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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Saturday Morning

Okay, so Saturday mornings are SUPPOSED to be my chance to sleep in and catch up on all the sleep I missed in the previous week due to grading papers, watching NCIS and just plain ol' staying up too late.  But for some UNKNOWN reason, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed this morning (no, I didn't turn into a squirrel) at 6:30!!  So I've been sitting on the couch surfing the net, downloading digital scrapbook papers to try to make this blog pretty again, checking out a conference a friend is going to and wishing I knew what I was going to be doing in 4 months so I knew if I could go or not, catching up on Facebook (although I still need to post pictures) and reading the blogs I follow sporadically.  I figured while I was up I might as well post here as well!

The biggest news this week is that I had an interview on Thursday!!  SO excited, and can't wait to hear back (I was told I should know something by the end of next week).  I won't go into too many details yet, as I'm trying to be patient and wait for God to open the door all the way, but it's looking promising.  A wide range of responsibilities, from managing an office to possibly doing some professional development training and learning some more about desktop publishing!! 

In other news, I'm looking around my living room and realizing that my week of "ugh" - I had some odd version of the plague has resulted in my definite need to clean!  Between Lyz being sick, me having a migraine for going on 4 days (it just won't go away... at least for the most part it's just a dull thud in the background now), and being so OVER this school year, while at the same time trying to finish everything up so on the 10th I can say "Sayounara, sweetie!" and be out the door.  So I would say on a scale of one to ten my productivity level was definitely a negative 5. 

Today, however, has potential!  For example, I'm getting all my "me" time in now while the rest of the fam is snoozing away... which is nice because then when they get up I can kick into productive mode.  I have a list of things that have to get done today - but at least I have Monday to recoup.  I love 3-day weekends!  I need to make a menu for the month, then make a grocery list and go shopping, I need to clean the living room and kitchen - and possibly make a path through the bonus room (which used to be the Creative Memories room, but since I've stopped scrapping it's kind of lost its name), and fold laundry.  Those are my goals for the day... I also need to finish up my "end of the year" report for when I go back to school on Tuesday.  It's almost done, just needs a few finishing touches.

OH! And (drumroll please!) I might also get a new phone today!  I'm so excited, as I've had the same phone for going on 3 years, and it's been on the fritz on and off for the last 6 months or so.  I was hoping to wait until I knew for sure what I was doing for a job, but it's shut off and/or dropped calls at least 5 times this week and to me, that's just unacceptable. 

I am working on a new blog - kind of a devo type thing.  Not sure if anyone will want to read it, but it's something that has kind of been on my heart for awhile now, and I've finally got some "material" (for lack of a better word) to put on it and get it going.  This is going to morph into my family blog, and I plan on keeping up with it - hopefully a little more regularly!  I'll let you know when I launch the new one. :-)

In Maddie news, she's developed this campaign against saying "please".  Now, Maddie has been signing please since she was about 10 months old, so it's not that she can't do it.  Our daycare provider thinks it's that she's trying to actually "say" please (which she can do because I've heard her verbalize it), and that's why she won't sign it.  I really don't care how she says it - verbally or signing, but how far do I take it if she absolutely refuses to say it at all?  It's a matter of wills, and I want her to know from early on that Mommy and Daddy make the rules and it doesn't matter how cute and adorable she is, she has to follow them and (in the words of Daddy) "play nice".  It resulted in an all-out temper tantrum and going to bed with no story Thursday night.  Any advice??

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Playing Catch-Up

So it's been quite awhile since I posted - mostly because life is crazy (although I'm beginning to wonder when it isn't!).  Here's the quick update:
  • My Nana has gone to be with Jesus after a very short and difficult fight with pancreatic cancer.  I'm sure I will blog about it when I get a chance, but it's been a walk where I've been so grateful for the faith that I have and the promise that God gives us comfort, so that we can comfort others.  I was so impressed by my mom & aunt as they went through this tough time and leaned on each other and God through it all. 

  • I will not be returning to teaching next year.  The school year is wrapping up and I'm trying hard to stay focused as I feel very "done" with it all.  On a good note, my students seem to finally be "getting it" - at least what we're doing right now!  For a multiplicity of reasons I've decided that God has closed this door (he had to slam it in my face, which wasn't very comfortable for me, but at least it was clear!).  Now I am working through the process of figuring out what I'm supposed to do - knowing that I have to have some sort of income or give up the house and a car. 

  • Maddie is growing like a weed and I am loving every minute (mostly!) of it.  Her vocabulary is amazing to me - every day it seems like she has 2 or 3 more words than the day before.  Her little personality is blooming, and while it appears that we are entering the "terrible two" phase - lots of pouting and some tantrums here and there, I am also enjoying watching her develop and all the little things she can do now.

  • We're starting the process of developing small groups at church.  Our first planning meeting was tonight and we had about 22 people show up - and 6 couples that couldn't make it.  So it appears that we will be splitting off a little earlier than planned - which is a good thing.  We're praying about the role that God wants us to take in the whole process.  I'm excited about it - the last church we attended had "life groups", and we really enjoyed the community we became a part of.  I'm ordering the book Creating Community by Andy Stanley to learn a little more about building small groups.

Finding the balance between keeping all the little things done and building the relationships that make life matter is a tough job to handle.  I'm discovering that the more I put it into God's hands, the more productive and peaceful I am.  :-)