Disguised Blessings

Joe lost his cell phone this weekend. Such a bald statement that evokes none of the drama that took place at our house. We don’t use a landline at home, and Joe is on the road at least 45 weeks out of the year for his job. Our cell phones are our lifeline. 

Usually when something is missing, I pray, and we find whatever it is within a few minutes. And I have been praying about that phone since I got home from church on Sunday to find that he’d lost it. Since faith without works is dead, I, Faith (haha) was working diligently to back up my prayers by searching everywhere I could think of. No luck.

Joe’s been on vacation this week, and he’s continued searching for the phone. Again, no luck. So today he bit the bullet and went to get a new phone. The new phone cost something like $57, and there’s a $50 mail-in rebate, and they gave him a $70 credit on our bill, but he needed to buy a new protective carrying case thingie, so we’re ahead about $30. From losing his phone, we gain money. Go figure.

And there are some other disguised blessings that we’re seeing right now. We’ve been paying ghastly amounts of money for our cable tv service. He doesn’t use it (see paragraph a, above), and I virtually never watch television. We do need to keep our internet service, but he can voucher that as a work expense, since he uses it for work related purposes. I’ve been paying for Net*flix out of my personal allowance, and we’ve decided to keep that.  I talked to the cable company today, and am arranging to cancel the cable television service and keep only the internet. So a bill that was costing us about $150 a month has now effectively shrunk to $20 out of pocket for us.

We’ve been having I*R*S problems this week. Well, the problems have been ongoing for a while, but they reached a head this week. But because of the problems, I think we’re actually going to come out better because it’s forcing us to work together on the whole budget issue. The budget has been in his hands the last couple of years, but we’ve been rather cavalier about the whole things, beyond making sure that our obligations are met and that we’re diligently paying down the credit cards.

So it’s been a terrible, awful, no good, very bad week. And yet, it’s been a wonderful, beautiful, blessed, lovely week at the same time. It’s a mystery.

Chicken Soup

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recipes

Not for the soul, though. Just for the tummy.

• olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• a couple of cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• chopped celery if you have it, leaves included
• some frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast
• sliced carrots
• chopped unpeeled potatoes
• chicken broth or water + chicken bouillon cubes
• a teaspoon or two of Vegeta seasoning
• fresh ground salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat up some olive oil in a pot the appropriate size for how much soup you want to make. When it’s hot, toss in the onions and garlic, and cook until the onions are translucent, stirring frequently.
2. Add the celery, chicken, carrots, potatoes, broth, Vegeta, and pepper (don’t salt it until it’s at the table). Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer at medium heat until the chicken is done.
3. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it with 2 forks, then return to the pot.
4. Reduce heat to med-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are done. If you want rice or noodles with it, cook them separately, place the desired amount of cooked rice/noodles in the individual serving bowls, and pour the soup on top.
5. Salt & pepper to taste.

This is really good with the cornbread recipe I posted the other day. And it’s comparatively fast and easy.