A sigh of relief

Some stuff has been going on in my life, y'all. Big stuff.

Possibly good stuff. But stuff that has the bejeebus scared out of me, nonetheless.

Remember how I told you that there was a possibility that our catering company would be taking over complete control of the auction's food operations come July?

Guess what yesterday was - July 1. D-Day.

When I say taking over - in the past, Peasnap's Catering (yes, named after Anna Mare's nickname) has provided contract labor. The auction provided the food, and the facilities. Jason and crew provided the labor, for a fee, and any money collected went back to the auction.

The place has been losing money like crazy for YEARS - so, the auction decided it wanted out of the food business all together.

Part of the reason they lost money was because a former manager decided to give all the employees their food for $2 per meal, regardless of what they ate. So they're getting three or four time that worth of food (prime rib, even, or beef brisket some days). Instead of taking that money from an account to reimburse the cafeteria, it was just a loss. A MAJOR loss.

Late last year, the price went up to $3 a meal. And then, earlier this year, it went up to a more "normal" price, minus a 10% discount.

Which is where we are now. Jason's got this nifty software that tells him how much something costs to serve, including labor and utensils. So thankfully, we haven't had to shock folks going from three buck meals to full price.

Now, though, if we lose money, we don't get paid.

Don't.get.paid. As in, my husband drives 45 minutes to work, and doesn't bring home a paycheck.

Scared doesn't begin to describe what I've been over the past few months.

But you know what? God has been poking me the past few weeks, to let me know that everything is going to be allright.

I'm a notorious worry wart, and you know what memory verse Anna Marie has been memorizing for Children's Church? I Peter 5:7: Cast all your anxiety on Him, for He cares for you.

And then, the pastor quoted it Sunday morning. (I know - preaching to folks about worry is like shooting fish in a barrel these days, but still.)

And Jason told me last week that he'd been feeling that some positive changes were coming into our lives, that he didn't know what, but he just had this feeling in his spirit. And I take that very seriously, because my husband doesn't go around saying things like that every day. In fact, in our nearly 10 years of marriage, I don't think I've heard him say anything like that even once.

And he's been coming up with ideas to make more money, like serving hot dogs in the auction bay from one of our cute little kiosks, or yesterday morning he made fruit cups and sold out almost immediately. Now, he's looking at being open more than the one or two days a week, serving low-labor foods (like pizzas or chicken salad sandwiches.) There isn't anywhere else to eat within a few miles of the facility, so they'd probably welcome the idea.

It's been really hard the last few weeks to see my husband ruminating over facts and figures, trying to find revenue holes and make the best decisions for this company. But that's what he's good at - he's a numbers man.

Yesterday when I got home, I was almost afraid to ask him if he'd made a paycheck. But he did! Maybe not quite as much as he normally did (because of some big expense I can't remember right now) but he did!

And this little news editor breathed a sigh of relief.

And God was up there in Heaven, wanting to bonk me on the head for doubting. Again.

Please keep praying for us, and for this situation - that it will continue to work, and that I will continue to trust God (and my husband) that this is going to work out. I know that if/when this does work, it'll be one of those things where to the "natural" eye it can't be possible, so it'll be nothing short of God making it a go!