Getting up at 5 a.m.

A couple of weeks ago, I was praying about how I could help Grig get to bed on time and get up on time, and the answer that I received was to get up with him.

I think I've mentioned this on the blog before.

So, for the last two weeks, I've been getting up with him at 5 a.m..

It hasn't been easy for me. I'm really a night person, and I've never been very good at waking up to alarm clocks, but the Lord has helped me out. Sometimes, it's not the alarm clock I wake up to, but Grig moving to turn it off. Either way, I have woken up every morning.

That hasn't been the hardest part.

The hardest part, is that Kevin has been waking up at 6:30 or earlier. I used to get my writing time from 10-12 at night, and it was nice to have a couple of hours to myself. Now, by the time Grig leaves for work and I finish blogging, it's about 6:15 to 6:30 a.m.. That means that some mornings, when Kevin wakes up, I haven't even had a chance to write. Then, I go with him to try and get him back to sleep, and instead I fall asleep half the time. He never does.

I'm afraid he's too much like me.

For the first week, I was really frustrated. Then, Wednesday of this week, I decided that maybe a nap would help reset Kevin's schedule. So, I brushed his hair with a Kim Possible brush until he fell asleep and let him sleep for an hour.

It took him a little longer to go to sleep that night, but yesterday morning he slept until 7:30 a.m.. It's still earlier than he used to wake up, but I'll take it!

The other unforeseen blessing that we've been having is that, last night, for the second time this week, Kevin has slept in his bed for the whole night!

That's nearly unheard of. Usually be put him to bed between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.. Then, sometime between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. he comes into our room and climbs in our bed. Every morning we wake up with him in the bed, which is fine for now, but if we get pregnant, like we're praying we will, there won't be room for him in the bed anymore.

We've been praying that we would know what to do in order to help him stay in his bed all night. I just don't wake up when he comes in and crawls in our bed. For some reason, the changes that we've been making are helping him to sleep all night, and for that, I am very grateful.

I am grateful that I kept going, even though it was hard at first. There have been many wonderful blessings because I decided to heed the counsel that I received.

I AM excited to sleep in on Saturday though.

That will be nice.

Unforeseen Blessings

When Grig and I decided to get married, Grig honestly informed me that he had a school debt. He tried to pay off as much of it as he could before we were married, but we still had quite a bit left when we tied the knot.

That didn't really matter to me. It was important that Grig had gotten an education, and money isn't really all that important to me. We've been able to get by, and we've paid off a lot of the debt already. It was never really a big issue between us, but to my surprise this week...it became a blessing.

We are contemplating moving when our contract expires in a few months. We aren't planning on moving far; we simply want to find someplace cheaper if at all possible.

In our musings about the future, I began looking at homes. I signed up for a site that offers homes for sale, and the next day I was contacted by a representative. He told me he wanted to help us get pre-approved for a loan, just in case we felt like we wanted to buy a home.

I decided, sure. Why not?

He did a credit check on both of us, and to my surprise informed us that only one of us had a credit score, and it wasn't me.

I had helped pay for a car before and I had always consistently paid my bills, so why didn't I have a credit score, and why did Grig have one?

I'm still not sure about my side of that issue, but it turns out that Grig has a pretty good credit score because he loaned money from the government for school and we have always been punctual in paying off our debt.

Who knew that something that seemed to be a trial could also be such an extraordinary blessing?

Isn't that funny how life works sometimes? You spend months trying to rid yourselves of a problem, only to find out that it is a blessing in disguise? We probably aren't going to buy a house right now, but it was nice to know that we could if we needed to. I might have to get a credit card after all, just to build up a line of credit for myself. We don't really like them, so we haven't had them before. I thought my phone bill and everything else I had been paying for would have been sufficient.

Nope.

The Lord works in mysterious ways, and it is always for our benefit and growth. I'm reminded of that every day, but for some strange reason, it still surprises me.

No purpose behind this picture. I just love it.

Kevin is still sleeping well in his bed, by the way. Last night, after brushing his teeth, saying his prayers, and having his dad read him a story, he went and climbed into his bed. It was almost a tear-free thing, except that one point he flung himself backward and hit his head on the wooden bar. He quickly got over it and went to sleep.

We are pretty blessed. I'm a pretty grateful person these days. Compared to so many others, what do I have to complain about?  And yet, sometimes I still do. I'm working on that, as well as on so many other things.

Have a great day and look for those unforeseen blessings!