Posted By FarmerJ on February 7, 2009

No, not the white sandy beach kind of Hamilton Beach ~ the appliance kind of Hamilton Beach.  Heehee!  Although the slow cooker is white like the sand; the tote bag for carrying all the beach necessities; and the blender to make all those frozen tropical drinks with the little umbrellas in them sort of lends to the imagination if you let it.  Or, not.

Anyway, my new appliances arrived the other day.  My new free appliances.  Well, there again, I guess that’s all in how you look at it.  You see, we’ve had a particular credit card for several years.  Unbeknown to us, until recently that is, there is a bonus rewards program associated with this card.  For every dollar charged on the card, one bonus reward point is earned.

After a quick phone call to the bank, I learned that over the years we had managed to earn 16,000 points!  The nice lady at the  bank provided me with the website and other information I needed to redeem the points.  Woohoo!  It was time to go shoppin’!

Well, as soon as I’d logged onto the site, I knew this was another of our Lord’s blessings to me.  You see, I keep a little ‘wish list’ of items I’d like to get some day ~ nothing that has any sense of immediate necessity…just things I would like to get when the timing is right.

A slow cooker was added to my list this past fall when I was up to my eyeballs with apples and was processing crockpot apple butter for four straight days.  A second crockpot would have been wonderful ~ either to allow for two batches of apple butter to be processed simultaneously, or to be able to make a meal in it since the days and evenings were busy processing pounds and pounds of apples.

A blender was added to my list just a couple weeks prior to us learning of these bonus reward points.  We had a blender, but it was about as old as Son #1 who recently turned 17 years old.  The motor was making a deafening whine and it was just a short matter of time before it would shreak its last shrill.  I wanted to have a new blender for smoothies and other goodies ~ spring and summer will be here before we know it and the garden will have loads of wonderful bounty for us again.

Our Lord’s faithfulness is shown to me daily, and this day was no different.  For here before my eyes was not one but both of the appliances on my wish list and I had enough points to get them both ~ He wasn’t going to make me choose!  No shipping, no handling, no hidden fees whatsoever.  Just click on the items and wait for them to arrive at the doorstep.  Whee!

The tote?  Well, it wasn’t on my list, but I had a few points left over after the appliances and I’m discovering I’ve had a hidden love for tote bags.  There.  I said it.  I love tote bags.  I use the smaller ones as purses, and the others for groceries, books, gadgets, clothing ~ you name it.  Totes come in so many pretty colors and designs.  They’re just…fun!  This one was just an extra little bonus from the bonus reward points; one more little blessing.

Categories: Plainly Ponderings
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