More Good News

♫ My Shepherd Will Supply My Need ♫
My Shepherd will supply my need:
Jehovah is His Name;
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.
He brings my wandering spirit back
When I forsake His ways,
And leads me, for His mercy's sake,
In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death,
Thy presence is my stay;
A word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home.

We've been busy lately trying to find a new place to live, going over budgets, getting ready for school to start (tonight), actively participating in church (singing in the stake choir, book club for Jill, EQ stuff for me, etc.), trying to get our doctor visits in (dentist, eye doctor, et al), and--oh yeah--going to our jobs.

[One of the songs we sang for stake choir is above. I'm not sure of the text source, but it reminds me of Psalm 23]

Then, on Monday for FHE, we reviewed our August spending and started making projections for the future. We knew it was going to be close once the new year came, but I guess we didn't realize just how close... It spurred some thinking and plans to make a few changes in our habits, but it was somewhat of a stressful evening.

The apartment search has been a little frustrating; can't find something that matches our two or three main criteria (cost, location, and dishwasher), although we've toured a handful by now, including 3 yesterday. And our budget meeting didn't help the frustration factor when it came to what we were trying to look for.

I left work a little early yesterday to look at apartments with Jill, so I just barely (6 minutes) missed an email from work that said I needed to call in to the mothership (I spend most of my time off site on my current project). I called in this morning and received some very good news. I couldn't believe my ears! And stepped out to call Jill to let her know that, pretty much out of the blue (since my company is on an annual performance cycle), HR and Management had approved a raise, effective next paycheck.

Whereas I was having a little trouble concentrating yesterday because of the whole apartment search, this morning all I can think of is the song we sang at stake conference and how grateful I am right now. So I had to take a minute to write about it. Surely my Shepherd hath supplied my need, and my cup still runneth o'er. His sure provisions doth attend me in my days.