When We Are Not Good Stewards

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior.  How is everyone doing?  I pray that y'all find this blog in good health and spirits.  We are doing pretty good despite all the rain we have had.  We have lots of work to do around the house this Saturday because of all the rain we got in May.  Our front yard and driveway flooded.  We have a small stream that runs across our driveway and front yard and it turned into a river.  The small bridge even floated away and I had to use t-posts to hold it in place. This Saturday I will work on the stream and mow the yard.

In July of 2010, I had to ask myself, "IS GOD PLEASED WHEN A PERSON DOESN'T USE THEIR GIFTS TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILY?" (http://goo.gl/cZrPHB).  In recent months, I had to ask myself this same question. Now, things are different than they were in 2010.  We are not on government assistance, we are making a few dollars per hour more than in 2010, and I am driving trucks, but we are again living paycheck to paycheck. I quit Werner a year ago so I could be home with my wife and children.  I figured I could get a local driving job that would pay me enough to support my family.  Unfortunately, unless you are in a special driving career (oil, gas, ect.) local trucking companies do not pay that much.  I thought we could make it on the pay that Ball Pipe and Supply paid without assistance, but we couldn't do it.  As I have posted in the July 2010 blog, God as given me a great gift for me to glorify Him and support my family.  It is up to me to use that gift the way He wants me to.  I must do His will, not mine.  Being that we are struggling again, I believe that I am not using God's gifts for me correctly.  It is obvious to me that I must go Over The Road.  

I filled out an online application that went to many companies on Wednesday night and first thing Thursday morning my phone was ringing off the hook.  I know, my young readers are not going to understand that statement since phones today don't hang on hooks.  I got over 30 calls from companies wanting me to drive for them.  Two of the companies was Werner and CRST wanting me to come back.  CRST did interest me because I did like them and I made real good money with them.  When I drove for them, I made over $1000 a week.  I also trained knew driver, got lots of awards, and I also worked in the Oklahoma City safety office.  When they contacted me, they wanted me back real bad and made me an offer that I couldn't refuse.  Of course, I didn't tell them that they already had me.  So, I sealed the deal and will start driving for them on June 22, 2015.  I gave my boss my two weeks notice today.  Now starts the hard part.  Continue doing a good job even though I know I am quitting.  But I do it because it is the good and moral thing to do.

Well, it is time for me to head home.  I will keep y'all updated on what I am doing and I will be seeing all of you fellow truckers on the road soon.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat
http://goo.gl/9WrfPn

A New Easter Tradition

I started a new Jones Family Easter Tradition this year.  The children, my wife, and I had a wonderful time.  I bought a bunch of water balloons and put them in plastic Easter eggs and hid them with with real eggs and other plastic eggs filled with candy and treats. When the children found the eggs with the balloons in them, they were able to fill the balloons with water and throw them at me after the egg hunt.

A wife's day off

Greetings in the name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. How are y'all doing? I pray that this blog finds y'all in good health and spirits. Things are going good here at the Jones household. I miss the cooler weather that we had last week, but I am grateful that the summer hasn't been as hot as last year.

Today, my wife got a day off from the house. She left for the day to do whatever she wanted while I took care of the kids and the things around the house. It is something I have been wanting to for my wife for a long time but have never had the opportunity. I know that being a stay-at-home mom is the hardest job in the world and it is a job that doesn't offer a day off. You don't even get a sick day when you are a stay-at-home mom. The problem is, with our lifestyle, Saturdays is the only day that I have to be able to get the thousands of projects I have piled up done. But this weekend offered a perfect opportunity for me to tend to the kids and my wife to have a day off. I did have a few things that I wanted to get done, but I would be able to do them while the kids played outside.  Lol, yea right. Well, my wife left the house this morning after breakfast and I kicked the kids outside. I got a few things done but nowhere near what I wanted. Normal children are high maintenance, but an autistic child is very high maintenance. But you know what? It did turn out to be a great day after all. After lunch I tried to do some laundry and my daughter wanted to get the slip and slide out. I was getting irritated because I knew I would have to stop doing what I needed to do to help her. Now for those who don't know, we do laundry by hand. So it isn't like I can put the laundry in the washer and than help her. But she promised that she can set it up herself. I knew she couldn't but I said OK. Sure enough, she didn't know how to set it up and I had to stop the laundry and help her. After it got set up, she started ... kind of slipping and sliding. I had to laugh. My daughter would run and then gracefully fall onto the slip and slid. This made it so she couldn't slid very far. While this was going on, my autistic son was wanting me to push him on the swing. I was getting nothing done. But my heart was softening and I started thinking, 'What is more important?' So I teased my daughter about how she slides and decided to show my daughter how it's done. So I started slip sliding with her. Than my son started to join us. Oh, he was having a time of his life. It really turned out to be a good day.

As parents, we often let our busy schedule and busy days take over our life. Our families lifestyle really keeps us busy. The only electricity we have is two solar panels to charge our cell phones and our laptops. We do everything the old fashioned way. This does take more time. But we do need to keep in mind what is important and make sure we always make time for it. There is nothing more important than family. We need to make sure that we set time aside for family and just have fun. Even if it means to set a chore aside for later.

Well, it is getting late and my wife has returned from her day out. It is time for me to make time for her. Y'all have a great day.

Take care and God Bless,

The Oklahoma Tomcat
www.twitter.com/oktomcat