Well time is ticking away.... really fast actually.
I have not spoken to my manager again about the situation at hand, however, I do plan on giving my official notice within the next two weeks. Some of my co-workers know that will most likely be leaving and are sad to see me go.
I'm happy to say my husband is currently on a "probationary" period for becoming the store manager. He has had a few conversations with the owner of the shop and they are planning on moving folks around to achieve other goals I believe, but the end result may be my husband being on full time in a manager role. This also would mean on top of his salary he would be eligible for Key Performance Indicator bonuses and incentives. I have no idea what the specific details are but basically if he keeps the numbers of check-ins, warranty fixes, etc in good standing, he can get extra money. Sounds good in my book.
I really pray that this all works out and my husband does fantastically at this new role. Yeah, I'm not sure if that's a word either, but it works for now.
On the other side of things, I am attending another home school convention this week. I am very excited as we only 'briefed' the other one in a kind of 'get your toes wet' fashion. We are also planning on buying the rest of our curriculum! It's always fun to spend money! We still have to get mostly consumables such as workbooks etc. I'll fill more in on that after we attend.
The past few days have been kind of hard. I'm still having some anxiety about this major transition. I keep telling myself that God's not going to leave me hanging and I need to just trust Him, but it's like this war of thoughts and emotions going on in my head. I was bumming pretty considerably yesterday and my husband was trying to cheer me up. He asked what was wrong? I told him I had so much going on in my head, he wouldn't last a minute in there. The past few days with the kids have been challenging as well. I just keep praying it will be different when I am here all the time and not trying to squeeze everything into a 3 hour window after I get home from work.
I only have 20 days left of work. Only 20 DAYS!!!
If you think of it, please pray for us and that God continues to be faithful (as I know He will) and that our family would just have peace moving into this time of change.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Closing doors that should be closed
It's amazing sometimes how much stuff can change in 24 hours. You go along months without much and then woosh, it all starts changing. Of course, some of this was probably self inflicted, but nonetheless.
While I was having a conversation with my manager yesterday, my husband was having a conversation with his (well maybe not at the exact time) to find out what is going on with that business and how much longer he will be on part time. He and the owner had a good discussion and basically an opportunity was presented to him which would involve him going back full time shortly and possibly a promotion. He needs to have additional conversations around the whole thing to nail down details, so more on that to come in the future. However, the main take away is that he may be full time within in the next month. Great news.... except for all the stuff in my post yesterday about working 20 hours, yadda, yadda, yadda.
So yesterday while I was driving home I had this little voice telling me if I continue to work part time at my company, what has really changed? What exactly has the Lord called me to do? Quit my job? Home school the kids? Sometimes it's fuzzy the exact details (cause obviously God did not speak down to me in an audible voice), so I just prayed on the way home that if I was not to stay at my current employer that the answer to my being able to work part time would be a clear 'no'. I truly want God's will in all of this, so I continually seek His face for direction. I don't ever want to be caught doing an Abraham and Sarah and taking matters into my own hands.
Today I had an all day meeting with a third party vendor. Towards the end of the day, my manager sent me an instant message asking me to stop by her office. Immediately, I thought to have an answer this quick does not look promising. I stopped by her office and my thoughts were confirmed. No opportunity for part time or contract work. They just can't justify losing hours that can't be replaced by anyone else. I was surprisingly at peace with the outcome. I don't know why I was surprised, but regardless God answered my prayer. Of course, knowing that my husband may be going back to full time surely helped the situation. Otherwise I think I would have felt despair. So there it is. I have to quit to do this.
That leaves us with still having a deficit of about $1000 monthly. Using savings, we'll be good for a few months, but will quickly need to pick up additional income. Then we received two phone calls tonight. One was from a good friend of my husband asking him to help on some construction side work that should bring in roughly $1000 over the next few weeks. The second was for another small side job that my husband will go quote on Thursday. I feel like God was saying "hey, I've got this all under control!" It's so awesome to follow such a faithful God and to recognize that He cares so intimately about all the little details of our lives. I feel so blessed.
So the Lord closed the doors at my current employer, but other doors are opening ;-)
While I was having a conversation with my manager yesterday, my husband was having a conversation with his (well maybe not at the exact time) to find out what is going on with that business and how much longer he will be on part time. He and the owner had a good discussion and basically an opportunity was presented to him which would involve him going back full time shortly and possibly a promotion. He needs to have additional conversations around the whole thing to nail down details, so more on that to come in the future. However, the main take away is that he may be full time within in the next month. Great news.... except for all the stuff in my post yesterday about working 20 hours, yadda, yadda, yadda.
So yesterday while I was driving home I had this little voice telling me if I continue to work part time at my company, what has really changed? What exactly has the Lord called me to do? Quit my job? Home school the kids? Sometimes it's fuzzy the exact details (cause obviously God did not speak down to me in an audible voice), so I just prayed on the way home that if I was not to stay at my current employer that the answer to my being able to work part time would be a clear 'no'. I truly want God's will in all of this, so I continually seek His face for direction. I don't ever want to be caught doing an Abraham and Sarah and taking matters into my own hands.
Today I had an all day meeting with a third party vendor. Towards the end of the day, my manager sent me an instant message asking me to stop by her office. Immediately, I thought to have an answer this quick does not look promising. I stopped by her office and my thoughts were confirmed. No opportunity for part time or contract work. They just can't justify losing hours that can't be replaced by anyone else. I was surprisingly at peace with the outcome. I don't know why I was surprised, but regardless God answered my prayer. Of course, knowing that my husband may be going back to full time surely helped the situation. Otherwise I think I would have felt despair. So there it is. I have to quit to do this.
That leaves us with still having a deficit of about $1000 monthly. Using savings, we'll be good for a few months, but will quickly need to pick up additional income. Then we received two phone calls tonight. One was from a good friend of my husband asking him to help on some construction side work that should bring in roughly $1000 over the next few weeks. The second was for another small side job that my husband will go quote on Thursday. I feel like God was saying "hey, I've got this all under control!" It's so awesome to follow such a faithful God and to recognize that He cares so intimately about all the little details of our lives. I feel so blessed.
So the Lord closed the doors at my current employer, but other doors are opening ;-)
Monday, June 6, 2011
6 Weeks and counting....
Well, today was the day. I told my employer of my plans and really started onto the "point of no return". I was so excited, that I left work at lunch time and am currently sitting at the library giving you this info. But before I get into the outcome of that, a little update.
I have been stressing a little over the financial implications of this decision for a few weeks now. Well who am I kidding, really it's been the whole time we've been thinking about this, but more specifically the past few weeks. It just feels so impossible. My husband is still working part time and we don't see the light yet at the end of that tunnel. I also felt like if I stayed at my job part time (20 hours a week) that it would be robbing me of time that I really needed to invest into homeschooling and keeping my house. However without any additional guaranteed income, we were going to be considerably short.
Many people at our church are aware of the plans and the impending mid-July date. So naturally at church yesterday people were asking if we were still on for July. With this big unknown out there, I can only say 'yes' to a point. I explained where we were with "Granny", an elderly and wise woman at our church and she said since my husband is working part time, maybe he can take care of the children on the two days he is off while I work part time (20 hours). As simple as that sounds, I had never really thought of that option. We were really hoping at this point that my husband would be back to full time work and I would only need to supplement with about 10 hours of part time. For whatever reason, that brought clarity to our situation and gave me renewed energy as a viable option. I briefly shared this with my husband and while it would prevent him from doing other "work", he agreed it is an option. Additionally, my mom would be available at times to help with schooling or even watching the kids if we really needed it.
So instead of going into work today and asking to go down to 10 hours a week as an independent contractor, I led with my option of going part time at 20 hours. In order to be an actual part time employee at our company you need to work the 20 hours. This means I would possibly continue to be eligible for benefits and profit sharing at the end of the year.
Another thing that is important to note, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before is that the size of my team has been diminishing for varying reasons. We normally have 6 full time people and 1 full time contractor as part of our team. We lost 1 person to another position within our company and 2 people are currently on leave for FMLA. I believe our full time contractor is also leaving near the end of July. So as you can imagine we are already under-staffed. I felt this could be a benefit because I at least am already trained and have expertise on the system that I test.
I met with my manager this morning and shared with her my interest in going part time, either as an employee or as an independent contractor working 20 hours a week. Of course her initial reaction was "you're killing me" because of us already being short staffed. However, she was fairly receptive. Obviously she could not offer me an answer right away, but did share a few of her immediate thoughts. She explained how our head-count is managed within our company. A person is a person whether they are full or part time.... so two part time people count as 2 head-count, not 1 full time person. This means I really would be shorting the team of available hours, without any way of getting them elsewhere. She said she believed that went for contractors as well, so even working part time as a contractor would not solve that problem. She did ask though, if the answer was no, would I resign? I explained that it was a possibility, but obviously we needed to have income to pay our bills. She said that half of me is better than none of me. She did complement me as being one of the stronger players on the team and well respected within our department. Thank you Lord, that was how I hoped she would feel. She said she would really like to work with me and make this happen.
I explained our current timeline with our au pair leaving mid-July. So the ball is in her court at the moment and we'll have to wait for an answer. Please pray for favor and that this can somehow work out.
God is good and He can make a way!
I have been stressing a little over the financial implications of this decision for a few weeks now. Well who am I kidding, really it's been the whole time we've been thinking about this, but more specifically the past few weeks. It just feels so impossible. My husband is still working part time and we don't see the light yet at the end of that tunnel. I also felt like if I stayed at my job part time (20 hours a week) that it would be robbing me of time that I really needed to invest into homeschooling and keeping my house. However without any additional guaranteed income, we were going to be considerably short.
Many people at our church are aware of the plans and the impending mid-July date. So naturally at church yesterday people were asking if we were still on for July. With this big unknown out there, I can only say 'yes' to a point. I explained where we were with "Granny", an elderly and wise woman at our church and she said since my husband is working part time, maybe he can take care of the children on the two days he is off while I work part time (20 hours). As simple as that sounds, I had never really thought of that option. We were really hoping at this point that my husband would be back to full time work and I would only need to supplement with about 10 hours of part time. For whatever reason, that brought clarity to our situation and gave me renewed energy as a viable option. I briefly shared this with my husband and while it would prevent him from doing other "work", he agreed it is an option. Additionally, my mom would be available at times to help with schooling or even watching the kids if we really needed it.
So instead of going into work today and asking to go down to 10 hours a week as an independent contractor, I led with my option of going part time at 20 hours. In order to be an actual part time employee at our company you need to work the 20 hours. This means I would possibly continue to be eligible for benefits and profit sharing at the end of the year.
Another thing that is important to note, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before is that the size of my team has been diminishing for varying reasons. We normally have 6 full time people and 1 full time contractor as part of our team. We lost 1 person to another position within our company and 2 people are currently on leave for FMLA. I believe our full time contractor is also leaving near the end of July. So as you can imagine we are already under-staffed. I felt this could be a benefit because I at least am already trained and have expertise on the system that I test.
I met with my manager this morning and shared with her my interest in going part time, either as an employee or as an independent contractor working 20 hours a week. Of course her initial reaction was "you're killing me" because of us already being short staffed. However, she was fairly receptive. Obviously she could not offer me an answer right away, but did share a few of her immediate thoughts. She explained how our head-count is managed within our company. A person is a person whether they are full or part time.... so two part time people count as 2 head-count, not 1 full time person. This means I really would be shorting the team of available hours, without any way of getting them elsewhere. She said she believed that went for contractors as well, so even working part time as a contractor would not solve that problem. She did ask though, if the answer was no, would I resign? I explained that it was a possibility, but obviously we needed to have income to pay our bills. She said that half of me is better than none of me. She did complement me as being one of the stronger players on the team and well respected within our department. Thank you Lord, that was how I hoped she would feel. She said she would really like to work with me and make this happen.
I explained our current timeline with our au pair leaving mid-July. So the ball is in her court at the moment and we'll have to wait for an answer. Please pray for favor and that this can somehow work out.
God is good and He can make a way!
Friday, May 20, 2011
8 Weeks Left
I cannot believe how fast time is counting down. There are so many things going on around our house, school ending, and at work that I hardly have time to think about how close this is.
Two nights ago I did another budget review just to see where we were. It felt like we had been on a little spending spree lately and I wanted to see how bad we were hurting ourselves. Reviewing the budget helps keep in perspective what we purchase since we know things will be tight. And it did just that. We are still pretty good however, and will still have some money in savings going into the transition. We will be pretty set for at least the first 6 weeks.
I finally got all of my curriculum decisions squared away (thanks to friends and family who helped get us there). The boys will be doing Sonlight Core B for Science, History, Bible and Reading. Easy Grammar for grammar. Math U See for math, and ABEKA for spelling. Additionally I've already got my head spinning over what to do for music, gym and some computer lessons. Those things I will do 'off the cuff' since I have a lot of experience there and the boys play sports.
The boys are REALLY pumped about being homeschooled. Since we've been getting some curriculum books in the house, they want to start now! I bought a Mavis Beacon teaches typing CD because I think it's important for the kids to know how to type well and fast in this technology driven age. I learned when I was a child using this software and it's really good. The boys are already *gobbling* that up. They have been so excited when their WPM jumps even by 1.
So far they are really excited to learn and I hope that continues.
Two nights ago I did another budget review just to see where we were. It felt like we had been on a little spending spree lately and I wanted to see how bad we were hurting ourselves. Reviewing the budget helps keep in perspective what we purchase since we know things will be tight. And it did just that. We are still pretty good however, and will still have some money in savings going into the transition. We will be pretty set for at least the first 6 weeks.
I finally got all of my curriculum decisions squared away (thanks to friends and family who helped get us there). The boys will be doing Sonlight Core B for Science, History, Bible and Reading. Easy Grammar for grammar. Math U See for math, and ABEKA for spelling. Additionally I've already got my head spinning over what to do for music, gym and some computer lessons. Those things I will do 'off the cuff' since I have a lot of experience there and the boys play sports.
The boys are REALLY pumped about being homeschooled. Since we've been getting some curriculum books in the house, they want to start now! I bought a Mavis Beacon teaches typing CD because I think it's important for the kids to know how to type well and fast in this technology driven age. I learned when I was a child using this software and it's really good. The boys are already *gobbling* that up. They have been so excited when their WPM jumps even by 1.
So far they are really excited to learn and I hope that continues.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Boot Camp
My children have had it pretty easy thus far. We aren't really good about keeping a chore chart and having them regularly help with the house. Don't get me wrong, they have to help up when we do a big cleaning day, but I'm talking about the daily upkeep of their rooms, etc. We've had some babysitters over the years that were really good with making them do chores, but we never really followed through on the weekends or kept it up after they were gone. It just took too much time.
So, one of my first missions this summer when I am off is to send my kids through a chore boot camp. They complain pretty regularly when we ask them to do "work" now. It's going to take some "battling" to get them into gear and on a routine, but I know it will pay off after a few weeks.
I call it a boot camp because I'm hoping to make it "fun" while we go. I'm going to make them their own boot camp dog tags and everything.
Any suggestions on kids doing chores? Let me know.
So, one of my first missions this summer when I am off is to send my kids through a chore boot camp. They complain pretty regularly when we ask them to do "work" now. It's going to take some "battling" to get them into gear and on a routine, but I know it will pay off after a few weeks.
I call it a boot camp because I'm hoping to make it "fun" while we go. I'm going to make them their own boot camp dog tags and everything.
Any suggestions on kids doing chores? Let me know.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Miscellaneous Update
I cannot believe how fast time is going. Here's my updates on recent activity....
We registered for another home school conference in the area. I'm excited since this is the one we get to buy stuff at :-) I'm praying that our budgeted curriculum money makes it that long. My husband is still working part time and things are getting tight. God has been faithful though. Money has come in from various sources, just when we needed it. For instance, my husband will be doing a side job of installing a floor this weekend which will make up the $400 deficit for this pay period.
Our au pair has to fulfill an educational requirement of 6 credit hours during her stay in the US. We are required to pay for $500 of that education. Because of bad planning on my part, I forgot that we still needed $250 for that. We just had to pay it on Friday, and had to use curriculum money to cover it. We still have some time to make it up, so I'm still confident we'll be able to get what we need.
Speaking of curriculum though, there is a local curriculum fair coming up this week. We know of very specific things we are looking for, so we'll see if we're able to come across it this week for a bargain.
I still haven't notified my job of my plans. It's a delicate balance between letting them know what's going on and playing the corporate 'game'. The risk is that they say "Ok go now". Then we'd really be stuck. I really don't think they'd do that, so I'm prayerfully considering when to tell them. It'd be nice to have fewer unknowns as the time approaches. The 'unknown' being whether or not they'll continue to have some part time or contractor work available for me.
We also haven't notified the school system yet. I think I'm going to wait until closer to the end of the school.
I'm really excited it's getting close. The boys are excited too... for now. I'm sure about a month into homeschooling, they'll be asking me to send them to school :-) Guess we'll see.
We registered for another home school conference in the area. I'm excited since this is the one we get to buy stuff at :-) I'm praying that our budgeted curriculum money makes it that long. My husband is still working part time and things are getting tight. God has been faithful though. Money has come in from various sources, just when we needed it. For instance, my husband will be doing a side job of installing a floor this weekend which will make up the $400 deficit for this pay period.
Our au pair has to fulfill an educational requirement of 6 credit hours during her stay in the US. We are required to pay for $500 of that education. Because of bad planning on my part, I forgot that we still needed $250 for that. We just had to pay it on Friday, and had to use curriculum money to cover it. We still have some time to make it up, so I'm still confident we'll be able to get what we need.
Speaking of curriculum though, there is a local curriculum fair coming up this week. We know of very specific things we are looking for, so we'll see if we're able to come across it this week for a bargain.
I still haven't notified my job of my plans. It's a delicate balance between letting them know what's going on and playing the corporate 'game'. The risk is that they say "Ok go now". Then we'd really be stuck. I really don't think they'd do that, so I'm prayerfully considering when to tell them. It'd be nice to have fewer unknowns as the time approaches. The 'unknown' being whether or not they'll continue to have some part time or contractor work available for me.
We also haven't notified the school system yet. I think I'm going to wait until closer to the end of the school.
I'm really excited it's getting close. The boys are excited too... for now. I'm sure about a month into homeschooling, they'll be asking me to send them to school :-) Guess we'll see.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Stressed
Time is still ticking away and our plans are in full motion. We are still busily preparing and trying to get everything in order as much as it can be. I have to admit though, I have been quite stressed lately. I still think we are pretty crazy for moving ahead with this. I'm praying that my trust and faith in God, my father, will be stronger as the day approaches. I've been meditating on Phil. 4:6-7 which states, "Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, with prayer and thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus."
My stress has been manifesting itself in crazy ways too. My skin is starting to resemble that of a teenager going through puberty and I'm having strange dreams. I know Satan is still on the prowl and trying every tactic to distract us from our calling and move us from the path we are on. This does give me a little encouragement since I know God must have something great ahead of us that Satan is trying to stop us.
Continue to pray for us...
My stress has been manifesting itself in crazy ways too. My skin is starting to resemble that of a teenager going through puberty and I'm having strange dreams. I know Satan is still on the prowl and trying every tactic to distract us from our calling and move us from the path we are on. This does give me a little encouragement since I know God must have something great ahead of us that Satan is trying to stop us.
Continue to pray for us...
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