t even withhold His only Son, even to death, will He not along with Him Graciously give us ALL things! We didn’t deserve salvation through Christ and we don’t deserve His daily grace, but because of Christ’s sacrifice, His death on the cross and His resurrection and defeat over death, we can be counted as a child of God with whom Christ lavishes good things on, small and large, seen and unseen!

I know I need to update everyone on how I did the rest of July on my frugal and money making goals, but I felt it was more important to share this with you first.

I want to list some of the blessings God has given us lately that I am overwhelmingly grateful for.

• Finding an amazing, Godly midwife that is willing to not only deliver in my home, but who also has the equipment for me to have a water birth in my home, which has been a dream of mine since our first child.
• God has open the door for us to start a small missional community through our church. We had been sorely missing the fellowship and community after we moved from Nebraska. It’s so wonderful to personally connect with other believers and grow with and encourage each other.
• Our pastor had some issues with their family freezer and had a lot of beef that defrosted and needed to me cooked right away. They graciously gifted us with quite a bit of ground beef that will last us for several months, possibly the rest of the year with how little meat we use. We had been out of ground beef for a couple of months and it really wasn’t in the budget to stock up.
• We had a family in our church gift us with their surplus of pickling cucumbers as well has their pre-school busy activities. They are a homeschooling family and their youngest is too old to use them. They saw that we were just starting in this whole process of homeschooling and felt we would be a good home for their pre-school stuff they no longer needed.
• We accidentally over paid last month on one of our utilities and was credited back the money on this month’s bill.
• I’ve been getting up early to walk in the mornings so that I can hopefully start labor earlier than the previous three children. I’m starting now to build up stamina, plus it’s just good for me. The bonus is the awesome times I’ve been having praying for the day, my family, my church, and my city. I’m then awake enough when I get home to have a quick devotional and get started for the day. I’ve still been tired when I get home but it’s been nice to already be awake when the girls wake up and get a few minutes to talk with Joel before he starts his day.
• We had several meetings at the church which have had potluck dinners. What a blessing to be able to bring something to share, but not have to worry about the whole meal. Plus, because of smart shopping, what I brought cost us only $2 plus my time to make it, which is half of our budget for a meal.
• Our Zucchini and squash are doing quite well and I’ve been able to start processing and putting them up for the rest of the year as well as enjoy some yummy homemade sweet bread! Over all the garden is doing well for our first year. So far I have frozen enough zucchini and squash for 62 loaves of sweet bread! I can also add it to soups as well.
• We had VBS at our church last week and Joel and I taught the lesson two of the five days. The other three I had the evening off and Joel had two of the three evenings off (her ran sound for one of them) I was able to go grocery shopping by myself one night, do some catching up on house work in the peace and quiet (Lucy went to sleep and Joel was at church that night), and spend some time with Joel the third night.
• This may seem silly, but Recycle bank added gifts cards to their redeemable items for points, one being a $5 amazon gift code. We have the program with our city recycling but I hadn’t found anything that was worth spending my points on that would be beneficial to my family. I have already redeemed a $5 gift card and am working on another one. This will help offset the expense of pull-ups that we still need to purchase for night time. Yes I see this as a gift from God. Nothing goes on without His knowing and He knows my needs and desire far better than even I do.

There is so much more, but I will stop there. It’s so wonderful to see God’s hand in our lives and I look forward to see what else He has in store for us. We have some big things we are praying for that only He can make happen. It’s exciting to wait and see how He is going to work all thing together for His and our good.

What are some of the blessings God’s sent your way recently?

I’m linking this to encourage one another Wednesdays!