Blessings A-flowing

So my daughter woke me up bright and early yesterday morning. "Mommy, I think you gotta pay the Direct TV bill, the TV's not working."

Great.

I ask her if she can find something else to do for a little while so I could go back to sleep, and although she seemed fine to just grab my laptop and entertain herself, I felt bad. So I rolled over five minutes later and grabbed my cell phone to call in the payment. Thing is, if they had cut the service off, I'd need to pay the full balance (I was a month behind) and I knew I didnt have enough in my account or it, but when the automated system asked if that was what I was doing, I said yes. I had a little more than half of the amount in my account, so I knew the bank would pay it, and the automated system said the payment had gone through fine and the service would be restored.

I rolled over for another five minutes before I started stressing about having just sacrificed my week's well-being and figured I had better call the bank and see how much damage I had done. Fully expecting to hear "your checking account is currently overdrawn by $____" I almost fell outta the bed when the automated voice said I had a few G's in there. I thought I had heard wrong. I needed to see it.

So I stole my laptop back from my baby and pulled up my account online. Sure enough, I had heard right. My school money, which I wasnt expecting until Tuesday or Wednesday had been deposited over night. HALLELUJAH! THANK YA, JESUS!

*happy dance*

It was the first time I felt like I could really breathe in like three months. That being said, its already gone LOL.

I paid my rent and all the other bills I had gotten behind on, ordered the book I needed for class, and when that was done, I rewarded myself for surviving the storm - I took my kids to Red Lobster.

I ordered endless shrimp and ate until I could barely breathe. They got whatever they wanted, including dessert, and the bill was nearly $100, but it was worth it. I was worth it. WE were worth it.

We had such a great time when we left there, walking and laughing and just being a family that just for a while I forgot all about the stress and the worry and the bullshit I had been dealing with. The only thing that mattered was us and it felt great to be reminded of that.

In the process of keeping our heads above water, I cant forget why Im doing this - them.... us. So even though my finances are back to ground zero, I did the right thing with the money I had, so I have peace of mind. A couple years ago, we mighta balled out on 125th street, or I mighta gotten on the road to splurge on a ladies night with my girls... but I've grown since the days of those irrational impulse behaviors and I'd like to think I'm still growing. It'll be greater later, people, you just wait and see...

On another note, I'll be living on celery and sunflower seeds for the next two weeks to make up for them endless shrimp LOL.