I HAVE A JOB!!!!

After being unemployed for a year and a half, I am gainfully employed again. I’m doing admin type of stuff for a CPA firm that has recently merged with another company. Right now the position is temporary (through December) and three days a week, while they get their bearings as to what exactly it is that they need. This is a good thing. I’m still able to go to school, albeit part time, and it is a nice ease-in to the rat race.

The down side is that right now they aren’t very busy and I have no work at the moment. It is so tough being the newbie with nothing to do! Right now the lady that is training me is nowhere to be found…so I’m blogging again.

I’m so weird and am afraid I’m becoming a cranky old lady. I just don’t know what I want. I miss being at home and available for my kids. I hate being stuck in an office building with nothing to do. I’m sure it will be better once there is work to do. Wednesday a couple statements came in that I was able to work on…it was the first day that I didn’t feel like gnawing my arm off. I’m working on finding the joy in every moment. One cool thing is that our Phoenix office is on the 23rd floor and the Mesa office is on the 14th. The views are spectacular! Another is that I’m learning how to add links to Excel documents in Word, new skills are always groovy. Yet another is that I am up & looking pretty every morning…the self esteem is so much better when one does that, rather than rolling out of bed and flinging on whatever is at hand.

Well, that’s it for the job. Maybe I’ll be posting more.

I'm a Guardian Angel

I'm a collector of kids. I have my own amazing minions, as well as a slew of their friends that call me mom. Most of my collection are boys, but I'm sure more girls will be added as The Princess gets older.  When I was young I imagined I would have twice the number of children I do.  But now I have all these extras to love & play with & I don't have to be responsible for their homework...boy howdy is that a plus.

Leila introduced me to Reece's Rainbow and all the precious orphans that so desperately need families.  I can't allow myself too much time on the site because I want to bring them all home...especially the boys.  Then came Kurt. I fell into his big, brown eyes and wasn't able to surface.  I want to kiss those cheeks and get him to smile. If my life were different I would snatch him up so fast, but it isn't. His cerebral palsy is mild and he only had $10 in his fund! So now I'm Kurt's guardian angel.  I'm committed to praying for him and helping him find his family. The kids are praying for their "little brother".  I know his mama is out there, she just needs to see him!

The Beat Goes On

School is nearly finished, for all of us.  #1 & I have been done for a week now & the rest of the minions will finish this coming Thursday.  It is SUCH a relief for me to be finished, an enormous weight has been lifted.  While I didn't do nearly as well as I would have liked, I did make it.  There is the temptation to get down on myself for my grades, but that quickly flees when I look back at all that has happened this semester.  If I hadn't lived it, I would think it was made up. 

I did not get the NFP job, but God is so good, because He takes care of me so perfectly.  I said before that all I could pray for regarding this job was that His will would be the same as mine.  There was another part to that prayer...that if our wills weren't the same that He would make me be okay with it. He did. I don't know how, but He did.  When I got the letter that they had hired someone else, I was inexplicably fine with it.  But still there was the question, "HOW IN THE WORLD ARE WE GOING TO SURVIVE?!"  In another inexplicable series of events my friend, Jenny, introduced me to Juice Plus+.  The bottom line is that #1 & I joined the team and are now sharing it with...well...everyone.  I am impressed with the product, I'm impressed with the company and am IMPRESSED with their Child Health Study, in which an adult who buys the product can get it for a child...for free.  I'm still floored by the fact that this company cares enough about kids that they will bend over backward for them to get it.  I hadn't been interested in a direct marketing type job, because, well, I NEED A REGULAR PAYCHECK. But the pieces fell into place and I have peace about it.  It really is God thing & now the prayer is that I'll be able to help people by sharing this product & be able to (SOON) bring in enough money that we can survive...don't need to get rich, just support my kiddos.

Part of the reason that Juice Plus+ is the path I'm pursuing is that DM's mom has cancer and needs to be taken care of.  She is doing well right now on palliative care with hospice, but really shouldn't be left alone for too long.  She wants to be at home, but doesn't believe she needs caregivers. DM isn't capable of taking care of arranging her care and the friend that has been doing it really needs to get on with her own life.  So it falls to me.  If I have a traditional job, I won't be able to be there as much.  With Juice Plus+, I'll be able to still "work" while taking care of her at the same time.  I want to do it, but it is so very difficult, what with her being furious that I'm separated from her darling son and the fact that our communication difficulties have not improved with said separation.

With that being said, I am so looking forward to summer and playing with my kids.

Happy Easter!

This Lent has been a flurry of activity. With my mom passing away, MIL in the hospital with cancer, school work, etc., I've been somewhat of a mad woman. But something amazing has come from my Lenten journey.

My dear friend, Leila (who has the F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. blog), started talking about Reece's Rainbow, as a suggestion for Lenten alms giving. In the process she has stirred up our community to pray & advocate for & (for some of us) to adopt. She has even started a new blog to help these orphans! I read the story about Samuel today & was overjoyed to find that a family is working furiously to bring him home. I fell in love with him & so wanted to be able to bring him here, even tho that is impossible on so many fronts. It cracks me up that while other women may go to the spa, scrapbook, or do the full on soccer mom thing, my circle of friends is collecting orphans & helping, in whatever way they can, to bring them home to families! God is so amazing! AND my good friends, the Smiths, are in the process of adopting Malcom! I can't wait to meet him.
On another front, I have an interview on Monday for a part-time job in the Natural Family Planning office. It would be perfect, I want it so very badly, that I can't simply pray for God's will to be done, but that His will matches mine. I've got my mom advocating for me up in heaven. If His will doesn't mesh with mine, I'm praying He will help me to accept it graciously & without whining about it. I find it fascinating that this position opened up shortly after mom died, as she was a founding member of NFP & it's first director. So pray!! Please pray tons! I need a job now and would rather it be something I was made for & love than just a job.

Iiiiittttssss.....lllleeennnnnnnt!

With the advent of "priest boy" has come a development that I had not anticipated. The increased "spirituality" of our household. Every last one of us, to one degree or another, has grown in the past few months. It is really awesome.

What has been going on with me has been, unexpected. The past several years of my life have been pretty difficult & I've haven't been able to bring myself to really do anything for lent. My life is difficult and sacrificial enough, I just didn't have it in me to add to it. This year, however I was itching for it to start. My life hasn't gotten any easier, but there is just so much to pray & sacrifice for and, apparently, I'm up for it.

On another note, I've started a new blog, just for my pictures & projects done in my classes.