it's about time I post some sort of update on this thing. Why not now, since I have a long weekend :)
Life has been good. Definitely trying to persevere through the trial at hand: Josh out of work. I am so extremely thankful to God to have a stable job right now in teaching. It was such a huge blessing to be given my professional teaching contract at the end of last year. Josh has been working very hard to find a job. Every road feels like a dead end, but I know that God has a job out there for him somewhere. God's word is clear that the husband is to provide for his family and I know that God, then, is going to provide a way for Josh to do that. It's been tough living off my income only.
We've made many sacrifices over the last 11 months of him being out of work. The biggest change for me has been giving up my publix groceries, and even walmart, for Aldi's. Aldi's has saved us quite a bit of money and the food doesn't taste bad at all! The Lord has graciously provided a new place for us to live which is cheaper in rent, closer to my job (which saves much gas), and much bigger! We have had to give up going to the movies for the most part. I am becoming more content just waiting for them to come out on DVD. Redbox is cheap, right?
I guess I just feel we're in this rut of what to do next. It's been a struggle to be optimistic about any possible job opportunity. Though, I know that God will provide one. It's hard to face the reality that I am not in control of anything. Yes, I am finally starting to realize that I am not in control of what job he gets, how much money we earn, or just about anything on this subject for that matter. It has put us in a place of complete and utter dependency on the Lord to provide for our needs. That's not a bad place to be. It's taken a while to get there, it seems, and I'm thankful for learning that God is sovereign and not me. It's a huge weight off my shoulders knowing that I am not responsible for providing the job/money for our family. I do work for a check, but I just focus on doing my work as unto the Lord.
Other than the obvious issues, we have seriously missed having a weekend every few months to get away together. Not to mention, just a date night that's not spent watching a dvd on our couch and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which we've grown very fond of in recent months. Maybe it's because it's a cheap meal...or maybe it's just a comfort food. Back to the getaways....I miss having them with my husband. It was so nice to just go away to a hotel (even if in Orlando) and spend the evening with him and a garden tub. I'm really praying that by Christmas we'll be able to get away for a few days!
Josh and I have had to humble ourselves this past year as well. You never realize how truly prideful and arrogant you are, until people offer to help you. I'm not kidding. What a blessing, it is, though, to have people helping to meet your needs. We're very blessed to have some help from family and church family. We truly do not deserve it!
School has been going well and I am very happy to be teaching 2nd grade. Not to mention having the same kids, and only 16 I might add, is such a relief. I've started to adjust to my tiny room and the kids have as well. I'm very content where I am and have not been as stressed out as I thought I would. I think I'll keep myself parked right here in 2nd grade for as long as I can! It's such an easy grade to teach, compared to 1st. Not to mention I do not want to switch classrooms again. I'd much rather have the tiny room than switch classrooms again.
Well, I guess that's about all I can think of that's been going on. Please keep Josh in prayer about a job. He had an interview on Thursday and we have to wait 2 weeks to find out about it. Hopefully this post has made some sort of sense, as I feel like ever since school started this year I've been slowly losing my mind :p I'll try to update more often...even if it's not about what I'm reading.
