I won all of this from Kat at A Good Appetite and the California Fig Advisory Board. In the package were about 12 pounds of Calmyrna and Black Mission figs, a t-shirt, a big market bag, a calendar with recipes, some promotional material, information and more recipes.

A little over a month ago, a neighbor brought over about 50 pounds each of some extra potatoes and onions he had. It's nice living in farm land.

Yesterday, our Fred Meyer rewards came which will give us about $85.27 in free groceries, plus 40% off of two items of clothing for men, women or children. Also in yesterday's mail were several coupons for diaper supplies.

I list all of these things because when we bought our big van, we decided to keep my mini-van, since I prefer driving it, instead of trading it in or selling it to buy the new van. This meant that, for the first time since we've been married, we had a loan for a car. It was a relatively small loan, but it meant an extra monthly payment nonetheless. We were determined not to get a loan, but between the uniqueness of this van (it had doors on both sides, like our minivan) and its necessity for our family and the fact that after we went to take a look and test drive, they called us with an offer that was about $6000 lower than they initially asked and which was lower than the blue book value, we decided to tighten our belts and get the loan and make an effort to pay it off as early as we can. We really don't like having debt on anything but our house, but we couldn't take trips together as a family without this van. Even to church. We would have needed to take two vehicles.

So, as we determined to buy as little as possible and use up the generous riches of our freezer and pantry, we found that God provided little extras for us anyway. We won't be buying potatoes or onions for quite a while. We have figs to last us for some time (if we don't eat them all up standing in the kitchen, because they taste so good). We also have enough rewards money that we can cover quite a bit more than we had been planning for this month's groceries without actually using our own money.

One of the great things we have learned is to look for God's blessing and provision. Here are three examples of Him blessing us with plenty while we were planning to live on less. It is a good lesson on God's generosity and grace for us and for our children.

Labels: Faith and Morality, Family