Well.

Hmm. Had the wierdest day ever.

It was thundering and dumping rain this AM. Wayne can't do detailing on days like this so he just hung around the house kinda moping, occupying himself. It was business as usual for me except I have this killer sinus infection that is driving me nuts. To top it off, we got stuck in a tornado warning zone and couldn't leave the house even if we wanted. It lasted most of the morning.

In the PM, just as we were leaving for the grocery store, we got the call from PWC, the company that we were sure Wayne had gotten hired on with. Apparently, he is one point over their limit on his driving record because he has two speeding tickets, and so they will not hire him (insurance issue, apparently)

DEVASTATION. That was our only, pathetic glimmer of hope.

We went to the grocery store anyways (kids gotta eat, right?) and I shopped for forty five minutes, carefully price matching, checking for coupons and deals, etc. I really, really tried my best to bring the bill down as much as I could. Only to get to the checkout and discover that their system was down and I couldn't use my food stamp card to pay. Great. I left empty handed and decided to just swing by the IGA to pick up just the milk and diapers and wait to go back to the store tomorrow. In the IGA, it smelled like feet. My cashier was rude even though I was nice. The guy next to me, this typical ranger Joe, was wearing a tee shirt that said "I'm no longer a threat to society." I told him I liked his shirt and he laughed. He said: "How are you doing today?" I looked at him like he was from mars. How do I answer that right now?

I slank back to the car and got in. We drove home, and just as I was getting the kids and the groceries and Wayne through the door, Annika smashed into the front door handle, giving herself a giant bump and cut. She looks like she just got into a boxing match with goliath. It's only been ten minutes and it's already huge and blue. Like I told Wayne, we should have known better than to let her out of the house on a day like this.

I called Father Tony for a pep talk but he wasn't home.

What is going on? Why can't we get a break? ALL WE WANT is to work. To be productive members of society, to feed our kids, to put gas in our car. To be able to go to the doctor's when we are sick, or to have a nice meal with friends once in a while at home. We aren't trying to be millionaires, and we certainly aren't trying to keep doing this. We must have filled out a thousand applications between us over the last year. Why is it so hard?

On days like this, when you have NO CLUE what God is doing, you could just fall over, defeated.
But today is St Monica's feast day. And St Monica is the saint who, more than anyone, reminds me to persevere in prayer. So I do. and I am. I believe.

Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, have mercy on us.