[Weekly - F/Sa] Week In Review

Is it bad that I get to these posts a day late then find myself asking, "Now what exactly happened this last week?" o_O

Work continues to be busy enough to fill the time without being hectic. Morale is low for several reasons, the latest being news that our team will be instructed to audit inventory at our sites once every year. I agree with the need for accurate inventory, but it's a struggle to just keep up with what's on our plates now. It feels like there's never enough people and time to get the job done well.

Last weekend, we spent 8-9 hours traveling round trip in a single day to attend a funeral for my wife's grandmother. We usually take Saturdays to catch up on chores around the house because weekdays are crammed so full. We took time out on Friday and Saturday to visit members of my wife's family that we rarely get to see, which was great but also left us further behind on household chores. We're managing, but next weekend's plans look just as busy and I'm trying not to despair when I think about the state of our house. It's rough having two adults that work outside the home and two young children who like to spread across the house like a Zerg player in a StarCraft II match. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, we're hanging in there.

Kids are still healthy. Praise God! Given that they're little Petri dishes on legs, that is indeed something to be thankful for. :D

And, as usual, I wish I had more free time to spend on CGA (though I did take an hour this week to work on editing articles and delegate work on that front as well!) and gaming, but I was able to pop in for a bit of TF2sday and play a few rounds of Smash with my daughters this week.
 
Survived the week.

Got in both workouts (Monday and Thursday). /flex

Family is healthy.

Work is still disappointing but pays the bills.

Got the kids outside for a while this weekend while @Ember was at continuing education! Much fun was had.
 
Things are going well. My website is gaining more traction, which is always validating to see. I still have a few thousand more articles to upload for it, but that's a process that can be done over time.

I thought about setting up a Patreon page before their service terms change on the 7th, but decided against it. Although much of my work is charitable in nature, my ultimate goal is to grow it into something profitable enough to be able to offer apprenticeship programs to help disadvantaged people increase their work options, to have some tangible-yet-sustainable help to offer besides just words, so it's probably best to stay clearly a for-profit endeavor from the start, even if that makes things slower to ramp up for a while.
 
Return of the Thread!

Summer is in full swing and my daughters are trying out some new things: gymnastics for the little, martial arts for the big. Schedules are going to be...a challenge when school starts back up, but I'll be brainstorming a way to do my part to take kids to places and still not give up either of my 2 weekly workouts.

Work has been less than great. Too much work, not enough people and not enough time--it's the same old story. I checked job search sites last night, but I didn't find any good matches.

Our refrigerator had been having issues for weeks and some DIY fixes didn't really fix the issue, so @Ember and I decided to buy a new fridge after researching various models until our eyes glazed over. Unfortunately, we received a call from the appliance store yesterday that the ETA for the new fridge slipped from this coming week to late July. Ugh. Fortunately, the same store gave us a loaner fridge recently, so I'm trying to come up with a way to move the loaner fridge that's currently in the garage (which is where the store recommended we place the loaner since the feet aren't always in the best shape) into the house then move the faulty fridge to the garage. I'm just so very ready to be done with this saga. T_T

But hey, I'm alive, the family is healthy, I have a job that helps pay the bills, and, most importantly and as always, God is good. :)
 
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I have just moved back to the Midwest, which I am going through some very conflicting feelings about.

It was definitely a God-led and God-provided thing, so I am at peace that it was the right and necessary thing to do. And there are some good business and ministry opportunities here to pursue so maybe there are some places I can be more helpful or needed than where I was at, but it was not at all something I wanted to do on a personal level.

Nearly twenty years ago I left this part of the country in anger and frustration, intending to never return as I didn't find it to be a pleasant environment to be a "special needs" female in the tech industry. Twenty years is a long time, of course, and a lot may have changed, and even if not, there are enough options in virtual connectivity that I no longer have to be dependent on what any given local community has to offer in economic or social prospects that will treat me with respect and dignity.

So, as they say, past performance is no guaranteed indicator of future results, but it is still emotionally challenging to return to a place of predominantly bad memories without some compellingly optimistic reason for why. I'm sure as I move forward, more reasoning will become evident, and I've followed God long enough to know that where He leads always has a purpose whether or not I can see it from my point of view at the time, so I am confident enough in Him to be optimistic about the future, but I'll probably struggle for a while with not being so thrilled about the present.
 
Whoof. What a change in direction for you, Krissa. Sounds rough. I hope the struggle comes with some clarity to help, at least.

Week here was just a regular ol' full week of work. Nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary. Just getting things done. Went to a somewhat larger city over the weekend to do some shopping. Costco run and all that. Pretty much just situation normal here. No complaints.
 
Kendrik said:
Whoof. What a change in direction for you, Krissa. Sounds rough. I hope the struggle comes with some clarity to help, at least.

Week here was just a regular ol' full week of work. Nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary. Just getting things done. Went to a somewhat larger city over the weekend to do some shopping. Costco run and all that. Pretty much just situation normal here. No complaints.
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Glad to hear the week was good for you, Kendrick. "Situation as normal" can be an overlooked blessing sometimes.

And thanks for the supportive words. After a few days of a lot of soul-searching and prayer, I did indeed get some measure of clarity to help deal.

I realized my "place" is in indie tech, which isn't strictly tied to any particular geographic location. There was no indie tech scene in Kansas back in the 90s, at least not that I knew of or had access to, so it made sense back then to move elsewhere to pursue it rather than trying to slog through the corporate world where I wasn't as well respected or well suited for.

It was the bad memories from that slog that made me feel like returning was a step back rather than something to look forward to, but once I finally accepted the relocation enough to start updating my internet profiles with it, I immediately started getting invites to a lot of local indie stuff here. So it looks like things have changed enough that rather than being a step back, it's more like things have advanced enough in my absence that I no longer have to be somewhere else to progress.
 
Oy. This week.


Starting Monday, I worked to cram about 4 days of work in to 2 work days because I was on PTO (paid time off) Wednesday through Thursday. Unfortunately, I didn't not accomplish nearly what I wanted to.

Wednesday afternoon, @Ember and the kids and I packed up and headed to a convention for my wife's profession. We arrived Wednesday night, settled in, and I took the kids around town Thursday morning. Thursday evening was more chill with a trip to the hotel pool and a movie on Netflix back in the room. Friday morning was a bit of wash (pun intended) thanks to rain. After a brief round of Smash at the hotel (yay for tabletop mode), I got a call from my wife. Expecting her to confirm plans to meet at an event hall, I was understandably surprised when she said she had an elevated heart rate and the medic on site at the event advised going to the hospital.

So I packed up the kids, picked up my wife, and drove to the hospital ER, where we spent the remainder of daylight hours. After holing up in the cafeteria for a few hours, we stopped by to say good night to my wife, and I took the kids back to the hotel. I hated leaving my wife at the hotel, but there wasn't much choice since we didn't have anyone on hand to watch the kids.

I got up Saturday morning, packed the hotel room, got kids breakfast, loaded up the car, and headed to the hotel. My wife's parents arrived shortly before we got there (I had spoken with them Friday night and they agreed to drive up Saturday morning) and we all visited for a little while, then my wife's parents drove the kids back home. I stayed with my wife for several hours while we waiting for ECG results, got the results (ECG was clear) and a prescription, and they discharged her. We hit a drive thru, picked up food, and drove back home (with a stop at a 24-hour pharmacy on the way).

We didn't set an alarm last night, so we slept in this morning (we both really needed it, my wife moreso), went to church (though we missed Sunday school), went to lunch with our Sunday school class, and picked up the kids. We relaxed for a while at home, then went back to church, stayed for a dinner after church, and then came home.

And here we are!

Phew. That's a novella.
 
Home
Home is going okay. just trying to keep rolling. We're moving soon too which is exciting and scary. probably gonna live with my parents for two weeks but it should be okay XD



Work
Just let go of a programmer after 2 months. super bummer and I really liked him, but it just wasnt working out. God is providing well though, and we're doing really good. Just trying to figure out how to best scale and fix processes.

My new accounting system is working well though and really helping me to stay focused during the months and im not worried as much about whats coming out of my account every day, because i know everything is covered.

Ministry
admittedly we havent been doing as much outreach but we're kind of in the middle of trying to make everything else work XD

We are helping a few friends in rough times and that has been challenging but i think we have been in a good faith building season.


My relationship with God,
God and me are doing okay. im just walking through a lot heavy stuff and I'm trying to bear the load but not bear the load since i know God is the one to carry most things, so its confusing at times but I think its been a good stretching.
 
Some unexpected good news for the week -- I found a church here!

It was a totally unanticipated thing as finding an Orthodox church was hard enough on the West Coast, so I figured in the Midwest it would be next to impossible. But since I was here now, I looked and there was one, so I went and it was a great experience.

While I don't yet know the Lord's plan for having me here to be able to say this could be a forever home or just a pleasant waystation along the route of a continuing journey, it was the first place I've been in my nearly fifteen years since accepting Christ where I actually felt like I belonged instead of like being an outsider. And aside from having to explain that my primary mode of contact is email rather than phone, I didn't even feel disabled there at all, which is a pretty huge deal as generally church services + autism don't easily intermix. That was actually how my disability was initially discovered in the first place, when my first attempt to attend church after getting saved put me in the hospital from sensory overload.

So while I still can't say I understand why God would sort us off into different denominations, I do at least feel more confirmed that I have faithfully followed what He meant for me.
 
Tek7 said:
Oy. This week.


Starting Monday, I worked to cram about 4 days of work in to 2 work days because I was on PTO (paid time off) Wednesday through Thursday. Unfortunately, I didn't not accomplish nearly what I wanted to.

Wednesday afternoon, @Ember and the kids and I packed up and headed to a convention for my wife's profession. We arrived Wednesday night, settled in, and I took the kids around town Thursday morning. Thursday evening was more chill with a trip to the hotel pool and a movie on Netflix back in the room. Friday morning was a bit of wash (pun intended) thanks to rain. After a brief round of Smash at the hotel (yay for tabletop mode), I got a call from my wife. Expecting her to confirm plans to meet at an event hall, I was understandably surprised when she said she had an elevated heart rate and the medic on site at the event advised going to the hospital.

So I packed up the kids, picked up my wife, and drove to the hospital ER, where we spent the remainder of daylight hours. After holing up in the cafeteria for a few hours, we stopped by to say good night to my wife, and I took the kids back to the hotel. I hated leaving my wife at the hotel, but there wasn't much choice since we didn't have anyone on hand to watch the kids.

I got up Saturday morning, packed the hotel room, got kids breakfast, loaded up the car, and headed to the hotel. My wife's parents arrived shortly before we got there (I had spoken with them Friday night and they agreed to drive up Saturday morning) and we all visited for a little while, then my wife's parents drove the kids back home. I stayed with my wife for several hours while we waiting for ECG results, got the results (ECG was clear) and a prescription, and they discharged her. We hit a drive thru, picked up food, and drove back home (with a stop at a 24-hour pharmacy on the way).

We didn't set an alarm last night, so we slept in this morning (we both really needed it, my wife moreso), went to church (though we missed Sunday school), went to lunch with our Sunday school class, and picked up the kids. We relaxed for a while at home, then went back to church, stayed for a dinner after church, and then came home.

And here we are!

Phew. That's a novella.
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I hope Ember is doing better now? <3
 
Krissa Lox said:
Some unexpected good news for the week -- I found a church here!

It was a totally unanticipated thing as finding an Orthodox church was hard enough on the West Coast, so I figured in the Midwest it would be next to impossible. But since I was here now, I looked and there was one, so I went and it was a great experience.
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Hooray! I could have pointed you to what seemed like a pretty great one in Grand Rapids, MI, but that's not quite the Midwest you ended up in if I recall correctly. Anyroad, glad you found a church!
 
I like Atown's format, so I'm stealing it and adding a little markup for prettiness' sake. :D

Home
Things are going reasonably well. Co-worker pointed out this week that it seems like we constantly have people coming to visit us or we're off to visit them. He's not wrong. Last weekend had us out of town for a family barbecue. We didn't have any staying guests (which was good since my wife was all but out of commission with back pain--still not sure what happened there, but she's better now). This week has us going out of town for a Fourth of July shindig with in-laws, then my wife and kids are going from there to visit family for a couple of birthdays down in Portland. I've taken a lot of time off work, so it doesn't feel fair to my team to ask for another extended holiday weekend right now. I'll be sticking around and working, then handyman'ing at home over the weekend without little fingers to help.

Oh, and we picked up a pair of kittens from the humane society. THEY SO CUTE We went to look at dogs, but the options weren't suited to us. We previously wanted to get cats and finally followed up. The decision was a great deal easier when my older son was really iffy about the dogs we saw (to be fair, just as likely iffy about the kennel and all that--he's cautious but not fearful of other dogs he's seen) but super excited about every single cat under the sun. They're warming up to their new home.


Work
Somewhat busy, but nothing too crazy. Working on being better focused at work and having more initiative. It's altogether too easy to just go for minimum requirements and coast by. Wanting to be a better employee than that. Also worked a few nights last week on a side gig and played tech savior to the seminary I came from. They had some Bad Times with some stuff, so I got them back up and running. Will probably be doing so again this week/over the weekend while my wife and kiddos are gone. Making it a point to keep good work/home boundaries, so having that time while they're gone and I have to stay behind will be a good chance to grind out some more requests they have without compromising family time.


Ministry
We're pretty sure we found a church home here. It's an AG church, much like the one we were at in Spokane. Surprising to me since I don't usually lean that way in churches to attend, but it's been really solid. They have lots of kids in the ages of our kids, a couple people from work go there, their theology has been sound, and their personal investment in people and college ministry are really neat. We've already been invited to join worship teams. We went to their picnic in the park last weekend too, where people sought us out and actually got to know us. Due to my older son having a fever of 102 over the weekend, we missed this weekend. Looking forward to being back next weekend, though.


My relationship with God
Being intentional in working on this. Atown's always quick to go "how's your quiet time?" when I express challenges in life and/or frustration with my default response to issues being prayer, jumping straight into problem solving by my own strength. So, I took his advice and picked up a notebook to use specifically for spiritual journaling. I then took some ideas from Pheonix and have been working on popping open by Bible before I even get out of bed, then praying in response, and for the day ahead, as I head to the shower. Then, at end of the day, I pray and journal. I'm not 7/7 yet, but three out of the five days since starting is definitely an improvement. Seeking to know God and His will, as well as being conformed to His Image through the work of the Spirit, is definitely worth the intentionality; it's just taking effort to be intentional.
 
Kendrik said:
Hooray! I could have pointed you to what seemed like a pretty great one in Grand Rapids, MI, but that's not quite the Midwest you ended up in if I recall correctly. Anyroad, glad you found a church!
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Good to know there are other great options available, but yeah, I'm quite a bit southwest of there in the Lake Perry area, which is in between Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City. The church I went to was in Topeka, but they also have sister churches in the other cities and in Salina, which is where I'm ultimately hoping to go to help out in the struggling rural agricultural areas, so it seemed a good place to start while not yet knowing the exact path I'll be proceeding.

It was my original desire to go straight to Salina as I much prefer the simplicity of the western plains over Kansas & Missouri River city life, but I stopped here to visit family first and the Lord made clear He wanted me to stick around for a while to get some things from here before moving on. So I may be spending some time in this not so comfortable state of having been uprooted but not immediately resettled, and while I may not have been expecting to find a fitting church here in the meantime, to have been wrong about that is certainly very appreciated and meaningful.
 
WE GOT A NEW REFRIGERATOR THIS WEEK! I'll spare you all the months-long epic saga, but trust me: This is very exciting news.

Sure, my dad had to take a power saw to the cabinets so it would fit, but he's a hero and we worked it out. NEW FRIDGE IS INSTALLED.

Had a relaxing day on July 4, mostly spending time at my wife's parents' house. Cooking out, reading comics (yay, free comics on Amazon Prime Reading) on the tablet, playing with the kids, just chillin'. Good times. Until it was time to get home (because my wife and I both had to get up the next morning for work) and the kids disagreed on whether or not to take up their grandparents' offer to have a sleepover. They ended up coming home with us, which made for a very late night.

Work is still less than great, but having 2 days off (one on Wednesday for the fridge install and delivery and one for July 4) definitely helped. Having a mostly quiet Friday to catch up and plan for the coming week helped even more.

Family is healthy. @Ember is doing well after the ER visit late last month. Work isn't awful at the moment, but I'm still checking the jobs sites. All in all, a decent week (WITH A NEW FRIDGE, YAY!).
 
Still loving the new refrigerator. <3 It has a water and ice dispenser, so it feels like our family moved up a rung on the social ladder.

Had a very, very rare afternoon to myself yesterday when @Ember and the kids were out of town with her parents for a family reunion, so I went to church, ate leftovers, set up the Roku Streaming Stick that arrived in the mail yesterday, played Overwatch with CGA peeps, and chatted on Discord for a long while. And it was wonderful!

Work is decent. It's been worse. It's been better. I still plan to search for something that pays more and gives me career advancement options, but it's hard to get motivated when this is stable, "good enough," and a steady 8-to-5 job where I clock out and leave the work behind when I go home. Gripes aside, the nature of the work lets me keep moving (rather than being chained to a phone or desk) aside from the occasional ADVENTURES IN SPREADSHEET morning or afternoon. It's hard to psyche myself up to get on the job search sites after an 8-hour day, though--especially when most of what I'm finding either pays significantly less or requires education or certs I don't have.

Family is healthy. Summer continues and I'm trying not to think too hard about how close it is to ending because the "back to school" phase of the year is always SO STRESSFUL.
 
Oy! What a work week! Less hectic than last week (when I helped another tech on my team replace mass quantities of laptops), but still busy enough. At least the afternoon was relatively calm today. I feel like I'm starting to hit my stride, catch my breath, get my legs under me, and other positive metaphors (or similes or whatever, it's Friday evening, man).

Work's been decent enough lately that I haven't invested any time in the job search, but I feel compelled to at least check the job sites now and then again starting soon. This job is okay and it pays the bills, but it's still not very challenging and I've effectively hit a ceiling in terms of pay and advancement.

@Ember and I survived back to school with two young children, so, hey, that's a huge praise. The little ones have started extracurriculars and registration for Wednesday night churches is this coming week. Throw it all on the calendar and it threatens to get overwhelming at time. Pray for us, please!

Speaking of the kiddos, the little one has started joining us in the "big church" service on Sundays. In a strange twist, the little has adapted to the change more easily than the big (who is a very loving big sister, but can be a tad overbearing at times). We'll work through it. The kids in general seem to be better behaved now that school has started again and we're settling in to our new schedules.

Church is great. Loving our Adult Bible Fellowship (which I'm going to keep calling our Sunday school class because I want to). New pastor is doing a great job.

Hoping to start spending more time with CGA peeps and on my online responsibilities (including completing final edits on some original articles from CGA members that I trust you all will love!). I just didn't want to over-commit before we got a grip on school and extracurriculars schedules. Young kids, man. Keepin' us busy. Oof.
 
I live!

We've settled in to the new school year routine and, wow, what a busy routine it is. Between church on Sundays and Wednesdays, kids' extracurriculars Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and working on on Mondays (or Tuesdays) and Thursdays, weekdays are a blur and the weekends are often spent just catching up.

Work is decent. Still no real challenge or career advancement opportunities where I am, but it's still comfortable and relatively flexible. The weather is cooling down and fall is one of the best times of year to be a field tech. Progress on a massive hardware refresh is slower than desired, but progress is being made. I'll be turning my attention from my own zone (I've done nearly all I can do for the time being) to helping other techs. It's going to be a very busy remainder of the year!

Church has been great. Kids are loving Wednesday night, I've started attending a Wednesday night Bible study taught by our new pastor, and it feels like, even as hectic as life is and busy as we are, we're slowly building relationships with members of our Sunday school class.

Our younger daughter came down with a fever earlier this week, but recovered within 24 hours. Praise God!

TL;DR: Life is crazy busy, but good!
 
Going to make one of these posts on a Saturday for a change.

Week was good. Got my flu shot. (Is it me, or do flu shot clinics keep starting earlier and earlier each year?) Work is busy but manageable.

After work/school life is as crazy busy as ever (kids' extracurriculars or church 4/5 weeknights and worked out last night to make up for missing Thursday because of an event at my younger daughter's school). Getting home after 8 p.m. multiple consecutive nights does not leave much time (or energy) for cleaning, so house gets ransacked by children during the week and makes it borderline-irresponsible to go have fun on Saturdays instead of cleaning.

Speaking of cleaning the house, I need to go do that.

#parentlife
 
C-c-c-combo breaker!

It's been... a week. Feels like I have/my family has been more or less nonstop with stuff going on. Work's been anything but slow. My first real "get it going" project since starting this job made a major milestone this week. Once this phase of the project is done, due to the nature of my position, I get the next major phase too. In the middle of this, I have other projects that should have been done a long time ago, but decisions both in-house and outside were being made that kept me from getting it anywhere. Such is life, I reckon.

Family circumstance for the worship leader at our church changed up my worship team schedule so I could cover for the leader's hubby and play guitar. Makes back to back weeks despite signing on for once a month. haha I'm happy to help a friend, but this particular time was a bit of a bummer for me because it meant missing dinner with Atown and his family the first time in a month that we've gotten together due to us having family stuff in the time in between.

Bright side of being back in music is that it's reminding me that I actually do love music. Have found some cool new-to-me Christian bands lately as a result and am actually wanting to get back into guitar playing for its own sake. Down side is that music and I have developed a love-hate relationship over the last few years where frustrations with things peripheral to music/come with performance, and those frustrations took all of no time coming back this week.

Been semi-busy with side hustle. Found out the vendor I've worked with on behalf of my client is actually headquartered here in my small city. Small world is small. Have had some good times with side hustle this week, including a breakthrough on a major issue that I feel I was a significant catalyst in bringing about.

In gaming matters: I've started on Final Fantasy XII on Switch, and it's pretty great there. Can't believe how pretty the prerendered cutscenes still are, and the gameplay is still my favorite in the series. Can't wait to meet up with some of the characters I like from the game. Initial player character is right up there with Tidus in the "look how few cares I can muster for you" rubric, but he's much more a player avatar than central character to the plot.
 
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