If you recognized that line from an old Andy Gibbs song, you’re showing your age! =)

That’s where I’ve been recently; an emotional roller coaster. It feels like I’ve been getting slammed with one thing or another since around October of last year! Instead of turning to the Lord and to friends, on-line, here and anywhere else I can find ‘em, I’ve been turning to food. I’ve also been struggling with feeling like I’m deprived then swinging over to the incredibly selfish side. I’m incredibly grateful for our health insurance which kept us from having to pay nearly 75K in hospital bills but the 4K that we do have to pay. I’m incredibly grateful for our warm home but not crazy about the $850 we had to pay for furnace repairs last week. Then I feel selfish b/c there are so many people who don’t even have the daily essentials. Throw a wedding on top of all this (my daughter is getting married in May) and I’ve been hanging on for dear life!

I am very happy for my daughter’s decision to get married. The young man she’s marrying is a solid, Christian with a good head on his shoulders and very intelligent. But it’s hard b/c 1-I can’t be in Cali to help with the planning and such and 2-we are not able at this point to contribute to the wedding the way we’d like to contribute. I explained this to DD; told her our contribution might just be getting there! She said she’s been living on her own for 1 1/2 years now and she’s fine with paying for it. I told her, “you might be fine but momma is not”. Anyway, we’re working our budget and it looks like we’ll have about 1/2 the medical bills paid off by the end of next month so yeah. I’m praying that we’ll at least be able to pay for DD’s dress and bridesmaid dresses but we’ll see.

I am grateful for my geeky, budget oriented hubby right about now. =) If we hadn’t been on a budget for the past few years, these hospital bills could have done us in. We’re soooo close to being debt free (except the house) that we can practially taste it (hm….taste like chicken!). I’ll be so glad when we finally get there.

So, to help change my frame of mind I have been 1-praying 2-exercising 3-doing what I can and not worrying about what is out of my control anyway. I’m focusing on the positives: that we’re going to Cali for the wedding; that DD is marrying such a great young man; that our budget saved our scrawny little necks; that God is faithful and good-all the time. Grateful for my job, which included a promotion and two raises in the past 6 months as well as a couple of bonuses; grateful for hubby’s job; grateful for daughters who have their heads on straight and who are healthy and smart and cuties. So no more complaining, hand wringing worrying; I am blessed.

So for what are you grateful today? =)