Blessings

I love that the Lord finds so many unexpected ways of blessing us. Surprise blessings are such a sweet reminder of His tender care for us.

This past Friday we got our taxes done, and boy were we in for a surprise! Ever since my Handyman and I were married, he has handled his taxes as a someone who is self-employed. That means that taxes aren't automatically withheld from his paycheck. So every spring when we file our taxes we know that we're going to owe money. This is fine, we know that it's coming, and we save up to pay it.

Well this year was the first year that we are able to claim Sweet Pea as a dependent. That coupled with the fact that when I was working I had the maximum taken out in taxes, because I knew we always end up owing money anyway, along with various other credits/deductions, resulted in a tax return! For the first time ever! And it's pretty substantial! My Handyman was so incredulous that he came home from the tax man's office and re-calculated everything, just to be sure.

I know it's not a good financial plan to try to get a big tax refund every year, since it isn't that the government is sending us free money, they're actually sending us money that was ours all along, and we just lent it to the government interest-free for a year. That said, however, having gone from always owing money when we file our taxes to receiving money back is a really nice feeling.

We plan to beef-up our emergency fund, and maybe do a couple fun things for ourselves, too.