Our family has had a lot of changes in our employment situations. Rick's job at Groen Brothers Aviation finally came to an end. He watched the company struggle to cover the payroll for about 5 months and wondered if they would make it through this tight financial squeeze. Finally at the end of May, they had to decide to lay off almost all of their employees. They were not able to find financing to cover payroll for April or May. They hope to not have to go completely out of business, but they are very close.
Emily came home from her semester in Jerusalem and had to decide if she was going to go down to work at Philmont Scout Camp for the summer. She had a very hard time making the decision. After arriving home after being away for 4 months, she was not anxious to leave home again one month later. She was also anxious to play her violin more and could not take her nice violin to the primitive living conditions at Philmont. She e-mailed them and said she was not coming. Then she started working planting flowers for Bountiful City, and remembered how hot and tiring that work was and so she e-mailed back and said she was coming. Then she looked at pictures of the tent she would be living in for 3 months and got another job as an assistant server at the Garden Restaurant and so she e-mailed again and said she wasn't coming.
In January, Lee started working at Gregory's Wheat Shop packaging granola to be shipped to grocery stores. It was to be part time and temporary until he went on his mission. He also got a job as a package handler at Fed Ex part time from 10pm to 2am. He is still working both jobs and in between, he is pursuing his first love of playing the guitar.
John had worked at El Matador restaurant bussing dishes for almost 2 years. Also during that time he had worked assisting a neighbor installing window blinds in homes. As he got close to High School graduation and planning to go to Idaho for college, he was offered a job in a machine shop that manufactures asault rifles for the military and police. They said he was most highly recommended by his high school machine shop teacher. They wanted him to start then and get trained part time after school and move to full time in the summer. He told them he would be in college during the summer and so he did not take the job. After we analyzed it, he called them back and told them the exact dates when he would be away at college and when he would be home and available to work. They were happy to hire him.
After a week of Rick being unemployed, he suggested that I look for a full time job, and he would stay home and care for the children and home. I have attended training classes for preparing resumes and searching for employment. I have learned that any experience older than about 10 years is considered unimportant and out of date. My bachelors degree is even considered insignificant. When I talk to people about employment, they suggest entry level jobs which require no skills or education. My brother suggested I go back to school and get a masters degree. He said that the investment in education would be worth it since I have potentially 20 more years in the workforce.
I considered taking a job, but I had no intention of giving up my God given job of being a mother. Rick believed that as long as someone is staying home being parent to the children it doesn't matter who does it. He says that "father as provider and mother as nurturer" are rigid roles. I believe that "father as provider, mother as nurturer" is ideal and while I know that in certain situations, adjustments must be made, this is not a serious enough situation to warrant throwing out the ideal.
Since Rick has been home, I have found that more of our needs are being met. Things are getting repaired that have been waiting for a quite a while. And I have confidence that our needs will continue to be met. We will find a way to meet the family's needs that fulfills us. Maybe that will be a good job for Rick where he is happy, or maybe it will be self employment where the family works together. I think we were put on this earth to be happy, not to suffer it out until we die.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
John is a New College Student
We moved John up to Rexburg, Idaho yesterday. We found him an apartment in Sunrise Village apartment 47. It is the lower left apartment of a 4 plex. It should be cool during the summer. His roommate's name is Ian (the same name as Lee's roommate during his freshman year). Also, Ian plays the viola (Marie can celebrate about that). And the books on his bookshelf looked like he was studying Construction Management (the same as John). It looked like a magical match. When we met him, he said he was a 2nd semester freshman. He is on Summer/fall track but started last fall.
We helped John get his I card. On his first try, they said his hair was too long over the ears. Although I had thought about bringing hair cut scissors, I had left them at home. The girl at the I card place said his hair was OK except for over the ears so we left trying to figure out where to get a quick hair cut without him needing a car. Then we remembered the tiny surgical scissors in my purse left over from Lee's time in the hospital. They were definitely sharp enough to cut hair, but were they big enough? We took him up the street toward the Rexburg Temple and then turned east by a big water tank, and while he stood in the gutter by the car, I stood on the sidewalk (so I could reach) and with the wind blowing and the rain soon to start, I cut the hair around his ears. No problem with leaving hair around... it all blew away. It was kind of funny to see everyone's reactions as they drove by and stared. After the hair cut, he used water from the water bottle to "comb" his hair. They were very happy with his hair when he came back less than a half hour later. Mission accomplished.
We showed him around campus, and got him some dining dollars, showed him the computers in the library, and where his class would meet the next day. We bought a few things he needed at Wal-Mart and went to Bajio for dinner and then drove home. It was a very late night before we got home, but it was a very successful trip.
We helped John get his I card. On his first try, they said his hair was too long over the ears. Although I had thought about bringing hair cut scissors, I had left them at home. The girl at the I card place said his hair was OK except for over the ears so we left trying to figure out where to get a quick hair cut without him needing a car. Then we remembered the tiny surgical scissors in my purse left over from Lee's time in the hospital. They were definitely sharp enough to cut hair, but were they big enough? We took him up the street toward the Rexburg Temple and then turned east by a big water tank, and while he stood in the gutter by the car, I stood on the sidewalk (so I could reach) and with the wind blowing and the rain soon to start, I cut the hair around his ears. No problem with leaving hair around... it all blew away. It was kind of funny to see everyone's reactions as they drove by and stared. After the hair cut, he used water from the water bottle to "comb" his hair. They were very happy with his hair when he came back less than a half hour later. Mission accomplished. We showed him around campus, and got him some dining dollars, showed him the computers in the library, and where his class would meet the next day. We bought a few things he needed at Wal-Mart and went to Bajio for dinner and then drove home. It was a very late night before we got home, but it was a very successful trip.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Easter Celebration
Our family got together on Easter and really enjoyed ourselves. This is my favorite holiday of the whole year. During the week before, I went to K-mart and bought more than $30 of candy. I was informed that this was too much so I took about half of it back. We still had about 7 bags of candy to hide in many dozens of plastic eggs.
The ward choir had prepared an easter program for church, but one of the songs, "He is Risen!" was too big of a song with too many high soprano parts for our small choir to perform, so the director asked to have violins play the vocal parts and I play the piano part to accompany them. Julianna, Angela, and Lizzy VanDeGraaf got together on Saturday night in the chapel to rehearse. Thanks to Vicki VanDeGraaf's honesty, telling us that the violin parts needed to be embellished, we spent a couple of hours and created a very nice arrangement to go with Sally DeFord's choir arrangement. The whole sacrament meeting program turned out really well. We had never had more than 10 or 15 people to the practices.... and always a different 10 or 15. But when the choir went up to the stage, we had a very full choir. The whole program went very well and was very inspirational. People complimented the director and music chairman for the whole week following the program.
Just before Sacrament meeting, I taught the 8 year olds a lesson about why we celebrate Easter, and about Jesus' resurrection. I felt like they learned alot.
I got out of bed early that morning and put a roast into the crock pot. I had baked an angel food cake the day before, and after church, the kids helped me turn the angel food cake into my favorite spring dessert, flower cake. It is kind of like trifle with broken pieces of cake held together in this case with a bright lemony sauce which is refrigerated to become like a mix of jello and pudding. It is served with whipped cream on the top. Everyone in the family loved it.
After we made the flower cake, and Marie and JP filled the plastic eggs with candy, Rick and I went outside to hide the eggs and the kids set the table (with the blinds closed so they couldn't see us outside.) I love this part. I get so excited looking for good places to hide the eggs. And I anticipate what it will be like for the kids to find the eggs. I just feel so happy. We had more candy than we could find places to hide so I sent some inside for Rick to hide in the living room too.
We let the kids go out and start looking for eggs, youngest first. Considering that people who were looking ranged in age from 8 to 25, the younger ones really needed a head start. Plus, we hadn't had many serious egg hunts for a few years so the younger ones really were also less experienced hunters. After searching the back yard, we let them go to the front yard in order of who had the least eggs in their bucket. JP got to go out near the beginning because he had been distracted by taking pictures in the back yard. In the front yard, he searched much more agressively. James had a tendency to see where others were finding eggs and then go there, but not until the eggs had all been found. I loved seeing the kids find the eggs. Angie found some up high and pointed and yelled "It's mine! It's mine!" and JP came and helped her get them. John found lots of candy, but in a few days, Angie found his bucket of candy by the computer and generously passed it out to herself and her other siblings. Everyone loved the malted milk eggs. Lee ate his candy almost as fast as he found it.
After the egg hunt, we enjoyed our dinner together and had a short hunt in the living room for the rest of the candy. Each went into the living room individually and got to find 4 candies and then the next older one would got to find 4. By the time it got to me, I had a real hard time finding 4 candies.... I only found 3 and someone had to help me find my last. But there were still 3 or 4 candies left for Rick.
The capstone for our Easter celebration was listening to Marie recite from memory, "The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". She and JP had taken a challenge from their bishop to memorize it before Easter. (see their blog). Marie had gathered pictures to go along with the document. It was very inspiring and a very appropriate ending to our day.
The ward choir had prepared an easter program for church, but one of the songs, "He is Risen!" was too big of a song with too many high soprano parts for our small choir to perform, so the director asked to have violins play the vocal parts and I play the piano part to accompany them. Julianna, Angela, and Lizzy VanDeGraaf got together on Saturday night in the chapel to rehearse. Thanks to Vicki VanDeGraaf's honesty, telling us that the violin parts needed to be embellished, we spent a couple of hours and created a very nice arrangement to go with Sally DeFord's choir arrangement. The whole sacrament meeting program turned out really well. We had never had more than 10 or 15 people to the practices.... and always a different 10 or 15. But when the choir went up to the stage, we had a very full choir. The whole program went very well and was very inspirational. People complimented the director and music chairman for the whole week following the program.
Just before Sacrament meeting, I taught the 8 year olds a lesson about why we celebrate Easter, and about Jesus' resurrection. I felt like they learned alot.
I got out of bed early that morning and put a roast into the crock pot. I had baked an angel food cake the day before, and after church, the kids helped me turn the angel food cake into my favorite spring dessert, flower cake. It is kind of like trifle with broken pieces of cake held together in this case with a bright lemony sauce which is refrigerated to become like a mix of jello and pudding. It is served with whipped cream on the top. Everyone in the family loved it.
After we made the flower cake, and Marie and JP filled the plastic eggs with candy, Rick and I went outside to hide the eggs and the kids set the table (with the blinds closed so they couldn't see us outside.) I love this part. I get so excited looking for good places to hide the eggs. And I anticipate what it will be like for the kids to find the eggs. I just feel so happy. We had more candy than we could find places to hide so I sent some inside for Rick to hide in the living room too.
We let the kids go out and start looking for eggs, youngest first. Considering that people who were looking ranged in age from 8 to 25, the younger ones really needed a head start. Plus, we hadn't had many serious egg hunts for a few years so the younger ones really were also less experienced hunters. After searching the back yard, we let them go to the front yard in order of who had the least eggs in their bucket. JP got to go out near the beginning because he had been distracted by taking pictures in the back yard. In the front yard, he searched much more agressively. James had a tendency to see where others were finding eggs and then go there, but not until the eggs had all been found. I loved seeing the kids find the eggs. Angie found some up high and pointed and yelled "It's mine! It's mine!" and JP came and helped her get them. John found lots of candy, but in a few days, Angie found his bucket of candy by the computer and generously passed it out to herself and her other siblings. Everyone loved the malted milk eggs. Lee ate his candy almost as fast as he found it.
After the egg hunt, we enjoyed our dinner together and had a short hunt in the living room for the rest of the candy. Each went into the living room individually and got to find 4 candies and then the next older one would got to find 4. By the time it got to me, I had a real hard time finding 4 candies.... I only found 3 and someone had to help me find my last. But there were still 3 or 4 candies left for Rick.
The capstone for our Easter celebration was listening to Marie recite from memory, "The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". She and JP had taken a challenge from their bishop to memorize it before Easter. (see their blog). Marie had gathered pictures to go along with the document. It was very inspiring and a very appropriate ending to our day.
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