Reflections this week

Ya'll, its been a long week. A REALLY long week. A co-worker was out sick. all. week. Talk about working on overdrive. I will say I had a little chuckle about my "late" night this week; I left after working a 9 hour day and thought, 'huh, so this is what it was like at PwC every day'. Then I literally laughed out loud. A 9 hour day? Who am I kidding - that was a easy-breezy, walk-in-the-PARK day at PwC! How the Lord has blessed me with a low-stress (aka NO stress), low-key job. Right now I would be going through Volvo's hard-close at PwC and this time last year, I worked 8:30 am-10 pm most days thru the month of October. That is not including the inventories I did at least two weekends (all day Sat affairs) and having to go into work at Volvo one weekend (ps - that is working 3 out of 4 weekends). You can imagine how much time that left for family, friends, church, and my husband for crying out loud! How overwhelmed I am with the blessing of leaving work at 2:30 pm every day one year later. My hours have been cut by at least 50% without any travel/weekend work required! Praise the Lord!
(Please don't think I am anti-PwC, I'm not! I learned more there than all my college years put together and made a few lasting friendships, as well as having a beloved brother still employed there. But I treasure dearly what I have now because of what my experiences were there)


It isn't just work that has made this week long - foster kitten urine/feces on our couch had a lot to do with it (I'll leave the details at that), working "extra" hours, it being rainy/drizzly today, and a very unpleasant headache that I can pin point stemming from a particular knot in my neck. But all in all, it was nice to have an epiphany moment that makes me so grateful for my life at this moment. There is no better time than now to experience a little gratitude for what I have.

Last night I made a big, hearty, manly steak sandwich for Eric for dinner. I have been making so much of what I love to eat lately: salad, lentils, beans, quinoa, butternut squash, veggies, aka fresh and healthy (can I squeeze cheezits in this food category? no?) He has been THE best support I could even imagine - faithfully eating (and seemingly) enjoying whatever I put before him. Having said that, there is nothing better than pleasing my man with food he likes and I could just tell he was getting antsy for a meal he recognized, especially after Wed's dinner. I made a delish mexican casserole that had "beef", corn, beans, rice, salsa, & tomatoes in it. The "beef" is in quotations, b/c it was actually scrumptious boca burger crumbles made entirely of soy. Seriously, though, you wouldn't know! You can't diss it, 'til you try it. Anyway, he cheerfully ate that unknowingly (I told him after...I'm so sneaky, bahahaha) and had the leftovers for lunch. So, back to the steak sandwich and gratitude and cat feces - I'm about to tie it all together. That's a sentence I never thought I'd say... So, Eric sits down to this juicy, saucy sandwich with a nice side of potatoes topped with cheese (could a man ask for more?) and was truly happy. It didn't matter what had happened at school that day or what he still had to do later that night. Dinner made everything good (example of 'ups'). Well little did we know that later that evening, the kitten would deposit a certain amount of diarrhea right on our couch cushion. *shudder* If you think reading/thinking about it's gross, think about having to clean it. I am entirely open to suggestion/past experience on this one! If you have no prior experience, take this moment to experience a little gratitude yourself!! Well Eric was not so happy about the discovery of such stinkiness. In fact, at that moment, the situation made everything bad (example of 'downs'). Life is so unexpected, isn't it though?

We all have ups and downs in our days, weeks, years of life. No way around it. So this week, the key for me has been focusing on the ups - the joys - what I have to be thankful for. If there was a list compiled of all such things, I can tell you what would be #1 on the list right now - that it is Friday today. Do I hear an amen?