The Pipes

Oh Johnny Boy. So the thing with the taps in this place is that when you want cold water from the kitchen tap you must wait a long time. For example today I turned on the tap and almost burnt my hand the water was so hot. So I let it run while I emptied the dish rack, then I tidied the kitchen, then I got ice cubes into the glass, then, then I waited two more minutes until it was almost cold and filled the glass. The opposite, however is true for the shower, you must wait an equal amount of time for hot water. You turn it on and walk away for a while then come back and just endure the first few minutes of not quite fridgid water. So today I am finally in warm water, getting all wet and the hot water goes out. So I turn off the drizzle of cold which keeps it at an ok temperature and nothing. And not nothing as in it is still cold. Nothing as in as soon as the cold water tap was turned off no water came out of the hot water tap. Tried the bathroom sink nothing there either. If we have plans together today- I am sorry that I stink. I didn't have time to use soap and there is no way I am taking  a freezing cold shower. It is comparable to jumping into a Canadian lake in the winter. Oh Johnny Boy what the heck is up with the pipes in these digs!? If only the kitchen sink was bigger.

gratitude

Things in the Downtown.

      It has been an interesting two months since we moved to the new digs. I have become our primary breadwinner and as I work retail and make the bare minimum things are tight. We have our budget and there is very little wiggle room and no compromise. We stick to it. If our food budget is adhered to and we can save a little we treat ourselves to take-out once a month for a date. If we don't go too many places there is enough money for gas and we can try to visit my family. But however the numbers barely add up on paper there is always extra some how at the end of the month. A few dollars to have a few friends over for dinner, or to put up for when our '96 car dies on us. I promise you that there should not be enough for savings. But at the end of each month there is a little. I believe that all the things that we have are blessings. Not just the little left over each month, but the amount before all the bills come out.
Knowing that all that I am given comes from a loving Heavenly Father brings a peaceful feeling, but also a desire to show my gratitude. The way that I choose to show that gratitude is to give a percentage of what we make and give it back to my Father in Heaven. With that donation others are blessed too.
I can't tell you that I know for any logical reason. There is no proof, other than that our family should never be able to live on 160-180 dollars a month on food and eat as well as we do or that our budget never makes sense at the end of a month. But I can tell you that there is always a bit left, I feel very assured that is because I have shown my gratitude. I know that it doesn't make sense that if I show gratitude for all that I have, I should then be blessed even more. But I have come to rely on it.
Another awesome thing about this principal is that it comes with a promise; if are honest with our giving back we will never feel the burden of poverty. We may very well be in poverty but we will never feel that terrible burden. Mr. Sollywood and I always laugh and high five each other because in school Mr. Sollywood gets a low income family grant from the government. We love our little apartment in the bad part of town. We look around and see the extreme poverty around us as we live in Downtown. It breaks our hearts to see the extreme need here and that there is so little that we can do to help. We give of our time and what we can of our means, but although most people would say that we are one of these for whom we feel sorrow- in our hearts we do not feel that it is so. What a beautiful blessing.