Time Flies

Wow - where does the time go?  I have often read the quote "Work swells to fit the time allowed" - or something to that effect.  However, it seems that more often my work swells to exceed the time there is!  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  The best thing about it is that time moves so quickly, to a couple with a self-imposed sentence to living where we are for a specified aount of time this is good thing.  The bad part is that being busy and with time moving so quickly,  it's sometimes easy to forget about the important things.  Like your friends.. and family.. and your spouse. 

Luckily I am not the only one to succumb to the time bandit.  A recent email from one of my dearest friends shared the lovely news of her family growing again (YAY!).  And the email spawned a flurry of emails from our other best-ies about her other thoughts on getting together for a"gathering" of our families next summer after the new one's arrival.  A challenge now that we're all grown up working and living in 3 different states and at different stages of family life and not in college anymore.  The last time we all got together was at the wedding.  That was almost 2 years ago. 

So then family..  we really take them for granted.  I have seen many families in recent years lose a member unexpectedly and much too early.  So last Christmas's horrible awareness that I had not seen my sister in almost a year festered all spring so I made it a priority in the early summer to visit her.  It was a humbling and gratifying experience to see the forever 10 year old in mind now as a mature 22 year old woman,  and knowing that she is forging her path in the world and doing it quite well!  The baby in the family is driving now, which by all counts means she isn't much of the Kindergartner I remember.  The middle one I probably talk to the most so I feel more connected to, but I haven't seen her in person since Christmas this year, mostly because she was on another continent. It's time for a trip home I believe. Oh, how I miss my red-headed trio!

And then the spouse.  That absolutely wonderful man I get to spend nearly every night with.  You'll notice I didn't say come home to or every night.  This is because, well, sometimes I come home after him and there are a lot of nights coming up that I'll be in a hotel for a work conference and not with him.    We're busy people and thank goodness we're both ok with that.  However I think he thinks I take him for granted.  What he doesn't know is that I couldn't do half of what I do without him.  He makes me better and want to do better and be better for everyone, including him.  I bet he feels like he's out on a limb though!

6 months

It was 6 months ago that we started another adventure in a new town.  Moved away from everyone we knew, started new jobs and learned to live with one another... hmmm... why does that sound so familiar?  The past six months were  so much easier than the last time we transitioned with so much newness.  Maybe because we knew what to expect (or not to expect) and had already experienced some severe disappointments together?

For us reaching the first six months was a triumph.  We are happy, content (with most things at least) and most of all feel like we've got a handle on things again.  I recently read a friend's blog about meeting her 6 month mark.  It was a different kind of 6 month mark, it was one of those marks that leaves you in awe at the grace of God and the love of the people around you.

Thinking about her 6 month mark and my 6 month mark made me think about how so much of what we do is measured in the amount of time it took to get there, to hang on or get past those life events.  Why is it that we tend to focus on the length of time it took rather than the time we've had?

So many amazing things happen in the time we've had.  Babies are born, friends and family leave this world, change, change, and more change.  And you know what???  I like it.

BTW...We celebrated that small tick of time with a date night and flowers (before Valentines Day), which truly was a great time! 

The fork in the road

Well, here we are, moved, sort of settled and back on track... or at least that's how it feels.  New jobs, new places and well, new everything.  Attacking the challenges of a new place is as out there as you can get.  It's exciting, scary and well, draining.  Learning the new grocery store, the routes around town, the neighbors (good and bad) the new sounds, daily routines, finding new friends; it's a wonder anyone ever moves for the challenges that await once you get there. Truly it's not that bad. I'm just exhusted, we've been here two months today and there are tons of things to do still at the house, the office, around town.. I think I'm going to celebrate the first two months by breaking out the $50 bottle of wine we won at last springs' ALS banquet and get a movie from the new found redbox rental, relax and pet my dogs.  

Decisions

So... there comes a point when a decision just has to be made.  Whether that decision is what's for lunch or should be move here or here?  Lunch is easy.  Moving not so much.  I think major decisions are very simple when you are single, once there are two of you to make the decisions it complicates things to the nth degree.  As a single woman, I took two jobs, bought a house, moved three times, and then I got married. Now I've left two jobs, moved zero times but am living with my mother-in-law (who is wonderful) but holey moley now that we have the chance to move my hubs and I just can't seem to come to terms with our current decision.  We've made it, I think... but neither one of us is too excited.  I got a job offer but he's not excited about the move.  He's got a job opportunity- not an offer- but I'm not excited about it because it puts us back in the same predictament we were in about a year and a half ago- which wasn't good.   So here we are... at a crossroads and feeling like we should take the trail that runs through both.

Change, Challenge and Cheap Seats

The things I think of writing about aren't necessarily awe-inspiring, enlightening or maybe even interesting to anyone other than myself.  But in the last few days I've had a lot of thinking time... I'm unemployed at the moment so that leaves a lot of open hours in my day.  Topics I've considered in this time cover a lot of ground:


Challenges - those things that we dream up or are very real parts in accomplishing big and small, long and short goals
Job Opportunity - I'm interested in a lot of things... I think that's why I'm hesitant to make a choice
New Ideas - Where does one start with a new path? One foot in front of the other... yeah...
Family - When family is involved everything gets complicated or easier depending on what you're doing.
Food - What's for lunch?
Prayer - My sisters... i just want to squeeze them... I'm older but not always wiser. How is it that a simple message from one of them just makes your day?
National Crisis - Someone just sold everything they own (the house, clothes, everything) to help out on the Gulf Coast without any idea of how they were going to help, but just knew that they were going to... now that's Faith.
Fear - the unknown of the next step and how to get there.
Spousal Relationships - I love that man, but some days... oi!
Friends - Where did they go?? At what point does it seem like the friend switch got turned off... you're close, you're connected, you're busy making dinner dates and then... you're hundreds of miles apart, FB is as connected as you get (maybe the occasional email) and your social calendar is growing an inch of dust on it.
Cheap Seats - what an excellent way to see your favorite event when you're out of funds... however, those not so cheap ones sometimes have a much better view.  I hope I get back there someday.

Life out on a limb... what a challenge.

your food my food

I always get a little thrill out of catching a fun little post to someone's facebook status.  Today's thrill came from a friend that  went to school with, although she was quite a few grades ahead of me, but just a fabulous person then and now.  She now heads up a group of students that deal with Agriculture, otherwise know as FFA or Future Farmers of America.  I hope they all become a Farmer or at least a Farmers Advocate because I like to eat; all things, hummus, red meat, fruits, veggies and chicken: hatched and unhatched.  The little nugget of fun I found today was a link to a site operated by Mike Rowe, the face of Dirty Jobs, and it details his experience in addressing the 82nd National FFA convention and the results of addressing that mass of adolescents.  Take a look at his thoughts and explore how you feel about the Future of Agriculture...

http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2010/05/the-future-of-farming/

I had the opportunity a few months ago to listen in and judge the delivery of the FFA creed at our local chapter where two of my friends are advisors.  As an organization they are looking to revise the creed as it is now written, why and to what I'm not sure, but probably to address the same reasons that members would prefer to be called FFA members rather than Future Farmers of America (reference above link).  I think that is too bad, I like Farmers, I know a lot of them and they are hard working, self-sacrificing, and truly individuals to be respected.  Truly individuals that are out on a limb, both in a figurative sense and in a legislative, special interest group, threatening kind of way.  Which again is too bad, I bet those same people like to eat as much as I do.

if it's not a good experience, it's a great story

Going out on a limb is really hard for some people, those individuals that don't handle change well, don't want to disrupt their stable world and those that are afraid of fallout from taking a risk. 

Then there's me.

It seems I've taken up residence out on a limb.  I'm not sure when it happened or why I'm still there but I seem to survive better, no... thrive, when I'm not firmly nestled into a proverbial tree trunk.  Granted, I don't think my mother would agree too much with me.  I believe she finds my slightly precarious position unnerving and foolish. Fortunately, I have found another human who thrives out on a limb and he's happy sharing our little branch of life. I think this also causes my mom to worry, nothing like two headstrong individuals to make life interesting! I'm not sure what he expected but so far so good.

The risks I've taken, to some aren't huge, but they certainly have been life-changing.  Not all have gone well or resulted in what I'd hoped but the excitement of getting there and the challenges along the way have made it worthwhile.  Luckily, I have formed a great network of friends who by habit or sheer nerve applaud and encourage my nesting here on the edge. A friend once told me that she didn't know how I managed to handle all the uncertainty that surrounded me, I told her... "Things change every day, I just have days that always change and I'm not afraid of that. Things work out they way they are supposed too."

Out on a limb is where the fruit is.  Not always is it sweet, or ripe, or perfect but it is satisfying.