Blessings in disguise.

This post is to say that when God puts on your heart that you are to do something for him that he will make sure it is within your means to do so. Johova Jireh. Our church selects an Oklahoma City elementary school to "adopt" and buy all of the school supplies for. They type up the sheet of the needs and like "Angel Tree" you go pick up the stuff and bring it back. It really feels good to do this with the baby and talk to her even from a young age about why we are doing this and why it is important to do so.

Last year's list wasn't too extensive and ran right around $30 for all of the items. That didn't hurt to do it, it was more a matter of finding the right things. The school was specific about the brand of items. This year I picked up a list and didn't look at it until I got into the car. 4 boxes of 24 crayons, 4 boxes of markers, 8 glue sticks. My first thought was . . . when I was in grade school I didn't even use one whole glue stick how could they possibly . . . I stopped myself right there. These are things they said they needed and I picked up the list because I feel like I am supposed to. There are things on there that at face value are kind of pricey. I can see how someone could easily spend $100 on the items on that list. So I say praise God for small blessings.

at 1.99 each pack are the glue sticks on the right ($8 worth) on the right are 4 packs of 24 crayola crayons (self described as "the ones teachers prefer") ringing in at 2.99 a pack. Total paid for all of it? $1.69.

Now let me tell you how God is thinking about things even before you do.

I got home yesterday and got the weekly flier for the neighborhood grocery store. I have their discount card and I tell you it is worth it's weight in gold every now and then. In the flier they are advertising certain type of school and office supplies for 30% off and tucked into the corner is the part that is supposed to draw you in. 4 packs of crayons for $1.00 next to 5 packs of 2 count glue sticks for $1.00 (of course the list only specifies 8 glue sticks so I only needed 4 packs of 2 count glue sticks). I live two blocks from an elementary school so even though the flier had just come out I didn't expect there to be any crayons because I live in a neighborhood where you have to get up early (and I mean early) to suss out the values. I had to go for milk and thought I'd check it out and there weren't any just as I had suspected. They did have the glue sticks so I went ahead and got those.

Fast forward to today. I got my report back from the county extension office about "what's in my dirt" with a report that I will probably have a pretty easy time growing my grass this fall. I had some questions so I called and one question in particular garnered a plug for Horn Seed Company. I used to know where that was. That is the problem with living in a big city, things change so fast it's hard to keep up. So I headed over to where the building used to be and on my way find another in the chain of grocery stores like the one in my neighborhood. Some of those fliers advertise prices in one store but not another but I figured I could make a two-fer stop and see if they had the crayons at the ad price and pick up lunch from the deli. The seed company has moved so that was a waste of a left turn but I trucked back over to that store and checked the office supply aisle first. They had the crayons . . . they had the crayons for the price in the flier. They were so going home in my little shopping bag. I picked up lunch and the crayons all for under $6, so there are some things McDonalds can't do for you.

All in all I don't consider it a waste of time that I drove all the way to the south side to find seeds to sow and I will get to sow an even better seed in my daughter, the one of giving. Even if the task seems impossible . . . God will make a way.