Small Success Thursday - A day late

I let my stress get the better of me over the weekend and had a meltdown over a frustrating but ultimately trivial issue. Sigh, that embarrasses me. But I also realized I was also experiencing a low blood sugar event at the same time. I need to watch that.

• I made it to the gym on Monday. But that is because I know I am going to be putting in a few hours of work over the weekend. As a contractor I am "limited" to 40 hours a week. Unfortunately I have not made it back. 
• Had lunch with the account manager of my current contract. She is looking for opportunities for me if my current one ends at the end of November. After talking, she is also going to pitch me as a flexible resource who can work fewer than 40 hours a week or scale up to 40 when the work is there. I like that. My budget depends on 60% or my current take home pay, so we can cut back a bit without much pain and that would take a weight off of my shoulder. So I am saying some prayers. 
• Made my husband a from scratch birthday cake for his birthday on Wednesday.  

Linking up with Catholic Mom

Small Success Thursday - Oct 23

Once again I am struggling to come up with my successes. I get up. get ready, drop my teenager off at school, go to work and either pick the teenager up or come home to babysit my Grandson while his parents attend class. Lather, rinse, repeat...

Add to this the fact that I work on a contract basis. My contract is currently expiring at the end of November. It seems to be touch and go as to if it will be renewed. This is always so much fun, NOT!

So I have:
1. Updated my resume
2. Made dinner every night this week even if it was not well-received
3. I dropped off a pair of shoes at the repair shop to have new heels put on them before iw ore them down too much.

Linking up with Catholic Mom.

Small Success Thursday - Oct 9

Another Thursday, Another post...

I am in a season of my life where I really need these weekly reminders. Personally I feel like I am spinning my wheels most of the time, not growing in any aspect of my life.

It is amazing how with the advent of blogs, twitter and online news, how focused I am on my faith life. I think about my faith and the love for it much more than I did 10 years ago when my faith life consisted of prayer before dinner, Mass on the weekends and conversations with my kids about their day at the Catholic school.  

Now I can participate in Novenas by signing up for regular emails from PrayMoreNovenas.com. (Not that I am good at saying the prayers each and every day, But God is hearing me. My intentions for the last year have been focused on asking for my parents to get moved back to my home town. That has finally happened. I prayed for a peaceful death for a wonderful lady who is a friend of the family. Her doctors are amazed that she is not in excruciating pain and she has a happy demeanor, granting her husband, kids and grandkids good memories of her final days. I have been praying for my son, DIL and Grandson that they build a strong family and take steps to support themselves. My son has been working a labor intensive job for almost a year. We would love him to take some classes or vocational training. He is back taking an English class towards a degree and he is starting to explore other options. He realized that he does not want to be like his poor partner at work who is 50, has been pulling cable all of his working life, is slow, aching and tired. Thank you Lord!

I have been mostly patient with the 15 yo when he blamed me for forgetting his lunch the other day. He said I rushed him. Hum, I have a declared time to leave the house. He was not ready. Not my fault. This morning we had to turn around because he forgot his school laptop. Although I admit I got quite load when he did not want to taek the bag of too small creates in for the sports equipment drive saying "It would be a pain to carry it to the other side of the school." After his actions had put me at least 15 minutes late and I had to call into a conference call from my car.

And I have cooked dinner and packed my lunch this week. For today I have split pea soup in my crockpot.

Joining up with Catholic Mom  

Small Success Thursday - The Day to Day Grind

More and more, I am having difficulty coming up with my small successes. But then I think that is when I really need to think about this. My vocation as a Wife and Mom have a tendency to be eclipsed by my working-for-pay job. In the beginning, I was called to work. I enjoyed it, I could not imagine being a stay at home Mom. it was not for me. I had earned my Master's degree and was ready to take in the IT world. It would be quite a few years before Hubby would decided he was ready to go back to school for his degree.

These days, my paycheck is putting out son through Catholic High school, school loans and extra wants and luxuries. The first two are worth every penny. My youngest son is only dependent upon me for grocery transportation, grocery shopping an financial support. I am longing to slow down, I still enjoy the paid work I do. And I have a good amount of flexibility. God had been good to me, in June he pointed me to a new job that enabled me to take my son to and from school (no bus service). And even though it is a contract position, I am keeping calm that everything will work out ok. If it is meant to be that I work less and be available to care for my Grandson so his parents can work and go to school, it will happen (My perfect scenario is a part-time position. Unfortunately they are not so common in IT).

Anyways, my days start early with getting up and getting dressed. I aim to leave the house at 6:30 pending the readiness of the teenager, drop him off at school. work by 7:30. I usually work through lunch so I can leave at 4. M & W I need to pick up the teen form school, T & Th he has band, but my older son and his wife have class, so they drop off the baby at 4:30. I cook and serve dinner, we clean up, I spend time with Hubby and am in bed by 9:30 and start all over again. Unless there is a band boosters meeting, or a meeting of the school's parent technology committee that I help out on... You get the picture.

So I guess there is success at putting one foot in front of the other, taking care of my employer's needs and my family's needs. I'd love to squeeze some personal exercise in there, on a consistent basis,. I manage a walk every couple of days.. But it is not be be this season.

But hey, I have packed my lunch so far this week. Better fro my wallet and my waistline.    

Linking up with Catholic Mom