Things are coming togetrher.......

The job is going well. It is a pleasure to have a job that allows me, on an everyday basis, to enhance the quality of another person's life. Now grant it, some days we are sometimes too busy to feel the impact on weather or not we made a difference, but today wasn't one of those days.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a resident for our newsletter today. (Our company puts one out monthly. I get the pleasure of writing it.) The only reason I bring this part into my blog is because I was so in awe at some of the answers she gave. Before telling you about the interview, I have to give you a bit of history on this person. Doctors have given her less that two months to live due to cancer. It has already been two months and two weeks, so according to her doctor, she is living on borrowed time, and she knows it.

She has the greatest attitude. I learned she was born in Tennessee. Married when she was 20. Loved being a wife, cooking and cleaning and taking care of her home. Listening to her talk, I thought this sounded pretty ordinary until she started talking about her husband going off to the war. And about having to go to work to support her family. Now being the tiny little lady she is, when she talked about running a saw in a sawmill, cutting lumber, my ears perked up. Then she said after there was no more wood to cut, she went on to work operation a kick press (whatever that is) and working as a maid in the wealthy part of town. She said she wore the same uniforms you see in the movies - black dresses with crisp white collars and sleeves.

She also talked about her and her husband making 50 pounds of candy every year at Christmas time to share with the neighbors. She talked about how hard money was to come by and how long she saved to get enough to make the candy. She said she couldn't let her neighbors down. They might not get anything sweet because they may not have any money either.

Can you imagine what kind of world we would have if everyone had the same mind set now she did back then. There are a lot of really nice people out there who honestly want to help but there are a lot of me people out there too, only focusing on themselves.

Another good thing happened at work today. The new girl I hired started in my department today. She has about 8 years experience in working activities with the residents. I can tell you it was a pleasure watching her interact with the residents. You could see she knew the needs of the different resident almost before they voiced them. I think she will be a real asset to our facility and to the activity department.

Unfortunately it showed how bad one of the other girls is. I knew she needed coaching and teaching, however, she has not been open to learning and growing. The other team members have been complaining about her a lot. As you remember I wrote in another post , she was the one I had to write up on my first day alone on the job. She had a pretty ruff day today. I hope the new girl can help her come around, otherwise, her days are numbered. There's too many good people out there who need a job and are willing to do what is necessary for the residents.

On to a happier note. Our student volunteering program is beginning to take shape. There are two high schools willing to offer our facility as a good place to earn their community service hours. I'm excited. I have worked with one of the schools before and know the experience will be a good one for both resident and student. The other school may take some work but I know will be well worth the efforts.

I'm glad things are coming together in this job. I think it is a better fit than either of the last two jobs I have had.

I hope everyone is having a great week. God Bless.

Quote of the day:The best things in life aren't things.

We should never be too busy for family time......

We all live is such a busy world. We let the days, weeks and months slip through our fingers. Then we sit back and wonder where the time went. How the kids could possible be that big. How your child could possible have a child old enough to be entering junior high in a few days. Man, I feel old.

Today I spent a lovely day with my daughter and family. All I can say is, I am so blessed. She is such a great mom! And let's not forget how good the dad is too! Not that we need to be reminded, or maybe we do need reminders. Don't forget to stop and smell the roses. Spend that quality time with the family. Do what you can to be happy and do whatever you can to ensure their happiness too. We may not get tomorrow. And none of us are getting any younger.

Today we went to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. They had been on a loosing streak but today they won 7-3 today! I just know it was because they knew there was a Mercy Me concert scheduled immediately after the game.

The game was really good, the seat were almost on the field. We got signatures of several players and even high fives for the Reds mascot. The concert was Great! We were able to keep the seat from the game. There were maybe 10,000 people who attended the concert. It was the greatest feeling listening to that many people sing Amazing Grace, and we sang it twice! Awesome! They gave us opportunities to sing a couple other songs too. It only lasted about an hour, but it was a powerful hour.

The lead singer talked about dealing with problems and how God intended for us to have them. He talked about the book of Job and how problems are a part of life. And how God sacrificed too. He gave his own perfect son. It was deep in there for a while, but I came away refreshed and renewed. You can't help but count your blessing, problems and all.

Take care of yourselves. Be good to yourselves.

Quote of the day: The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise man grows it under their feet. James Oppenheim

Where does the time go?

In coming into my blog, I resisted the temptation of going into some of my favorite blogs. Every time I do I end up spending several hours getting lost in reading about everyone else lives and decide to blog on my life another time. Pretty soon you realize three weeks or a month has gone by.........

The summer is quickly getting away from me. It's hard to believe we're moving into the second week of August already. Wasn't today just a beautiful day! God is so good!

Vacation in Put in Bay was great with the family. There is nothing like good quality time with the family. The weather could have been better, but at least it wasn't a wash out. I think everyone got to do all that they wanted to. My favorite parts were riding up and back with the grandchildren in the back seat chattering and singing songs like "BINGO" at the top of "our" lungs..........or maybe it was carrying our tent, assembled, to another camp site, as the camp ground was ( ) full.........or maybe it was reading the Gazette (that's the local news paper) and finding out more about locals and the old houses...........or the early morning sneak away with my granddaughter and going downtown......or when my grandson caught his first fish (before dad or grandpa). Do you get the idea it was a good time for all.......I hope we can do it again next year.

The new job is going great! I've been there just over a month. I have learned much and know I still have much to learn. I have a awesome activity staff. This fall should bring some challenges with several staff members going back to college but hiring new staff isn't anything new to me.

This job is a lot different than the last one. The meetings and paperwork are still there but I can make the resident my main focus, the other stuff secondary, which is the way it should be. My first shin-dig last Thursday went well. I hired and entertainer and had not yet heard her and was a bit worried but I soon realize I had nothing to worry about She was good! I like it when things work out.

Vacation bible school was a big hit with the neighboring children. I think we neared 70 this year. I 'm glad VBS is a mission our church can offer. Kids today need all the help we can give them. I didn't sign up for a class this year because I wasn't sure of the employment situation. As it turned out, Andrea (my daughter) needed a pinch hitter for the toddler group so she could take care of some needed business.

I want to share one more thing........
As a blogger you didn't know your were famous and an author did you? I read a nice article in the August RedbooK magazine about blogging. Good Stuff! On the cover, it said "Spill your Secrets". I just knew the article was going to be about blogging. It's a really good article. I liked how it said "finding the right blogging community is like finding the right pair of jeans". I guess that's true, we click better with some than others and we all have different interests. I learned blogger.com isn't the only blogging place (which I already knew wouldn't be but I didn't know the names of any). There is livejournal.com and wordpress.com. If you don't want to have a blog page and just want to put your two cents worth in, there is "divinecaroline.com" or "tokoni.com". Go check it out, I think you will all get something out of it. Let me know what you think.

Quote of the day: Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. Doug Larson

God Bless. Good Night