Cultures Collide

August 5, 2011 By 3 Comments

We have had such a busy and exhausting week. A couple of midnight airport runs will really mess up your body clock. Half of my family (Mom, Andrew, and Andrew’s girlfriend Nicole) just returned home from a mission trip to the Czech Republic. Our church has sent a team for several years to teach English and minister to the Czech people. We were excited to see them, but I think somehow staying up so late to greet everyone made us almost as tired as the ones who did the traveling.

My brother has had quite an adventure over the last month. While teaching English on last year’s Czech team he made good friends with one of his students, Milan. They planned all year to travel together this summer. Andrew went to the Czech Republic a couple of weeks early to stay at Milan’s house and travel around Europe before the rest of the Czech team arrived for the English camp. They got to see and do so many exciting things. After the English camp was over, Milan and his parents came home to stay with Andrew at my parents’ house and travel around the States. The four of them arrived just before midnight on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday (and early into Thursday) we waited to greet the rest of Czech team returning home.

It’s been fun to get to know Milan and his parents a little bit. They are super nice people. They have tried to teach us a couple of Czech words, but our Czech is no where near as good as their English. We even found the perfect opportunity to dig out the globe to find places they had visited and see just how far away from home they are. I think it’s kind of amazing to find similarities with people who live on the other side of the world!

Geography lessonGlobe

Last night we had quite an interesting and diverse group together. It was the first time I had really had the chance to spend time with Nicole’s family. They joined us for the slide show of Milan and Andrew’s travels. Her Puerto Rican family is a lot of fun and a lot different from our family. They enjoyed getting to know our Czech friends as well. I have to concentrate to understand Nicole’s dad with his accent, so I found it most impressive that Milan was able to understand him so easily. Milan and Andrew narrated their travels and Mom and Nicole chimed in for the parts they were there for.

Milan and AndrewSlide show audience

What a fun night! I am so tired after this week, I don’t think we’ll be doing anything tonight. Sounds like a good Netflix night.

Filed Under: Family, General

Six Months on the “Job”

August 1, 2011 By 1 Comment

As of today it’s been six months since I left my job to be home full time with Jesse! We had been planning to take this step for so long, sometimes it’s still hard to believe we are actually here. We have certainly had our share of challenges in making this life transition, but overall the change has been great.

Having the ability to make a living from home has had the greatest impact on Jesse’s health. After years of being non-compliant with treatments, he has consistently been able to make time for them now. Saving that commute time freed up time he never had to do morning treatments. The flexibility to take time to rest or go to doctors appointments as needed, without having to make up the hours missed from work, has made a big difference in his stress level. I think being exposed to less people everyday and not touching germ-y surfaces helps keep him healthier too. I hope that he is always able to continue working for himself.

Saving moneySince I started staying home the business has really grown, despite our ups and downs. Jesse feels more efficient and has been able to complete projects quicker than he could when he was doing the book keeping that I now do. I also think that our house just runs smoother overall now that I have more time to do things that always got pushed aside. One of my accomplishments has been how much I have been able to shave off of our grocery bill. We were buying too many prepared items and often picking up groceries here or there without realizing how much it was costing us. A little extra planning and a little more time devoted to meal prep has really cut our expenses. Saving money is my new paycheck!

Honestly, I haven’t always been sure this arrangement would work out, but so far… it really has! We are still so sure this was the right move for us. I’m so proud of the company and reputation that Jesse has built. Keep up the GREAT work!

Filed Under: General

Whatcha Reading?

July 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

I love to read! Even though I have much less time to read now than I used to, I still love to read. When we were kids Mom used to make us complete an hour of reading each day of summer break before we were able to do anything else. She thought we needed something to keep our minds alive between times of what she called “brain-dead excitement” or endless hours of television. I really don’t think we spent that much time watching TV, except on days when it was over one hundred degrees outside so there wasn’t much else to do.

At first it seemed like some sort of cruel punishment to make us read during our summer break, but then I grew to enjoy it. During college I had absolutely no time for reading anything other than my text books. Then I got a job where I often had so much free time that my boss urged me to bring books or magazines to keep myself busy during the day. While I was at that job I always had mixed feelings about working there since I knew I wasn’t making much use of my skills. But it really wasn’t a bad gig since I was able to fly through the books. I would often finish a book and take my lunch break to go to the bookstore to pick up the next one. Miss that job!

Anyways I have decided to reinstate reading time into my daily schedule. Last week I wrote myself a new schedule to try to keep my day a little more organized. The plan is to spend half an hour reading right after lunch to help break up my day. The plan seems to be working well so far. Today I finished reading Sunset by Karen Kingsbury. Kingsbury is easily my favorite fiction author. This was book fourteen, the last of a long series. I’m kind of disappointed that the series is now over since I’ve been reading about the Baxter family for so long now.

Sunset

The book I’m starting next is a reading assignment from the future Dr. Reilly. Sometimes I get a little jealous of the fascinating stuff she gets to learn about Psychology. I’d love to learn all about that stuff… only without all the work that goes along with the classes! I enjoyed the Psychology class I took in college and she thought I might enjoy reading more. The book is called Psychoanalytic Object Relations Therapy. Sounds intense! Supposedly it’s some basic, beginning ideas. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: ,