I submitted my letter of resignation last week. My last day at work is July 15. Kind of crazy, but there's no turning back now. I'm happy to say that I am very excited at this point. I have had tremendous peace for a few weeks now and just trusting the Lord that he will not leave us hanging.
Some of our curriculum came in the mail today and the kids are "rip raring" to go. They asked me if we could start school today. Umm... no. Not until I finish work. I've got so much going on with leaving my job that I've been pretty busy.
Who would have thought that leaving a job could be so busy? I have to worry about transferring our health insurance, making sure I have all my online accounts set up to my personal email account, and make sure all my personal files are off of my work computer.
News had started to spread around work and I've been a little surprised at some of the responses. All have been good! One manager told me she wishes she had done this when her kids were small. Now they are grown and she wishes she could have spent that time with them. Another person couldn't believe I was home schooling!! Some one else had no idea I had FIVE children, as she emphasized. Everyone by far has said good things though.
So here we are. The count down continues. Only 13 more days of work and 3 weeks until I'm home full time.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
CHEO Conference
This past weekend, we attended the CHEO (Christian Home Educators of Ohio) conference in Akron, OH. On Thursday was a Family Discipleship seminar by Matthew and Maranatha Chapman. The key points I came away with, that spoke to me were:
1. Seed produces after its kind. If the parents are selfish, the kids will be selfish. Conversely if the parents are givers the kids will be givers.
2. Home environment should be a safe place.
3. God gives grace to the humble
4. Conversation should always edify, even in jesting.
5. We have to die to what we want. Life is not about you, it's about Him.
6. Don't complain, we make a place for the enemy.
7. Life is messy. Its about how we approach the spills.
8. Make sure you have the hearts of your children each morning.
Friday, my husband was able to join me for the day as well as my eldest son. We saw some more great speakers.
One of the speakers talked about homeschooling with preschoolers. My take-aways from that were:
1. Children are a blessing from the Lord
2. There is a time for everything
3. Keep a solid routine - not necessarily time-based, but routine. Morning devotions followed by breakfast, followed by .... etc.
4. Don't give up on nap time too soon. Even if it's just quiet time on their bed.
5. Keep "Activities in a bag" or a list of what the littles like to do on hand
6. Focus on the ministry (personal) to your children, less management (impersonal).
Two of the sessions we attended that day were by a sweet couple named Jenni and Matt Cox. They struck me as the type of people we would get along with great provided more time to spend with them. Here are some points I got from them:
1. A wise man chooses his destination and accepts the path. A fool chooses the path and accepts the destination.
7 Purposes of Marriage
1. Partnership
2. Power
3. Pleasure
4. Pro-creation
5. Protection
6. Picture of Christ and His church
7. Peace - place of trust and sincerity.
After attending our sessions on Friday we realized we didn't focus too much on home schooling sessions, so Saturday we tried to hit some practical home schooling sessions. We heard J. Michael Smith talk about measuring home school success. He used 1 Cor 15:58 as the standard for judging success.
Here are his 5 pre-requisites for success:
1. Be part of the 'my beloved'
2. 'this work' - the work of the Lord
3. 'be steadfast' - be excellent
4. Be immovable
5. Abounding in the work of the Lord - overflowing
And the outcome is that your work will 'not be in vain'.
Lastly we heard Steve Demme talk about strategies for understanding one another. We've had lots of sibling conflict and rivalry going on in our home lately that I was really looking for some ideas on that. Steve talked about these points:
1. Pray for your wife and family
2. Learn each others love languages
3. Communication
4. Personalities
5. Birth Order
I have some other notes taken, but that was the main stuff I walked away from the conference with. I really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to going again in the future. We also were able to purchase the remainder of the curriculum we needed and are looking forward to packages in the mail. The boys are already asking if we can start school early.... ahh, if only that would last!
1. Seed produces after its kind. If the parents are selfish, the kids will be selfish. Conversely if the parents are givers the kids will be givers.
2. Home environment should be a safe place.
3. God gives grace to the humble
4. Conversation should always edify, even in jesting.
5. We have to die to what we want. Life is not about you, it's about Him.
6. Don't complain, we make a place for the enemy.
7. Life is messy. Its about how we approach the spills.
8. Make sure you have the hearts of your children each morning.
Friday, my husband was able to join me for the day as well as my eldest son. We saw some more great speakers.
One of the speakers talked about homeschooling with preschoolers. My take-aways from that were:
1. Children are a blessing from the Lord
2. There is a time for everything
3. Keep a solid routine - not necessarily time-based, but routine. Morning devotions followed by breakfast, followed by .... etc.
4. Don't give up on nap time too soon. Even if it's just quiet time on their bed.
5. Keep "Activities in a bag" or a list of what the littles like to do on hand
6. Focus on the ministry (personal) to your children, less management (impersonal).
Two of the sessions we attended that day were by a sweet couple named Jenni and Matt Cox. They struck me as the type of people we would get along with great provided more time to spend with them. Here are some points I got from them:
1. A wise man chooses his destination and accepts the path. A fool chooses the path and accepts the destination.
7 Purposes of Marriage
1. Partnership
2. Power
3. Pleasure
4. Pro-creation
5. Protection
6. Picture of Christ and His church
7. Peace - place of trust and sincerity.
After attending our sessions on Friday we realized we didn't focus too much on home schooling sessions, so Saturday we tried to hit some practical home schooling sessions. We heard J. Michael Smith talk about measuring home school success. He used 1 Cor 15:58 as the standard for judging success.
Here are his 5 pre-requisites for success:
1. Be part of the 'my beloved'
2. 'this work' - the work of the Lord
3. 'be steadfast' - be excellent
4. Be immovable
5. Abounding in the work of the Lord - overflowing
And the outcome is that your work will 'not be in vain'.
Lastly we heard Steve Demme talk about strategies for understanding one another. We've had lots of sibling conflict and rivalry going on in our home lately that I was really looking for some ideas on that. Steve talked about these points:
1. Pray for your wife and family
2. Learn each others love languages
3. Communication
4. Personalities
5. Birth Order
I have some other notes taken, but that was the main stuff I walked away from the conference with. I really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to going again in the future. We also were able to purchase the remainder of the curriculum we needed and are looking forward to packages in the mail. The boys are already asking if we can start school early.... ahh, if only that would last!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tick tock
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.
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 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!
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