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LayZLu
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Name: Lola
Gender: Female
Interests: LIFE! Life overflowing with Truth, passion, and faith. Following after King Jesus with my brothers and sisters, seeking out more brothers and sisters, and doing this thing called life together!
Occupation: Other
Industry: Business
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
10/28/2004
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| - Our guest room is really coming together (except it's in the wrong physical room right now). But the walls are now a really pretty green that I love increasingly each day, we bought a futon yesterday that is already being put to use by one bachelor about to bite the dust on Sunday :), the fan/light is now up, and the hubs also installed blinds and the air vent!
- Our futon has already injured both its owners. Robbie smacked his head on the arm rest when testing it out in the store, and a movable part smashed my arm when we were tilting it to get it in the front door.
- I have discovered that I am far busier without a job than I ever was with one. Oddly enough, I seem to be working longer days.
- My kitchen is pretty consistently clean now which makes my heart VERY happy!
- But laundry still seems to elude me.
- I hate that in order to do some things well, you create other things you have to do. For instance, in order to put away the contents of a box to empty it, you sometimes have to clean other things or organize other rooms to make a place for said items. So now you're not simply just putting something away, you're having to organize and clean another room you're not currently working in just to put that something away. Which tends to me you have to move things to other rooms to make room for that one item, so you've just created a chain of more work. Blah!
- Sewing and crocheting have lost a couple of brownie points in my book when I realized that they require math skillz. I still plan on pursuing them both and am sure I will enjoy it. I just won't enjoy the mathematics portion, hehe.
- The sewing world is prejudice against lefties. Gingher makes very few lefty scissors, and the pair of lefty dressmaker shears they sell comes with a cover/case thingy for righty shears - fail!
- I want to start running again (stopped the last time I was pregnant), but I am kind of scared to. The doctors all tell you that you're suppose to continue to exercise, but then there are all these warnings and rumors against physical activity with impact such as running being harmful during pregnancy. So I'm afraid I will get pregnant again, not know I'm pregnant, run, and cause myself to miscarry again (even though I'm pretty sure this was not the cause of my previous miscarriages). So it's pretty much an irrational fear? I guess I will be spending jobless time letting go of the illusion of control... I am also writing this blog entry right now to procrastinate on making the decision of whether or not I will run this morning.
- I still don't want to take the time to formulate a good blog post.
- I like bullet points, and lists keep me sane.
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| Read a blog post from Stuff Christians Like today, and it was a good reminder/accountability about our recent decision to start pursuing me being a stay-at-home wife. Being a stay-at-home-wife is something Robbie and I have both wanted for our family before parenthood, but we just never really actually aimed for it/worked toward it before. I know that working in an office is ministry, and I originally felt called to this job that I'm currently at because it uses the gifts, skills, talents, and passions God has given me. So I don't feel that I'd be leaving my job to do anything more missionally than I have been doing in it or that being home with more time to read and pray and stuff is any better than living out what I read and pray in the office. It's just a different physical substance/action that would compose the ministry I do. This article from Stuff Christians Like definitely challenged me to examine my heart about this matter. As a result, I am laying open for examination and accountability our reasons/intentions behind this decision: - We feel and hope that God has called us to be parents one day and see this as a step of faith in that direction - an opportunity to adjust to life in house and out of the office before actually having a child and becoming a stay-at-home mom/a good opportunity to see if being a stay-at-home mom versus a working mom would be the right decision for me. This first reason is the main reason that we believe stands on its own outside of circumstances or what has happened this year or not happened this year.
- We feel it will strengthen our marriage right now as a result of individual benefits to each of us that brings us closer together by removing blockades and stirring up love and gratitude for one another. See items 3 and 4 for details on individual benefits.
- After a beating from this past six months, we feel it will strongly benefit Robbie's well-being in allowing me to get more things done around the house (both in terms of finishing painting/unpacking and in terms of regular household chores like laundry), thus lifting some burden off him. Being at home would allow me to be able to invest more physical, emotional, and spiritual energy into being his helpmeet at this time.
- We feel it will strongly benefit my well-being in terms of additional healing time from the losses and struggles we've faced this year and in terms of opportunity for rest and stress reduction. This will also allow more time for testing, doctors appointments, etc. as we continue to pursue parenthood until God directs us in another direction. We are also hoping this change would increase my joy in allowing me to pursue things I've long wanted to pursue. But that is more of a side bonus as joy is ultimately found in Christ and thus can be caught hold of in the work place, at home, or anywhere.
So with all that said, here is the repost from the Stuff Christians Like blog that I found to be an excellent reminder of why we must proceed through this with caution, humility, and thorough examination of the heart. #596. Quitting your job so you can follow the Lord with all your heart. That’s it, I’m doing it.
This time it’s serious. This time I’m going to strike out on a huge adventure with God and the very first thing I need to do, the thing that all Christians know God wants us to do at the start of a new adventure with Him is to quit my job.
Sure we don’t know what Jesus was doing for the first 30 years of his life and Moses spent 40 years learning how to be a shepherd before the burning bush and Paul was making tents even after he’d been called by God, but like 80s rockstar Roxette said, you should always listen to your heart, when's he's calling for you. Listen to your heart there's nothing else you can do. I don't know where you going and I don't know why, ... Soooo, so long job.
I’m chasing God’s vision for me and it just so happens that vision leads right out of this company. And anyone that stands in my way, any family members or small group friends or anyone else that even dares ask a question about the wisdom behind starting an adventure this way is just a doubter. They’re not wise counsel, they’re a bunch of wusses with tiny faith who don’t believe in the almighty power of God to do great things. A power, that by the way, I have been able to discern has nothing to do with me having a steady job. The mission field is out there, not in here at work where I’m surrounded all day by non Christians that desperately need to know the Lord. I want to reach people, just not these people.
Soon I’ll be living day to day, chasing my dream with God, probably going to need to buy some rope and maybe a bowie knife.
And if I don’t quit my job, if for some reason I’m unable to, I’ll just grumble. I’ll just pout because I’m not being used for the Lord at my job and I’m capable of so much more for Him than this boring cubicle job. And eventually when my bad attitude gets loud enough, God will notice and say, “Yes, the harvest is full and I’ve been waiting for you to have a bad enough attitude so that I could send you out into it. Come my son, Europe was right. It is indeed the final countdown.” Dahnalala, dahnalalali (That's how you spell the guitar part in that song. Promise.)
What’s that you say? Do I currently spend every spare minute of my free time after work and before work doing the thing I feel called to? Am I squeezing every last bit of margin in my day so that I can spend at least one hour playing music or writing or serving people or whatever my particular "thing" is until God grants me the freedom to spend all 8 hours a day doing it?
What kind of question is that? No, I’m not if you must know, you dreamsnatcher, but that will all change magically and instantly when I unleash the shackles of my job.
This is it, I'm doing it. I’m coming for you Lord, I’m coming for you. I’m quitting this job for you God!
(I have this conversation in my head at least once a week. Have you ever thought this way?) | | |
| Most people have this beginning that they usually take for granted. There's some pregnancy and labor story along with times, measurements, weights, close calls on alternative names, etc. They have this history that led up to how they became about. I don't have that. It never really bothered me that I didn't have it, but I am starting to see how lacking that history has impacted my life desires.
I have grown up very blessed, adopted into a wonderful family, privileged, and probably even spoiled. But now that I am having trouble successfully procreating, I realize how strongly I've desired starting a genetic story - how I long to know one person in the world to whom I could trace my features. It's not that I thought my life's single goal was to procreate. It's more that I thought the rest of my life would open up and unfold before me once I had kids. That's a life changing event. I'm waiting for it to happen and change my life. But it's not my time I guess, and there's no guarantee that that time will ever come for me.
So for the past two years really, my hubby and I have been taking steps to growing our family <side rant>I hate when people call it starting a family. My husband and I are a family. We took special vows to each other, live independently from the families we came from, and have a life together. A family does not start with kids. It grows with kids.</side rant> We analyzed the finances, we impatiently waited to start trying till we felt it was spiritually and physically wise, we started discussing names long before then, we dreamed about what kids would look like (way fun since we're two different ethnicities). We purchased a house with space to grow into; we've started discussing the purchase of a "family" car. But what happens when you've charted the whole course but are called to wait? Now what? Now as a Christian, I know I have a higher calling and all that jazz, but I'm talking about the physical ways of accomplishing that calling when you thought parenthood would be a part of that but maybe it won't be?
So I've realized some physical things in my life that I've wanted to do that I have yet to accomplish. Some of these things have been put on hold as we wait for parenthood to come include us, and some are things I just still haven't gotten around to doing yet. The overall goal remains the same - to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But the tangible, loose plan for direction has changed a little. So here is a list of some of the things I hope to accomplish without waiting to become a mother to a live baby:
- I desire to be a stay-at-home wife. I don't want to work just because I don't have what feels like a legitimate reason to stay home. I want to manage my household well, serve and love my husband, volunteer more, minister to others more, etc. So we're going to start looking at finances to see if we can start moving in that direction.
- I want to learn how to sew and how to do the other "homemaker" arts that seem to be fading from society. I've always enjoyed creating and personalizing, and I think these arts make for special times and special memorabelia. So I just placed my Amazon order for a sewing machine today, am going to look into the cost of lessons, and am going to get some pointers from family and friends who know how to sew. I learned to crochet last fall and am hoping to finish my first project (I went a little gungho and picked a ridiculous project for a beginner) by Christmas. I doubt it'll happen, but it's worth a shot. Plus, I recently received a special memory box in memory and honor of my baby with a few precious items like a little knit or crocheted (not educated enough to tell the difference) receiving blanket and a small teddy bear. This was such a special gift and comfort to me. I would love to be able to learn to create things like that to give to other parents who have experienced the loss of a child.
- I want to get our spare bedroom setup as my office space/creative space/guest room. I love hospitality and can't wait to get the room prepared to host family and friends. I'll have to talk with the hubby about this, but I'd like it to be sort of a creative studio for me when guests aren't here. It's been many years since I have really invested time in artwork. I have a simple painting above out headboard that has gotten lots of compliments. I'd love to make them for other people. I also have had several requests from friends to draw pictures for them. I used to love charcoal drawing, but haven't done it in years. I'd like to spend good chunks of my at home time relearning the art and capturing things special and meaningful to people on paper/canvas. I guess the steps to getting there are just finishing the house in general first, slowly accumulating furniture, and relearning the medium of charcoal.
Those are really my top three goals, outside of being a mom to live children, that I want to take steps toward. I don't want to wait until I have kids or until even kids are grown up to do them. I want to start living the rest of my life now. So here's to the rest of my life. Thanks for joining me on this journey. Maybe these will be interrupted or encouraged by having kids one day. But then again, maybe they won't. Either way, I am determined to live life to its fullest.
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| Blogging has pretty much ceased since we bought our house. So I thought I'd throw in a quick update on life. We still have a lot of work to do but are taking a much needed break. We will probably ramp things back up soon and are going to hire help. We're hiring painters to paint the master bath (tall and awkward) and the master closet (tedious). We're just waiting on them to call us back to schedule a time to come out and get the job done. Our kitchen is complete and in use. I have found it to be very difficult to do all the things I was doing before (grocery shopping, laundry, errands, cooking) AND work on the house at the same time. Whenever I focus on one, the other suffers. Work has been... weird. We played musical offices the other day (thank goodness it wasn't the style Casey suggested where the person left without a seat is laid off)! We keep hiring new people but have no room for them. Luckily, my co-worker and I just had to move to the opposite corner office which is the same as our old office but flipped directionally. But our poor customer service rep who already deals with crabby people all day long got moved from her window office to share a small soul-less, window-less box.  As a result of all the office switching (four offices and seven people) which was done in the most disorganized fashion ever, everyone in this office is CRABBY! You don't want to mess with anyone or you'll find your head chewed off... After planning months in advance, I have now participated in a successful reunion of college friends this past month. I have another reunion of high school friends coming up in September. It's funny to me that we have to plan that far in advance. Both reunions were planned in March. The college one was tons of fun filled with good conversations, girl pillow talk, delicious food, and a nostalgic walk all over campus. I'm not sure what we'll do on our high school one, but I'm sure it'll be a blast. Afterall, we're headed to Austin for it, and two of the four of us are crazy. I'm not saying which ones, but they know who they are.  Tonight, I am going to bust out my wok and try to stir fry for the first time in my life. This should be interesting! I mean I figure it can't be that difficult to cook everything and make it taste good if all the ingredients are good, but I don't want to overcook anything but still want to make sure everything is hot at the same time. Sometimes, I feel like I should go work for an Asian restaurant so I can learn how to be a real Asian (and since I love the food so much)! If it weren't for crazy hours, I would seriously consider trying to work in an Asian food restaurant or some sort of bakery/pastry shop. Anyway, I'll let you know how my first stir fry experience goes! That's all the updates for now. Don't be greedy. Just kidding. *OK, you get one additional update* The stir fry experience went well! I made fried rice which came out alright, and I made garlic beef with broccoli which was extremely tasty! I may not be such a bad Asian afterall!
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| While looking up various regulations at work, I found this link and link caption on the IRS website: Selected Tax Quotes
Who said tax talk can't be amusing? My favorites are:
"Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form.''
— Laurence J. Peter, author
"Income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf." — Will Rogers, humorist
"Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.” — F. J. Raymond, humorist Now, back to finding the answer I'm looking for... | | |
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