This past month we have had quite a few large, unexpected expenses come up, and sometimes I have been quite tempted to worry about them. Instead I choose to think about the unexpected ways God has been providing for us.

Friday on my way home from Omaha I was noticing our new car was pulling pretty hard to the left. I thought maybe my tires were low, but hadn't noticed anything in particular. Saturday morning we had a prayer breakfast at church, so I decided to stop by A's work to have him check the tire pressure. When I pulled up my tires were at an angle, and when I looked at the passenger side I saw that some of the belts had broken on the tire, and the tread was just about to come off.

There are many blessings in this:
1. Were were planning on driving to the Saltdog's game on Saturday night, and could have had some serious problems on the way if the tire had blown on the interstate. I could have cost much more than just a new set of tires!

2. Even though it was Saturday, Bauer Built tire had the right size and was able to squeeze us in to get a new set put on.

3. Bauer Built is only about 1 mile or less from Anthony's work.

Ok, I have to admit that not only was I a little tempted to worry, I actually started thinking that I wasn't sure there was room for this expense in the budget. But I prayed that God would help us to see additional ways we could save money this month and let it go. No use crying over lost tire tread!

On Monday when I picked up the mail there was a check for the free lance work I had done earlier in the month. When I opened it up I found that they had paid me twice as much as they had quoted. Instead of paying the hourly wage I had been expecting, they had paid a half day rate. The difference in the amount from the tires on Saturday and the check on Monday was $.30. (A little extra!)

Another way we have been blessed is in our gas mileage. Since we got our new car we have been getting much better gas mileage than with our previous car, and even better gas mileage than we expected with our new car!

If any of you have ever lived in Nebraska, you know the summers can be very hot and humid. However, this season it has been very mild at night and we have been able to cool the house off at night and not use our air conditioning. We have probably only run the air about 5 hours this whole season. That is VERY unusual for this time of the year.

All of these things seem fairly insignificant I am sure, but I am thankful!

How about you? What ways have you been blessed lately? I would love to be encouraged by your stories. Either leave your story in the comments, or at a link to your blog with your blessed story.

Last but not least, I am always thankful for these blessings!