Monday, November 24, 2014

Oh, trying to play catch up again.....

It has been almost two months since I have put up a new blog post. It feels like it has been a year. How can so much happen in such a small amount of time? The last time I blogged, Andrew's Dad and girlfriend were still here. We were on our way to Lincoln Log Cabin for the Fall Follies; that was a great day!  We picked up sandwiches at Subway and Robert grabbed a sandwich after work and met us there. We had a picnic lunch in perfect 70 degree weather. That along with the fact that watching all the crafters, I realized one of them was Cathy Grafton, who used to be the LIHEAP Coordinator for the Bloomington area. I got to have a nice visit with her so that was an added bonus.

I have made many more trips to Springfield, spoke at several parent meetings, worked on many (TOO many!) computers, ran the furnace program (and ran out of money on it) all in the last 50+ days. There were a couple days I thought I was nuts. There was one day, I had a come-apart and thought I was stupid for thinking I could do all of this. God shows me in big ways, I am doing what I am supposed to be though. On that particular day, I had work, a parent meeting at 4:30 in Chrisman, and was supposed to be at AWANA at 6:15. I was to go to Springfield the next day, and I knew by the agenda of the meeting, there was something I needed to do some research and studying on. I got it all done though, and was ready to say what I wanted to say at the meeting. This was the second time in two weeks that I had stuff heavy on my mind about decisions being made at the state level. On the 8th, I had most of a page full of talking points. Funny, I go to Springfield, I sit at a table with 7-10 people that I consider friendly, most of them I consider friends. There are 7-10 people on a video conference from Chicago, same thing; if they aren't friends, I don't consider them the enemy.....for the most part anyway. I have never been so scared to death to speak my mind in my life. But I think what I said on the 8th got a lot of support and what happened on the 16th started a chain of events that, after me sending an email this week, actually got things changed. That's why I go, that's why it's important. I made a difference, a difference to the workload of some of my colleagues, but most importantly, a difference to the confusion factor for our clients. So, this last couple of months have been worth it.

While I was in Springfield on the 16th, we had a major issue going on in our office, our accounting system stopped working correctly. I am horrible at talking someone through how to do stuff over the phone. Most of the time, I just do it, I need to work on that. I dealt with that Thursday evening after I got back, all day Friday and most of the day Monday. Friday afternoon, I talked to the people who run the software, we worked for 2 1/2 hours, thought we had it fixed, only to hang up the phone and 10 minutes later, find out it quit working again. It took most of another week but we finally got it all together and figured it out, I don't want an issue like that to happen for a long time!

 Andrew has had a very good start to his business. God is good, all the time. Scary is an understatement when venturing out like this but he has only went one full week without work. Next year, we will have furniture to repair, restore and resale for when this time comes. We had a goal for the first real month, and we met it, we went a whole $7.00 over that goal but I decided I just did a really good job of setting the goal!

I hate that I basically have lost that month and a half, I vow to do better about blogging, I WANT to do better about blogging, it just gets out of hand and then there is so much to say....

I guess the big thing that happened in October was going to Covered Bridge, where I finally found Robert's cabinet at a bargain price no less; it needs redone, but that's what we have Andrew for :-).

We also got to see my Uncle Kenny and Aunt Nancy as they were set up for a flea market at Mattoon for one weekend.

November, we got to go to my cousin Tracy's wedding reception, they got married on a cruise, so we celebrated when they returned. Her mom, Nancy (different Nancy than above, this is my COUSIN Nancy Glosser, the one above is my AUNT Nancy Glosser) brought me a braclet from the cruise. IT is one of the add a bead ones and I had wanted one forever. I am very proud of my braclet but just how cool is it that you go to a wedding reception and come home with gifts?

My mom celebrated her 75th Birthday and Andrew is celebrating the big 50 on Thanksgiving day.

Mom has been having some heart issues and we go Monday to Evansville to see one heart doctor and Tuesday to Olney to see another one. Hopefully, they are very fixable issues and we can get her back on the straight and narrow soon.

Robert is good, Chrissy, Liz and Gibbs are good.

So, as we come into the Thanksgiving season, I am very thankful for all of the above. I didn't do the thankful posts on facebook this year because some people either made fun of them or took them in a way I didn't intend. God has been good to us, this is true, but I never mean for it to sound like I am boasting. I could very well sit down and tell you all our troubles and worries but the deal is, I KNOW God is gonna take care of me so why do that?? IF I have something I seriously need prayer for, I ask because I believe prayer does change things. Otherwise, why not be thankful for what God blesses us with. With all of this being said, I think that day to really focus on one thing to be thankful for each day up to Thanksgiving has truly been missed for my own blessings. I thank God everyday for all I have and I normally name them, piece by piece but there was just something "adventish" (sp?) about doing the thankful posts. I have really enjoyed my friends who have done them and I truly do take them in the light they are intended.

And why we are on the subject of being thankful, I will close with this little thought. God tells us that as we grow in Him, we will grow in the fruits of the spirit. Those are  love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Prosperity isn't one of them. This was in one of the devotionals I was reading this morning. God doesn't promise to make us rich because we follow him. He promises to take care of us, and he always does. Somehow when you stop dwelling on money, the rest falls into place. I'm not saying that anyone can go without money, I work in the wrong business to have my head in the sand like that. I am saying, if God tells you to do something, I don't think you should worry about the money part, I think you should concentrate on doing what He tells you to do and I believe you will watch the rest all just fall into place. The epitome of having faith.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I will update soon!