More Changes...

For those of you who are local and know me, I just wanted to share a change going on in the Humphrey House. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I took the job as the coordinator of our church's bookstore and coffee shops. This was "supposed" to be a small part-time job, but quickly grew to 35 or more hours a week. We were okay with that, as we felt like it was God's Provision for our family. Sundays were hard, because I didn't see the kids AT ALL until 5:00pm. I was working hard and liking my job, but was missing our "family time" on the weekends. ANYWAYYYYY....after just 11 weeks "on the job", I was approached by our Executive Staff about taking on a bigger role at our church. They wanted me to come onboard as the church's Volunteer Specialist. It's a full-time job (about as many hrs as I was working already), but after explaining that I didn't want to be away from the kids in an office 5 days a week, they offered to let me work part of my hours from home. SCORE!
We are pumped about this new venture. I LOVE our church and the people that work there, and am super excited to be in this new position. My Mom says I'll be good at it because, "Amanda honey, you just love to talk". Yep. That's me.
So, just wanted to let those of you who are at LHBC with us know that I've made this change!

Mommy-Guilt and God's Provisions

So today I complete my first week of work in the past six years. You know, "REAL work" - not this stayin' home and eating bon bons business that my hubby thinks I've been doing since I became a Momma. Last week I interviewed and got offered a job up at our church. I was looking for a job keeping kids during the ladies' Bible study, and ended up hearing about a job running our church's coffee shop and bookstore. So I interviewed for it and got called the next day! It's working 30 hours (well, supposed to be 30 hours...but the way I want it to be I'll be putting in more than that I am sure) a week doing everything you can think of that's required to run these two growing ministries in our church (ordering and preparing product, staffing volunteers, etc.). I was really pumped to get the job, and even more pumped to be "bringin' home some bacon" to help out our family of 6. This week's been crazy because there's a 4 day special event going on up at the church that has required the cafe to be open. Plus the normal 6 services that we do every week. So needless to say I've been busy this week. And thennnnnn.....the Mommy Guilt set in. And what's PITIFUL is that I'm working SO much LESS than "real" working Momma's work. My awesome boss is a guy who went to Haiti with Jason and is being SOOO flexible. I made it clear that I was going to rock at the position he was giving me, but that my first job is to my four little bosses. And it's been great. I've worked when the big kids are at Mother's Day Out while my Mom watches Macy and Houston, during naptimes, and evenings when Jason can be here with them all. So it really is the IDEAL job for me. But after about day three I started feeling bad for even going back to work for just part-time. (However, the kids could so far totally couldn't care less.) So I threw myself a little hormonal, over-whelmed pity-party one night and vowed to suck-it-up. So the next night I finished up a few minutes early and was able to sneak into service for a little bit of the praise and worship before heading home to tuck my sweet kids into their beds. While in worship the Lord changed my whole thought process about my new work adventure. Yes, I was excited before by the challenge the new job gave me, but I still thought of it as "working because I HAD to". In service that night it became clear to me that God was once again blessing us with His provisions. We needed some extra income, and this job kind of just landed in my lap. And do you realize just HOW many people right now are looking for jobs in the cruddy economy? So I stood there during worship in awe, once again, of how our Father is providing for our family. In awe of His blessings and provisions. And OH how thankful I am! I'm thankful that I'm able to work at our church which we ADORE, thankful for co-workers that are understanding and super-flexible with my schedule, thankful for my Mom who has graciously committed to chasing a two and three-year-old around two mornings a week, thankful for a supportive husband who has totally rocked at caring for these four crazy kiddos four straight nights this week. So NO MORE Mommy Guilt from me. Just a grateful Momma lookin' forward to another challenge. Oh and the happy, shrill screams of "MOOOOOMMMMMYYYYYYYYYY" when I walk in the door are just a bonus.