Day 516 and a quiet day

Today was a quiet day around our house. I slept in and I have taken it pretty easy today. I've had a headache since early evening that just won't quit so I'm heading to bed soon to hopefully sleep it off.

Day 515 and blessings

One thing that I usually try to do when I'm feeling down is list my blessings. I can think of several right now.
1. Tom still has a job, even though he's still only working 32 hours a week. At least two other companies that we know of in Enid have laid off and then there is the strike out at Vance going on with all of those people out of work (Tom worked out at Vance when we first met).
2. My business is going well. I have been having calls and have at least one prospect for filling my full-time spot in August. Summer is usually a slow time for me and while it's hard financially, I think to a certain degree I need it to be able to keep on doing this job. One of the ladies that talked to me about child care said she had heard so much good stuff about me and she really wanted to place her child here. That made me feel really good.
3. We have a fantastic exciting trip to look forward to in a few weeks (of course setting aside the money for the trip is a little bit stressing to me, but it will all work out).
4. I am married to the most wonderful man in the world.
5. I have three wonderful, beautiful children.
6. Serenity had a scary wreck a few weeks ago and thankfully was able to pretty much walk away. On top of that, she had enough money saved to go out and pay cash for a new (to her) car without having to finance and that took a lot of stress off all of us.
7. I have great friends and an incredible extended family.
8. Lastly, today I only have one child. Next week, my max kids any of the days will be 4. As my friend pointed out to me: God knew I needed a break.

I will close with this Bible verse from Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!

Day 514 and burnout

I have felt so rundown and exhausted this week and it took me a few days to realize that I was hitting a burnout phase. I go through these every once in a while with my job and other commitments, I'm guessing that everyone does. So I picked up my favorite book on burnout for child care providers: Finding Your Smile Again by Jeff A. Johnson and started reading it again today. Jeff uses this description from Beverly Potter about burnout: "a loss of enthusiasm, a surrendering of ambition, a sense of resignation that consumes the spirit and can even lead to physical ailments. Burnout is a stressful process accompanied by declining performance, people problems, feelings of meaninglessness, negative emotions, frequent illness, and a propensity to engage in substance abuse". Sadly a lot of that describes very well what I've been feeling lately. Summertime can be a hard time for me. I've got older kids all day long who can be harder to keep busy and present other challenges. I have just finished up my classes for the school year a few weeks ago and I always feel a weird "let down" feeling when I am done. My child care associations and mother's club take a break for the summer. Those breaks are much welcome and needed, but I end up feeling a little bit at loose ends. I know, I'm weird! I'm feeling a bit discouraged with our financial journey, it seems like we're just treading water and not really making any progress. So now that I know what's wrong with me, I go about working towards fixing it. I could use some good thoughts and prayers. Thanks!

Day 513 and working on a menu

So I've been working on a menu for the next couple of weeks for when I get groceries this weekend. The problem is that I am just tired of cooking and rarely want to do it anymore. I used to love it, but for some reason I just don't anymore. I used to love perusing through cookbooks and looking for new ideas to try but I haven't done that in ages. I've tried looking at those sites that plan menus for you. I've tried free ones and I've tried free samples off of paid ones. But either way, most of the recipes are kind of weird with unpronounceable ingredients that I can't find or have never even heard of. So I need to find some inspiration!

Day 512 and through the wringer

Today was better than yesterday, but I still feel like I've been put through a wringer. Anyone got any Calgon? LOL.

Tom has been after me to get the budget together AND have a budget meeting so I am going to try to get that done before Friday (since he gets paid on Friday). Update on his job, there was a note up that they would be off Thursday, July 2nd for Independence Day if they were off on Fridays right now (some of the office workers/salaried people are working Fridays). So I guess we're still down to 32 hours a week at least through June and into July. So we keep praying...

Day 511 and what a Monday

Oh my gosh, what a day! I am totally wiped out! Hope everyone else had a better Monday than I did.

Days 509 & 510 and tonight's FPU class

Well, I didn't get much done on my to-do list this weekend. I was worn out after CPR/First Aid class, my asthma acting up so bad right now and having to do all that huffing and puffing did not go well together. Geesh! Anyway...moving on.

Tonight's FPU class was on Working in your Strengths. One of the questions that our leader asked at the end of class was "If you could do anything you wanted and money was no object, what would you do?". My answer was that I would write. Tom's was run a music store or a bookstore. Dave teaches that if you do what you love, the money will follow. This is one of his concepts that I've had a hard time embracing. What are your thoughts on this?