Patience gives results

 The last month has been a bit stressful financially.  But everything was solved in under 24 hours.  My former insurance company, Branch Insurance, had sent multiple levels informing me my home policy would not be renewed because they were no longer insuring IL houses.  As a consequence, I found a new company, and am saving money.  But somehow, they still billed my mortgage company, so I paid premiums for 2 policies.  It then took them over 6 weeks to send me a refund for over $1700!  That check arrive yesterday.  The second issue was that I was not receiving child support/alimony.  I have no idea what the problem was, but a deposit arrive in my account today for over $3700.  I get $1375 per paycheck, so you can imagine how not having this money was significant to me.  I'm actually looking forward to paying bills and settling my accounts next Thursday at the end of the month now.  And I was able to buy my son shoes he needs.

I am attempting to get myself back in shape.  I am creating my own weight training plan and so far have followed it M/W/F, with trying to get in extra steps on the other days.  These next 2 days may be tough, but if I can't get outside Thursday due to the weather, I have the rowing machine in the basement set up.  I'm not taking a before picture yet because I'm embarrassed of what I look like.  But the first positive that I've noted is a decreasing resting heart rate.  It was scarily high to me, around 74 fairly consistently.  But as I've worked out the last 10 days, it has come down to 66 as of today.  I'm hoping to see this get down to 60 or below again.  I am enjoying the strength training and look forward to the other benefits of tone and weight loss over the weeks to come.  I seem to be sleeping better already as well, which is nice.

I am enjoying letting my youngest be more relaxed the last few days as well.  With my older 2 in school, we get a lot of time to just walk, visit parks, and play together.  Her library programs haven't started yet and I'm actually debating if I want to have her there twice a week because she seems to be so engaged in just exploring her world.  She has taken to picking dandelions.  And yesterday on an evening walk we stopped to watch a bunny and 2 squirrels.  She likes to pick up rocks, sticks, and other items just to carry.  I try to talk to her about what she's seeing to encourage her speech.  It's been a wonderful time and I'm really looking forward to watching her development this school year.

God is providing.  Through it all, that's the constant.  And I cling to that.  There are more storms right now that I'm not ready to write about.  I'm focused on the rainbows, because I need to color and sunshine before I just hit the wall.  God will carry my through, and I'll just keep praying every night that He will provide me with wisdom to guide my kids each day.