Work... and the Lunar Eclipse

The Lunar Eclipse last week was awesome. It turned the moon orange and with the steam from the stacks of the paper mill in Camas it made for a great picture. Nature is amazing.

Work has been all consuming lately. It is the time of the year where we bargain our school district contract again. And.. I am the head "bargainer" for Special Ed. This is my 12th year and I am definately ready for it to be my last, but ... this is also the BIG "everything is open to discuss it at the the table year" , so I thought it best to hang in there for this last year before turning it over to someone else. What this means is 1 - 2 half days each week out of my otherwise packed work schedule set aside to additional meetings at District Office or at EEA building, plus hours during the evenings reading materials, getting data and statistics ready, finding research to support our request for lower caseloads, class sizes and better work conditions.

I have wondered why I keep subjecting myself to this overload each spring, especially this ritual every 3 years when we get to discuss and bargain all the items in the contract, not just the few available in the off years. I have decided that it is because I like the "game". I like the give and take of it, I like being able to outsmart or outwit someone else, I like having to know lots and lots of little details in my head and being able to pull them out in an instant to counter a point, and then win. It is a big game and the folks playing are sharp. And... I like to win, and I am very good at the game.

What I don't like is having to do my 182 emails for each day, give or take 50 :) in the evening and being occupied with email from 9-11 pm nightly and then having to try to squish in time during the day to respond or do the work that they generate. That is not fun. But it is worth it, and it is very rewarding when people all over the school district stop me and thank me for this and that and tell me how very much they appreciate all that I do, I must admit that feels good.

On the home front, Dad and I have greatly enjoyed the sun this week and took advantage by going to the old house, and picking up tree limbs that have fallen from the weeping birch on the front lawn, cleaning windows, etc etc to make it look the prettiest it can, so perhaps someday soon, some kind person will offer to buy our house. I love that house, or perhaps I should more honestly say I loved that house, but now it is becoming a millstone around our neck, a very heavy, financial millstone. Paying 2 mortgages and 2 sets of taxes is NO fun.

And I keep asking myself, why isn't it selling? We are trying to do the right thing by downsizing, getting very nearly out of debt, getting ready to go on a mission, and increase our savings, and all we have succeeded in doing is increasing our debt and my frustration. I know there is a lesson in here somewhere. I guess what we have learned is that we CAN live on 1/2 as much as we used to and we are SO BLESSED to have 2 safe, enduring jobs that let us pay all the bills and still have fun sometimes. And... we adore our new ward and our new friends, they have been a breath of fresh air in our life. And, we have learned that even when you think it is the right thing, and it is for the right reasons, even then, sometimes you just have to wait and have more patience.