Working

If you have a job right now, you should cherish that job. I cherish my job working for Elkhart County Health Department in the Women, Infant, and Children division.  (WIC) I will cherish my second job working as a cashier, whenever I start training there. I looked for both of these jobs for a while. In this economy it is hard to find a job. My husband has been looking for just two months short of two years.

Jay finally got some work yesterday. I had been telling him about this place, Labor Ready, that has a rare sign in their window: Now Hiring. There aren't many places in Elkhart County that have a sign like that. Anyway, Wednesday he finally went over there. He took the tests, he filled out forms and an application. They told him that the best way for him to get a job was to show up there the next morning between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. He got up and went over there, worked 8 hours and got paid. He can do it again today.

Jay isn't lazy. He has had a job here and there since he liquidated his cabinet shop. He has suffered a lot of rejections, which I didn't know until recently how that has affected him. He has been severely depressed after losing a couple of jobs that he had hoped would last. He has put up with a lot of my own frustration and disappointment.  He has been looking in a lot of the wrong places for work. Cabinet makers and woodworkers just aren't hiring right now. The industry is slow. I had told him a couple of weeks ago that he was going to have to spread out his nets a little bit more if he were going to catch fish.

I just want to thank all of our family and friends who have prayed for us, tried to encourage us, or otherwise helped us through this time. I hope that things will continue to get better. The job doesn't really pay much, but it's better than sitting at home drawing no income!

Babblings

I was thinking of how much I miss my son, Justin. He is in pilot training in the Air Force and I haven't seen him since June of last year. And I probably won't see him until December of this year...if I get to see him then. It was almost at this time last year that I learned that he was going to be going to pilot training and that he was going to be married. What made me realise just how much I miss him, and his wife, was that I was looking through the wedding pictures. Seeing their faces in the pictures, the love in their eyes, well...just got me thinking of them both.

But, of course, I miss all my kids almost all the time. Whenever they aren't with me, I miss them. This is natural for a mother. While I understand that they have to live their lives, just as I have had to live mine separated from my parents, and I have accepted this as a fact of life, it doesn't make me miss them less. I do look forward to the next time I see them, speak to them, receive e-mail from them. I am even happy just to read their posts on Facebook.

I also miss my friends, all of them, young and old, collectively and separately. Now, am I just weird, or is this a common human condition?

I was supposed to see my parents today. It worked out for the best that Dad called and said not to come down. I was kind of worn out from the trip we took yesterday to Holland, Michigan. Another trip today and I would have felt like I needed a day off tomorrow, which I don't have. Mom was not feeling well, had coughed all night and needed to catch up on her rest today. I understand. But I miss them, too.

When Mom had back surgery last year in August, I went to the store one day with my Dad to buy some groceries and things. My Dad, God bless him, was so worried about my Mom. And he has had to take on some of the chores that Mom alone used to do. But, walking in the store that day, I was observing my Dad. Just walking with him, and watching him walk, I realised all of a sudden that what my sister had been saying was true. Our parents were becoming "elderly".

See, I was watching Daddy walking, and I realised that he has the gait of a little old man. I had never seen him that way before. He had always been big and strong.... Tears came to my eyes, but I could not just break down crying right there in the aisle at Meijers, could I? So, I did what I always do; push down the tears, put on a smile, and cope.

I do that every day!