Funny

So, at our congregation, officers are elected and can serve two consecutive one year terms in the same office. Our now former secretary was recently elected vice-president. She just sent out the last minutes from her term as secretary and included this as her final line. "Good-bye from the secretary/from the new VP. I really wanted to be Secretary of State."

Not as funny if you don't know her; but I'm laughing a lot here! Looks like a good way to end the day!

Jobs

So recently I was at a meeting of area clergy of all kinds of denominations and, due to illness at the babysitter's Baby Girl was with me. The local Catholic priest asked if I was back to work part-time. I said, "full-time." He said, "Wow, that must be hard--two full-time jobs, pastor and mother. Well--three full-time jobs including your relationship with your husband." (I'm paraphrasing somewhat.) He is (not surpisingly) one of two unmarried clergy in our group and one of three who don't have children (the other two are the other two women of the group besides me). I was a bit surprised that he was the one who seems to get it best, to recognize the juggling act that I do each day.

But he really got me thinking and I think it's more like four full-time jobs: pastor, mother, wife, me. I'm sortof finding a bit of balance in the first three, sortof. But the job of taking care of me, well, I'm not doing so good at that. And there's overlap, of course, but my husband doesn't care if the house is messy, I want it clean for me! I haven't figured out how to carve out the time to do the things that I need to do for me. Baby Girl is a happy, good-natured girl, but she is a baby and also is an attention-hound and very inquisitive. I tried one day to wear her in a front carrier while I tried to do things around the house, but her hands were in everything so it was really anti-productive.

I don't need much, really--just some time. Maybe I just need better time managment.

Oh--and some motivation for my pastor job. Anyone handing out any of that?

Check Engine

Last week, the 'check engine' light in my car came on. My husband drove it and said not to worry about it (says the man who doesn't drive around in this really cold winter with a 7 1/2 month old). He also said that he'd take it in to be checked. I'm giving him until next Monday and then I'll do something about it if he hasn't. But that's not the point...

I wish that people had 'check engine' lights. I feel like mine is on and I'm driving around ignoring it. It sounds like I'm running okay, but something isn't right. I'm tired and run down. And I can't even find the words that I want to right now.

Friday Five--Five Things about Me

Songbird at RevGals writes, "Whether it's new friends or new loves or new employers, what are five things people should know about you?"

1. I find questions like this particularly difficult. I am a very shy introvert. Give me specific questions to answer please!

2. With the exception of my husband, I currently feel like I have no friends. Yes, there are people who care about me from different times of my life that I could turn to if I needed to, but everyone lives far away. I don't have any local, just-call-each-other-up-spur-of-the-moment-let's-do-lunch, kinds of friends. Or people with whom I can just be, without having to work at it.

3. There are a handful of blogs that I check every day (sometimes more than once) hoping for a new post. I wonder if anyone does that with this blog and is disappointed when there is nothing new.

4. I am absolutely in love with my Baby Girl and would love nothing more than for my only job to be caring for her. I will always put her first, but balancing that call and this pastor gig is trying on my spirit.

5. I am an ISFJ on Myers-Briggs. My husband tested as an ENTJ (I think--I can't remember the middle letters for sure). He is so not a J and that drives me crazy! My J self is also very annoyed at my lack of time right now to get my house into the mode it needs to be a calm place of refuge for me.

Why Fridays Should Be My Day Off

1. Because I leave pretty early in the day and don't have any evening meetings. Wait, is that a bad thing? No...but it's one less work day to cram evening meetings into, so other days are often double or triple booked.

2. Because I'd like to have the option of choosing my own day off.

3. Because it would be nice to have two days off in a row, you know...like a weekend?

4. Because if I'm honest with myself, they are. By this I mean, that even if I'm in my office with great intentions and no outside interruptions, barely anything gets done. I manage to waste much of the day anyway. Hence this blog post. And no sermon writing...even though I need it by 5 p.m. tomorrow and somehow think Baby Girl will not be very amenable to me writing tonight or tomorrow morning. And I won't be happy to write it tomorrow morning if she sleeps (or rather doesn't) as she has been lately.

Okay--no more whining. I AM going to get something productive done before I head home today!