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Thank You, Lord.

Good morning!
    I hope you all have had a great week! I have, and this morning, as I stepped out my front door to soak in a few minutes of quiet, I had that overwhelming feel of gratitude. We have a lot going on in our lives, and I have had a lot on my mind, heart, soul, and plate lately. Some I can talk about, some I can't, with anyone but God that is. And oh how thankful I am that I can talk to Him. He has carried me through some really tough times lately and keeps reminding me He is in control. And then this week, He has just given me gifts and I feel so very loved.

My State monitoring was this week. Once a year, our grantor comes and looks at our processes and goes over several of our files with a fine tooth comb. Their job is not to play, "gotcha" but to make sure we are using the funds entrusted to us to the best interest of the grantor, and ultimately, the tax payer. We had a new system for doing our furnace programs this year and I was very unsure if my files for it would pass the muster. I had even warned my Grant Manager that I wasn't happy with them. 

My monitoring couldn't have went any better and he couldn't figure out what I was worried about. That felt good. 

But then, last night happened. It was like God's reward to me for things that I have been going through. 
\
When I was a freshman in high school, we had an English teacher, Mike Hartrich, that just made English fun. One of our all time favorite units was Music is Poetry. We studied the meanings behind such songs as American Pie, Blowin' in the Wind, and Sounds of Silence. We loved it. I didn't realize his tenure started in the '70's but he had a lot of students. And many of us have begged him over the years to share his notes. Last night, he did, to a packed event center of NCHS graduates. As Mr. Hartrich said, "It is like a big multi year class reunion". And I will tell all of you that didn't get to be there, you missed something cool.

To add to my evening, my two BFF's from high school came down and so we relived it together. What a great night. Good job Sarah Diel Kinkade and the Jasper County Chamber of Commerce!  

A bonus was getting to see so many people I hadn't seen in what seemed like forever. Just looking around the room and thinking, it is so good to be home.

Then, to top that off, the girls came over and we sat and visited until almost midnight. We are spending the day together today and all I can think is I am just so thankful for what God gives me.

To even add to that, we are spending the day exploring Casey and since we are in my neck of the woods, I wanted to drive. Irene isn't really the friendliest car when you have 3 people and it isn't 80° outside so the top can be down. I am thankful I live close enough to my mom to switch cars with her for the day. Yes, we have a van but Andrew has been using it for work and it would need a good detailing before we could take it on a trip like that. And then, on top of that, she baked her girls cookies, they were even low-calorie! Yes, this is blessed.

I love that feeling, it feels like God has wrapped his arms around me and said, "See, your life here is good, not what it is going to be in Heaven, but it is still good. I do take good care of you". And the only thing better than truly knowing He takes good care of us is feeling He takes good care of us.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19.

This was not what I was going to talk about at all today, but I just had to share. Next week  we are going to talk about "stuff", literally. 

But for right now, just take a few minutes to close your eyes and count your blessings. Really let it soak in how Blessed you really are. He takes good care of us.

I am leaving you with Seph Schlueter and Matt Maher singing Counting My Blessings. He even gave me the perfect song for this post. :-)

Happy Saturday! 



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