paring down

this week I will be paring down.

I currently have four part-time jobs: Prairie View/SLS House HST, Southwest Health and Human Services Breastfeeding Counselor, New Horizons Crisis Center Parenting Time Monitor, and Shetek Lutheran Ministries Environmental Education Coordinator.


tomorrow, NHCC is getting the ax. it's a job where I'm not getting very many hours, and when I do, they're scheduled at times where I'd really just like to be home with the family I never get to see.  the job and my coworkers are both fantastic, and it's sad that my 18-month stint there needs to end, but to preserve every shred of my sanity the culling of any relatively trying involvements needs to happen.


are you too involved? too many irons in the fire, stretched too thin, too much on your plate? feel like you're constantly going without putting your effort into what you really care about--your body, your love, your family, your real time following your dream? that's where we're at.  we have so many interests, hobbies, ideas, goals, and work commitments--none of them have the level of energy devoted to them that we'd like.  and some of them are incredibly important!


raising our daughter to be a strong, independent and thoughtful young woman is of utmost importance to me.  so is being a steadfast, capable and productive wife.  we need to ask ourselves if the way we choose to spend our time is making that possible. last Saturday morning I spent away from Charlie and Lydia to monitor and record supervised parenting time for a broken family.  while I've enjoyed being a part of providing a needed service to our community, my emotional capacity and tolerance for being away from my family is waning.


so.  I will be paring down, hopefully in more ways than one.  we have one chance, one lifetime, to make this life count; my strongest conviction is that we need to spend our time doing what feels right, and doing what makes us happy.  still trying to figure all of that out.  Charlie and I both turn 26 this year, so I think we have some time to get everything straight...who knows what our future holds.  for right now, though, I'm going to relish family time, eat nutritious and wholesome food, spend time in my home making it ours, and simplify our living style and possessions.

what do you do to make your time your own?