New Job

I've got a new job. Yes, I've gone from founder and Executive Director of Youth Leadership Development of Metanoia to working cutting fruit in the produce section of Earth Fare! How did this happen, you may ask??? Well, it actually makes a lot of sense.

1) We originally thought our kids might be here as early as April, so we developed a transition plan to allow me to leave Metanoia and have a couple of months off before the kids arrived. We started a hiring process last fall, and found AJ Davis, who is just perfect for the position and doing an amazing job! I wasn't supposed to have this much time on my hands!

2) I didn't want to work in another non-profit because I still do a lot at Metanoia and want to support it and my community as much as possible. Also, not knowing the exact timing of the kids' arrival, I would not want to leave the other non-profit high and dry in a few months.

3) I wanted a stress free job, where I worked 25 hours or less a week. I am working 24 hours a week at Earth Fare.

4) I wanted a job in order to finance little house projects I want to do to get our house ready for the kids such as: making curtains for their room, buying the furniture we will need for their room (after we pick up all the things people are holding for us :) ), putting new flooring in the kitchen and back porch (aka play room), putting in shelving in the play room, getting the ceiling redone in the playroom (it is heavily damaged from before we got our roof replaced), installing new bathtub fixtures (where the hot water can be turned off by an amateur), getting a new dog and kid proof rug for the living room, making new curtains for the living room, painting our bedroom furniture, putting in more cabinets in our kitchen so we can have room for family sized stuff AND whatever else I decide to do in the meantime! Who knows, if it takes a long time for the kids to come, our house may be completely redone!

So, I am working at Earth Fare three days a week and so far, it is going well. My boss is young and obsessed with his looks, but is very nice and the atmosphere is very relaxed. The best part about working there is the 20% discount on anything in the store! Since it is an organic supermarket, all of a sudden, we can afford to eat mostly organic! We have saved so much already in week one! I also get to take stuff back to Metanoia. Yesterday, I took the kids some wonderful fruit cups filled with pineapples, strawberries, blueberries, grapes and kiwi! :)

I have started dreaming about cutting things into cubes. I dreamt that I wanted to lose weight, so I just matter of factly cut off the extra fat I have on my tummy and cut it into cubes! It was not gory, just matter of fact! We took a couple of kids to see Walking With Dinosaurs at the coliseum the other night and I dreamed of cutting up the neck of a brachiosaurus into cubes. In the dreams, I feel such a satisfaction for getting things cut into neat little cubes... weird, huh?

On a serious note, it is quite amazing to be a part of the MANY unseen people that are behind the food we buy! I pick up a mango from Peru and I think of all the people involved in the growing of that fruit before me: the farmer who planted the seed, the person who picked the fruit, the one who packaged it, drove it, flew it/shipped it, etc, etc! I pray for them that they and their families would be fed and well. Then I think of the person who will buy this incredibly expensive fruit cup that I made and pray that they would care about the welfare of those many unknowns who make it possible for them to live the life they are living. I pray that our world becomes a more just place for everyone. There is something very intimate about handling this fruit.