The Heat Is ON!

Well, it had to happen eventually! Tuesday, as I was washing dishes, I noticed our heating unit making an awful racket and then it grinded to a halt. I didn't think much of it until about an hour later when the temp in the house started dropping. I upped the thermostat and...nothing. This same thing happened last year and I paid a guy $98 to flip the outside breaker! Well, my husband, thankfully, is in school studying heating and cooling, so that was a miracle within itself. He quickly diagnosed the problem and we headed off to spend the night at mom and dad's house, not sure what we were getting into come morning. Well, it needed a part, a very expensive part, a part that we just can't afford right now. Oh man! Talk about stress! Here it is, the coldest part of the season so far and we were looking at being without our heating unit! Well, this whole situation just goes to show a couple of things.
1. You don't know what you've got till it's gone
2. We are spoiled rotten in this country!

I was so used to it being 68 in the house, that 61 seemed sub-arctic! I honestly don't know how people used to do it! I guess they never had the conviences to get used to. Well, thankfully, our house is equipped with a gas fireplace, though I shudder to think how much my bill is gonna be from running it! And we had a tiny ceramic heater we borrowed from my dad, so we decided to "rough it" and spend Wed nite at home. Oh goodness! I'm telling you, I'd go from "everything's gonna be fine" to "OH LORD please don't let my children freeze to death" back and forth all night. So, we drug the mattresses out into the living room and we ALL slept there. And it was still a little cold at times and my kids were wearing so many layers they'd have to had help to roll over and I didn't sleep cause Chloe didn't sleep and I couldn't let her toddle around cause I was afraid she'd toddle right into the fireplace! Through it all, I tried to maintain the mindset that God was gonna work it all out. Well, the piece turned out to be way too expensive, and we decided that buying a new unit and installing it ourselves (way to go higher education!) would benefit us better off in the long run. But, we have to wait until our refund comes in and that could be a month. So, I start worrying a bit again. What if the weather stays cold! We'll not make it with the fireplace (it'll break the wallet) and one little heater! Well, Thursday morning, I prayed a simple prayer "Lord, I have a limited amount of money and I need to buy heaters. Help me to find the heaters that will do the job that will not blow the budget. Amen!" Pretty simple and stupid sounding prayer, huh?

Well, my dad went along to help with the kids (which was an answered prayer in itself) and we shopped around. I found two little ceramic heaters, like the one we already had and they were on clearance. I also found window insulator kits on clearance as well. So, for $50 (I had $90 in my account and several days before the next check comes in) I bought these things and hoped it would be enough. And guess what ? It was. (We were complaining that it was too hot last night) Why? Because I asked God to do it and never questioned whether he could or would , just let Him do what he saw fit. Skeptics will say it was luck, that the outcome was the result of random instances and happen-stance. Well, you're entitled to think that way, I hold no harsh feelings :) But I know why things happened the way they did! For kicks, here's two pictures from our "camp out" Wednesday night...