Conclusions

Last week I made a crummy box.  I invented it, :-).  It's an old flower pot-esque thing that I strung with ribbons to hang from my spice shelf in my kitchen.  Purpose:  When anyone here is feeling crummy for whatever reason, write down what you're feeling crummy about, what feeling you're "giving away" and put the paper in the crummy box.  When box is full, we'll shred the papers and put 'em in our compost box.  Goal: turn crummy feelings into something positive by giving them away.  It's been helpful for me, although not needed as much over the last week or so, which is GREAT!

I also have been working very hard on my tree.  As I do more painting on it, I like it less and less.  I almost think the chalk drawing was cooler, but we'll see what the finished product is like.  Regardless, it's a nice zen in the evenings.  I do my picking up/cleaning up, put on some music, set the lights a little low, and paint.  A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Spending more time thinking about this home school thing and putting more energy into recognizing when we are "unschooling" as it is.  We do a lot of it already.  No wonder he's smarter than everyone in his class.  I'm so nervous of it, though.  I LOVE being home with my kiddos, LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  But, I have to admit I'm nervous of saying, "okay, I won't work for a certain amount of years, because I'll be home/un schooling my kids."  That's a LOT of me to give away.  I like the idea of working in the future again.  Of going somewhere and being "productive" and bringing home some cash.  But, when I just put it that way, I don't really have any feelings tied to it, as they didn't arise.  So, maybe it's just the fear that I'll miss it later on.  I suppose if/when that time comes along I can work something out.  Still preparing for our dive into it this summer...

I've been feeling so so much better lately and that's just great.  I took a bold leap and erased all my household chores from my daily calendar.  I then put in my reminders to do what is GOOD for me, 4 times per week.  Sat, Mon, Wed, Thu I do my chakra(really!!  the spell check on this doesn't recognize chakra!!! crazy...) opening meditation, cutting of negative cords, and finally my gratitude/intention setting.  The deal is, I usually attend my local intenders circle on Sunday evenings, so more often than not I'll be doing these things 5 times per week.  Excellent!  It has really helped.  I've not had any panic attacks since I started and I've been generally less moody.  Whew!  Again, a large thanks goes to Michelle Hill for reminding me what I needed to do and a pat on the back goes to myself for deciding those things are more important for me to focus on that chores.  Messy house, Happy Mom > Clean house, Neurotic Mom!

We're replacing our windows, since they're almost as old as my Dad.  It's frightening to sign over $3000 at one time, but it's so good, too.  I look forward to feeling better about our energy use next winter!  Also, they're made locally (woohoo!) and we, of course, went with a local contractor for (we're assuming) a few hundred dollars more than one of the big companies.  But, we feel really good about this as we chose a father/son operation and the son is now in charge cause Daddy's 7/8 retired.  They've been doing it for 20-something years and that's a part of America I support.  Real people, doing real work.  Amen!  I can't change NAFTA, but I can control who I do business with.  Small steps...

Jon got the promotion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So happy for him and so proud of him.  He's such a great leader, teacher, speaker, manager...  He'll do such a wonderful job.  He starts on Tuesday.  His new shift pretty much stinks, but so did this one, so...  It's fair.  I decided to not have the family take the raise.  Jon gets the raise.  He's been wanting to build a computer for a while, but it's an expensive endeavor.  So, he gets 100% of his raise all to himself and after 7-8 months or so he will have the funds to build his computer.  At that point, I'm hoping to hijack that raise and start saving for our RV.  xx fingers crossed!  Regardless, he's been pushing for this promotion for nearly 2 years and I really feel I can't state enough how happy I am for him.  His managers had pretty well no "opportunities" to share with him about his interview and told him that when people are having a hard time interviewing in the future, they'll be sending them to him for mentoring.  It was a fun and happy moment of promotion.  He was so nice to me and called me on his cell and put it on speaker in his pocket for the "decision meeting" and I put mine on mute, so I wouldn't be heard.  I appreciated I got to experience it with him and was thrilled when his supervisor said, "Congratulations... if you want it"  I yelled, jumped, laughed, and got a little teary.  What can I say, I'm an emotional woman...

Big week it has been.  I've been very happy.  Grateful to God for that and for all things I am pointed to to help me out in my times of turmoil.  Giving up sugar for now and leaning on God for that as well.  But, I'll elaborate on that next time.