Sunday, October 31, 2010

Life Changes


I know I posted awhile ago...seems like a lifetime ago ~smile~....about no longer being able to care for children in our home due to my medical issues and wondering what my next step would be. I just thought I would give an update on that.

I did look into a retraining program which is an awesome program that the government has to pay for people to be retrained when they are no longer able to do the job they were doing because of layoffs, medical issues etc. I was in the midst of applying for this when it occured to me that it just wasn't the right thing for me to do. I had been having mixed feelings since the beginning and the more I got into it the worse the feelings got, so for various other reasons as well I let that plan go.

I couldn't figure out what kind of job I would be able to do without lifting anything and also one where I could still be here for my family, look after our home and have the freedom to have time off when my hubby did. Those kind of jobs are mighty hard to come by! ~smile~

Then I realized that when I was working outside the home the kind of work I enjoyed most were the times I was cleaning and organizing. Then it occured to me that I can clean my own house with slight modifications to how I do things to make sure I don't lift anything heavy so why couldn't I do that at other peoples houses as well?

So that is just what I did. I placed an ad in the paper for a couple of weeks and put up ads in the two grocery stores. The result is that through the additional help of word of mouth my schedule is almost full of clients and I am loving my new job! I am still here to look after things at home, care for my family and am still able to have time off whenever I need it. As an added bonus all my clients are in town so I do not need a vehicle to get to and from work and I will not have to drive the highways in the winter. Both of those were added concerns of getting a job outside of the home, since so many others in our area have to travel to other towns for their jobs.

It has been a hard few months getting my life back on track and changing churches in the midst of it all was tough too but we are on the other side of it all now and life is great! God is so good to us, to lead us onto the right path for our family and to also bring us to a church where we can worship together as a whole family for the very first time....what an incredible blessing that is. How grateful I am.

Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from www.allposters.com

Friends


I read something a few weeks ago that really hit home for me. It was on a plaque in a shop and it said "Don't let grass grow on the path of friendship."

Wow...what a picture that paints for me of a long neglected path winding through the woods of life overgrown with the grass of neglect.

I realized that due to my life being hectic and so many changes going on that I had let that happen to my friendships...and at a time when I really needed them most!

I had been talking to my hubby about how much I need fellowship with other Christian women and lamenting the fact that our new church is in another town and we do not have much opportunity to really spend time with the people there outside of Sunday services. Then I realized that perhaps the reason that I had been feeling the need for fellowship so strongly is because I had let friendships go in my life.

One of my friends and I recently saw each other at a funeral for another dear friend. We realized that the last time we saw each other was at another funeral several monthes earlier! How awful that is!

One of my other close friends I used to talk to almost every morning on the phone before my family was up and after her hubby left to go work on the farm....I somehow haven't found the time to even fit in a phone call. ~sigh~

Life has been busy, full of change, issues that have bogged me down for a time and all those things have been hard and kept things hectic but it is long past time I broke out the lawn mower and cleared those paths of friendship! How thankful I am to have realized this before the paths had grown over to the point of being impossible to find again.

Do you have any paths you need to clear? ~smile~
Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from www.allposters.com