Thanks, Job Hunting, and Getting Crafty

 Happy Wednesday everyone! Thank you all for your words of support on my last post. They really have helped me, especially on days that I feel like I will not be able to do this. I never imagined myself as a single mom, but that is soon to be reality and it is the hardest thing I have ever had to walk through. 

I have been busy... looking for and applying for jobs. I actually had 3 interviews and 3 job offers last week. One I turned down, as they couldn't guarantee full time hours. This was for a dietary aide position at a senior citizen apartment complex. They could only guarantee about 24-30 hours a week. That is not going to work. Also, the hours were from 2-8 and every other weekend. Not good for a new single mom. 

The second job offer came from a foodservice company that serves a local college. I almost accepted that offer. However, the hours were okay 6-2 for 3 weekdays and then I would have to work EVERY weekend from 6-2. I would never get a weekend off. Also, they couldn't guarantee full time all year, only during the college's academic year. 

The third job offer is from a local childcare center. It is for a lead teacher position, and I would be able to work year-round and get full time hours. Also, it is 5 minutes from my house. No weekends. The pay is a little less than the foodservice company, but it is so much closer to my house. I have been working this week on getting the paperwork done for them. Tomorrow, I have to go get a work physical and a background check and then I can turn all the paperwork in.

So that is where the job search is at. I am scared to death of failing, but I need to have faith that it will all work out. 

In other news, I had my 2 week follow up from my knee surgery. He said it looks like I am healing well. The incision points look good. He gave me some photos that he took during surgery. He said the surgery went well; however, the cartilage damage was more than he thought and what showed on the MRI. There was one area that was bone-on-bone that we need to keep an eye on as I may need another surgery in the future to fix that. Not what I wanted to hear, but it is what it is. 

The area my ortho marked on this photo is the bone-on-bone area where the cartilage has pulled completely away. :( 

I have been trying to stay busy with getting into a new routine of doing more around the house, since I will soon be the only adult here. I have also been planning out some changes that I would like to make once Bill moves out. I have done a couple of small changes so far and I love the new look that they bring. One thing that I did, was I reupholstered the lid to my cedar chest. I was given this chest as a gift when I was a teenager and I have never changed out the padding on the lid. Well, I bought some fabric off Amazon and switched it out. It was super easy to do and felt good to get something done on my to-do list. 

Before

After

I also replaced our downstairs bathroom door curtain. The door is a sliding pocket door, and it has gotten off its hinge inside the wall. Our landlord knows about it and has known about it for some time, but obviously is in no place to fix it. We had an old sheet up, but it looked really tacky. I finally got tired of it and bought a curtain panel and tension rod to replace it. It looks much better in my opinion and was a cheap way to fix the problem. 

Before

After

I have some other projects in the works. I bought a mirror for $10 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to hang in my bedroom to be able to do my hair. (I currently use the mirror that is attached to Bill's dresser that he is taking when he moves out.) My plan is to take the covering off the wood frame and paint it to match my decor. 

I also ordered 2 posters to replace artwork in the living room and dining room. Bill is taking the map artwork that we had on our mantel, and I replaced it with an art poster using colors that I love. 

Before (this was taken last summer but shows the map art that he is taking when he moves)

After (It is really hard to get a good photo without a reflection of the lights from the windows or light)

He also didn't want the sunflower art that we had in our dining room from when we first moved in together) so that got replaced with a Monet poster. I LOVE the blue! 

Before (this was taken before we had the piano but was the only pic I could find with the sunflower art in it) 

After ( I really need to clean off the piano LOL) 

So, life is moving on whether I want it to or not. The kids are keeping me busy, as always. Last week was VBS, where Rebecca and Jacob helped out and Ben attended. This week the boys have football camp in the evenings. That means that I have been cooking our main dinner meal at lunch time. That means that I need finish this up so I can go cook, as the boys are asking "When is lunch?" LOL 

I hope everyone is doing well. And once again thank you for your kind words, prayers and support during all of this time. I appreciate each and every one of you. 

Difficult Familial Situation

Hello everyone. I mentioned in my last blog post that while there have been highlights in the past month, there has also been some lowlights. And these have been really low lowlights. 

I am not even sure what to say or how to say this. 

My husband and I are currently in the process of getting a dissolution of our marriage. We are currently considering ourselves separated as we navigate this difficult familial situation. 

We have told the kids and they are devastated as you could imagine. We are both committed to making this as amicable as possible for the kids and we are both committed to shared parenting. Our children will always come first. 

He will be moving out in July. He has been approved for an apartment that is not too far from where we currently live. 

I am currently looking for a full-time job and have been sending out resumes daily.

I don't want anyone to speculate about the whys and I will not be going into the whys on this blog. My daughter, my soon to be ex, and others that I know read this blog regularly and the things that caused us to separate are between us. I will just say that we have worked on our marriage for the last couple of years, including rounds of marriage counseling, and this is the solution that we have made for everyone affected. 

I originally wasn't even going to post about this, but my life is about to change in a huge way, and I want to make sure that I can still document it. I am still going to be trying to live my life better one day at time. I am still going to be here, just with a different life than I thought I would have. 

 

Quick Updates

Happy June! Happy Thursday! Life has been crazy and busy and there have been some major changes. Before I get into all of that though, I wanted to do a quick update on some of the highlights rather than the lowlights. 

Rebecca received her Academic Letter! It was a nice little ceremony to recognize the academic accomplishments of the kids. 

I was on the parent committee to put on a spaghetti dinner/concert for the end of the year high school choirs. My mom and I ended up doing all the shopping, cooking, and cleaning up for 300 people. It was a huge success and I am so glad it is over. 

My beautiful niece graduated high school. She was so nervous for her graduation, but she did amazing during the ceremony and I am so glad we got to her graduation ceremony. We celebrated with a family dinner at Rooster's afterwards. 

One of the projects that I wanted to take on was the flower bed in the back of our house. It was so overgrown, and I hated every time I came home and saw it. Well, I decided to do something about it. It took me several hours, but I felt accomplished and loved how it turned out. 

Ben graduated from 5th grade! He was so excited to graduate, but is also scared of moving on to the middle school. In other news, he is also going to join the choir in middle school and he is going to join the orchestra playing violin. 

I had my last day of work. After closing down the kitchen, I met my mom at a local cafe for a celebratory lunch. It was a hot day to sit outside but felt good. 

This past weekend, Jacob was Confirmed in the Catholic Church. My dad was his sponsor and it was a beautiful mass led by our Bishop. Jacob chose St. Gregory the Great as his Confirmation saint. 

And most recently, I finally had my arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday morning. Surgery went well. I slept much of the day on Tuesday and have been using an ice machine on my knee since. I was able to get a shower today and I am still in some pain. It is a process. 

 So those are the highlights since my last update. There have also been some major lowlights that I will go into later. Right now I am going to focus on healing my knee and focusing on the good. 

How is everyone else lives going?