New Year, New Job

Hi all! Sorry for the prolonged absence. I really am still here, but with a new job and all that comes with it, I've been still getting used to my new state in life!

I've honestly tried a couple times to write a blog, but they were usually after an event that had me thinking a lot and ranting, or after a long day of work where all I could think of was all I had to do for work. While I will certainly try to update you on work, I promise I won't let the post get too bogged down with details.

Since I don't think I've had a personal post since before Christmas, I'll start there. We had a lovely Christmas back with my parents, and got to spend some time with Matt's family too. I wrapped up work at the preschool on Dec. 30th. It was a bit surreal for people to be saying bye to me, and especially to hug my littles goodbye. They were too young for them to understand that they wouldn't be having me in class again, and though I plan to try to make it to their spring concert, part of me wonders if they'll remember me by that point, which had me a bit sad. They were a feisty but fun group of boys, and I do miss their little quirks and cute moments.

We savored our New Year celebrations and the weekend immediately following, because Matt went back to work that next Monday after a nice two week vacation, and I started my new position that Tuesday. Though my title is DRE, I also work the front desk, and will be starting up youth groups for the junior high and high school students. Beginning this position in the middle of the school year definitely has its challenges...trying to begin a new group when everybody already has an established schedule is an uphill battle, and making a new group from scratch that meets everybody's expectations is...well, daunting. A lot of my first weeks have been learning the politics of the church, who is who and what they have to contribute, and being met with ideas for youth group that I did not expect to be encountering. It's a reminder that each parish is soooooo different. The culture, the past experiences, and the expectations are just not the same from one place to the next. It's a good reminder for me that youth group is not what I make of it, but ultimately will be something bigger than me. I can give it some push, direction, and structure, but ultimately I hope to make of it something that can be passed along.

(See, that was the only paragraph on work...that's not too bad for now, right?! My previous attempt on a blog had a paragraph all the way down to this point on strictly work. I didn't think you would enjoy that :-P )

My new schedule allows me to have Mondays and Thursdays off. Ideally, once I'm more established in a routine, these will be good days to catch up on chores, do some good meal prep, and make it to daily Masses. Honestly, so far, those days have been bumming-hard-core-days. Which, I have to allow myself. It really is still a switch to go from part-time mornings to full days, even if they aren't every day. But I will survive, and we will get there.

Also, last update, my first day of work was also my birthday! I never have super high expectations for my birthday, and all I wanted this year were to: go out to eat, have a boxed cake mix to make, and then I gave Matt a few options of some chill time things we could do, since we both still had to work the next morning. I know, a boxed cake mix doesn't sound spectacular, but I wasn't in the mood for anything super rich, and my reasoning was that when I go grocery shopping, every once in a while I'll stare a bit wistfully in the baking aisle, but usually reserve our snack food budget for something a bit more practical, so I pass it up...this was my chance to pick out something tasty-looking from the baking aisle! For the restaurant, I decided I wanted local barbecue, but something we haven't tried yet, so I ended up finding a place that was a renovated Texaco station from back in the day. It was a really great place, I hope to take family back to it at some point. And for chill time, we watched Downton (last season...we're playing a little bit of catch up). Annnnd I had a niece born on my birthday, which definitely made it special.

Yesterday weather moved through the area, and I had quite the time making it home from work, despite being sent home early by my associates. I have an appointment today, so we decided I would just take the day off and work Thursday instead. Yay flexibility! Enjoy (and be safe) in this wintry weather!