oops...I forgot to blog...

It's been a crazy two weeks here and blogging never even crossed my mind! Let's play a little catch up, WARNING there may be a bit of a rant on the end of this. Unless typing these thoughts is theraputic enough I am pretty annoyed about my lunch out today!!

Last week my new job became real work. This is not a negative comment, it is just that the reality of steadily working, dealing with people and having more responsibility hit me hard. I still really love what I'm doing but the pace is quicker than I have had to move in quiet awhile.

At the end of a very busy week we went away for a weekend with friends from church. It was a terrific time away. Our friends and us have some mutual friends from other areas of life so they were there too! It was great to catch up with some "college peeps" and to spend time with friends we see more regularly. My two were the youngest of the seven kids that were there, really JB being the only "baby". The kids played fantastically all together all weekend. It was glorious, we had lots of opportunity for conversation and even a game or two. A little snow would have made everyone a little happier, but the indoor pool seemed to ease their sadness!

This week started off lousy, but my two days of work went well and now here it is Friday, I love Friday!

For fun (????) I took the kids to get their hairs cut today. Miss M really wanted long locks but it is like World War 3 every time I have to comb it. Last Friday we told her that if we couldn't comb her hair nicely every day than we would have to get it cut short. So...it's short!! It looks fantastic, she really has the face for short hair, and it makes her blue eyes even bluer (is that even possible). JB went under the clippers too, got his a little shorter than usual as well. They both look scrumptious! And they were so good getting it done that I told them I would take them out to lunch.

RANT WARNING

When asked what they wanted the answer was "hot dogs". Really??? How about pizza? Nope Chicken nuggets? Nah Salad, a cheesesteak, soup, turkey sandwich...no, no, no and definitely NO!

Where in Newtown can one buy a hot dog? Aside from the grocery store and 7-11 (of course, I now know Lee's and Slack's have them, I've put that in my memory bank). So I took them to Jake's Eatery, a lunch joint that serves sandwiches, burgers, soup and hot dogs! I haven't been there for lunch so it was new territory! When I walked in you might have thought I was bringing in two people with signs on their backs that said "Bubonic Plague, stay away"...it was like they had never seen children before!! I asked for a booth, I could see one was empty. The guy hemmed and hawed (wow, that looks funny, I say that alot, never write it), then an older gentlemen came in the door, said "just me today", and he was promptly whisked off to MY BOOTH!!!

They finally took me to a table that couldn't have a high chair at it, because it would be in the aisle. I open up the menu and...a kid's meal is $5.50...for a hot dog and chips!!! You have got to be kidding me, Newtown is killing me!! I ended up ordering them each a hot dog from the adult menu and one dish of fries and it cost me $6.25. The waiter wasn't happy, but neither was I!

Oh well, the kids ate every bite, were pleased as punch that I took them to "a real restuarant" and came home and layed right down for naps!

Did I mention how cute they both look????

Thoughts about work

Well, two days down, eternity to go :) That makes it sound bad, I really had a great two days in the office. I love the people God has me working with and I love talking about Children's Ministry all day! I have to say I'm a bit of a pansy...I came home Tuesday night and was EXHAUSTED!!! I've been chasing two kids around for years now, how is sitting at a desk and going to meetings all day more tiring? Oh well!

A few random thoughts about being back in the workforce:

+I wish life was like the webinar I "attended" yesterday. The guy teaching the class could mute us and only accept questions and comments when he deemed appropriate...LOVE. IT.

+I packed my lunch for all my years of teaching. For the last few years packing a lunch meant...cheese stick, yogurt drink, pb&j, cut up fruit, sippy cup. I got a few strange looks on Tuesday when I unpacked my ladybug lunchbox and whipped out what looked to others like "lunch for JB". Gotta work on that!!

+The church office is CRAZY busy...they are working their tails off in there. Go easy on them!

+The joy that comes from listening to my own music/radio stations in the car on the way to and from is satisfying!!

+I miss my kids, have terrible mommy guilt and feel like I have to use my moments with them even more preciously! To those of you that work full-time, and always have, I don't know how you do it!

Today we are doing a lot of nothing and I can't wait! We aren't doing preschool because of some sick kids. There is a huge box in my bedroom that Prince Charming brought home from work so the kids could play in it. I think we'll transform that box into something cool and just have a great time being together!

Oh, and I think I need to start packing a bottle of sprinkles in my lunch for those moments when I miss home :)

Just in case anyone wondered...

Well, yesterday was my debut (hee hee). I found it a bit overwhelming, I hope everyone else wasn't as sick of me as I was by the end of the morning! For those of you that read this and aren't a part of my church family, yesterday it was announced at my church that I am the new Co-Director of Children's Ministry :) Remember a few weeks back I posted about a top secret job opportunity...well that was it. I officially start next Tuesday, although I've already been to one staff meeting, had a few informal things, and today I'm having a meeting with my co-director. I'm really looking forward to jumping in and getting started.

I was thinking I'd tell a little bit of the story of how I got to this point. Stop reading now if you don't want to be bored with the details. You've been warned...

It's probably no secret that Prince Charming and I have struggled financially for a long time. Sometimes it's been because of poor choices we've made, and sometimes it's been "the cards we were dealt" as far as jobs, timing of children, etc. Since I've been home with the kids we've had some pretty low points, God has been very gracious with us, but it hasn't been easy. This past fall we came to the conclusion that this would be my "last year home" with the kids full-time. Miss M will go to Kindergarten next September and the thought was I could go back to teaching. We found two local private schools that I could teach at, if they would hire me, and the kids could attend free. This seemed like the best case scenario, I would be using my abilities, the kids would be taken care of as a benefit, and we would all be in a Christian school. The only problem was it made me physically sick to my stomach to think of going back to teaching while JB was still so young, I wanted more time with my little buddy!!! It was my dream to be mommy...could this really be what God wanted?!?!?!

We really just couldn't see another way, it made no sense to get a meaningless job at The Gap (sorry if that's your lifes dream, just isn't mine), get payed very little and have to find full-time childcare for the boy. So we started to pray and prepare ourselves mentally for the process of searching, interviewing and hopefully getting a job at one of these schools.

I warned you...stop reading now if you don't want your eyes to roll in the back of your head...

All of the sudden, completely out of the blue, I was approached one Sunday morning with the news that the church was looking for a Children's Ministry person, part-time, NOW! Wait, what? I've considered this 'position' two other times, in other forms, and God never gave me peace about it. Prince Charming and I could hardly wait to get in the car and figure out if this was an option. We decided it could be, so I threw my name in the mix with the thought "I don't know why I shouldn't at least apply". Well, thankfully the process took a few months, we needed that time to really pray through this, see if it was financially helpful to us, figure out childcare, and most importantly, see if God was giving me a burden for the children, and their families, at BFC. I had multiple interviews, which could be whole different post but I will spare you, and many conversations with various church staff members and my Mom (chief babysitter). God just kept opening the doors, and we kept walking through. This has been HIS journey for me right from the start!

Through the process, not only were we thrilled to learn that this would make a substantial difference to us financially, we saw God really open our hearts and get my "teacher" juices flowing. I am thrilled to be using my training and my gifts to serve families at BFC. The thought of being part of any child coming to know Jesus, being encouraged to live their life for him and possibly sharing that with their family or friends is priceless! We feel like God has blessed us with the best of both worlds. I can contribute to my family, I can use gifts and abilities that I love using, my Mom can help with the kids and I can still be home the majority of their waking hours :) Wow, I am a child of a GREAT, BIG GOD...He provided this and I can't wait to see what He is going to do now...