Joy Cometh In the Morning

Thanks for letting me sit a moment in self wallowing pity yesterday. I am glad I don't have to live there. What a difference a day makes!

My husband opened the dryer and the belt was really worn. It is only $11.00 but it is the motor that is not working so he looked up what that would cost. It is only around $160.00 for a new motor so it is worth replacing the motor and belt rather than buying a new dryer. Mine is about 10 or 11 years old so it is old, but not ancient. It isn't harvest gold or anything. My MIL said hers is over 20 years old, probably older than that because she couldn't remember.

My husband went to work early and called to tell me to look at an email he sent me. They made a ruling at work company wide and ruled that they had to pay certain employees time and a half for overtime rather than just straight pay overtime. They are going back and paying the extra half from the time and a half (they already paid the straight time) for the period from the past year. He looked and thought he only had about 60 hours because a lot of it he just took comp-leave. Well, they sent the pay statement for the check that will be paid Friday and we are receiving $2300.00 after they took out almost $1400.00 in taxes and that other stuff they get you for. My husband isn't real good at figuring out his past overtime and you now know who does the books at our house. I want to add that we are in a building fund phase at church and recently had to commit to a three year period stating what we felt led to give. I struggled with this very much because the preacher was saying not to look at your budget and go that way, but to pray and commit by faith. I totally have faith and know and trust God for an ability, but didn't feel right committing blindly. I really felt like I should pray and if God wanted us to give above our budget that He would provide it to commit before actually committing. I looked at our budget- because I don't listen well and really LOVE to look at the budget- and after paying everything we had $45.00 we could eek out each month. I know, I wanted to cry. We went back in income to move here and did it knowing that we were going back to a strict budget, but giving up having to work extra. Well, we prayed about it and committed a much larger amount by faith. We figured that we could give our income tax return and any overtime and that God would provide. The year hasn't started and He has provided some of what we committed and we know that the rest will come.

It is 9:00 AM and I am letting the kids sleep. It is very unusual for them to stay in bed this late. I am not doing school but am going to focus on washing up the rest of the clothes and finishing my garland making for my stairway. My husband saw the wire I used to wire ornaments to the garland and he got a funny look on his face and asked me if that is what I used. It is sauder. All I need now is a blow torch and some flux and those ornaments won't come off until you break them off.

Holly fact: I can sauder. Yep. When I worked in pediatric dentistry we had to make spacers for kids that lost a tooth early. It holds the space open until the new tooth grows in. You fit the band and then use wax to secure it into the mold. Then I would bend a wire to go from the band to the next tooth. You then bend the wire towards the tongue along the next tooth. You then sauder the wire to the band. Working in orthodontics I got to make all kinds of wire bends. The orthodontist would tell us which gauge wire and to put a certain bend or a stop into the wire at "this" tooth. I really liked doing that. I think I would like to make jewelry. My friend, Jamey, that worked in dentisty started making jewelry.

Well, they are waking up and I am ready to get going. I need to finish shopping for our Dirty Santa gifts this weekend with our families.