Walking With Caution

Happy Sabbath,

I had a good week and am having a good day. I am hoping to go out tomorrow and have a great day with my son even though he has been picking at everything that I do and there are other issues. I am busy busy busy and I am trying to figure out how to balance my time and make sure I don't get burned out. I have church responsibilities, work, family, it is increasingly challenging and I struggle to find time for myself. Someone approached me today asking about piano lessons for himself and I don't know why I said yes when this is the busiest time of my life. This of course is opening a door to the child I lent my keyboard to. I may very well end uo teaching both of them. I only have Fridays and Sundays available for now. I am offering Fridays as I try to keep Sundays open for me to recharge. I have not charged anyone for lessons in some years. My last was with an older lady from Cuba who offered to teach me Spanish and I her piano. Prior to that I had several children I worked with and was paid cash.   It's funny that this comes up as one of my full time work clients had asked me if I was still teaching piano when I talked about me taking on another job.  I am open to doing this with the guy who asked me today and since he is unemployed he could teach me French. A dream job of mine (one of the many) is to be a traveling interpreter for some kind of aid service like doctors without borders or people escaping war or some other crisis.  It would enhance my performance as a social worker and make me more marketable.  I do have to be cautious and skeptical.  For one, you are a visitor to our church and I think this is the second time I've seen him. He is unemployed and knew this but approached me asking if I could give him lessons. I didn't know at first..My mind was thinking I could do them for free because he is a brother in Christ but then as we talked he asked about payment and I racked my brain to think of a fair price for my time. Why ask for lessons when you know you cannot pay? Why were you out in the hallway for most of the service? I'm collecting my red flags. I like the idea of learning French. If things get weird, I'll pull the plug through. 

I am going to prepare for my afternoon nap and pack up for work tonight.  I have things on the schedule which include going to the zoo, the beach. and dropping off a keyboard at his house. I also have to get on a zoom meeting for planning a community event coming up.  I have to call the nursing home so schedule our church for next month. I don't mind making the calls and helping with organizing. Its the people pointing at me as the director or leader of anything I'm not ok with. I don't want the responsibility if things don't go to plan. I don't want the public acknowledgement.  I'm always under the radar, behind the scenes. I like that sort of thing.

I pray I don't make any dumb mistakes. I've been doing great and I do not want to mess anything up over extending myself.  The Message from the service was really good..HE tackled a difficult topic, the topic of sexual abuse and brought up the story of Absalam and his sister Tamar. He talked about issues going on in the church and spoke to the youth, adults and even possible predators because it is more common than we realize. It is one reason why I took my child out of the other church. I do not have proof but I had a feeling something was wrong especially with the way this church member was looking at the children..I would make sure I was in the same room with the kids if he happened to come in there. One lady had 7 children. I kept watching him waiting for him to mess up but he didn't,  at least when I was around.  Parents, know where your children are. You can't trust anyone. I remember nearly having a panic attack when he walked away with my son who was about 4 at the time. As soon as I finish the tune on the piano, I immediately went searching for my child. He didn't do anything but even today I feel if I had not stepped around, who knows what would have happened. There are pedophiles in the church, in our families and in our neighborhoods. There are also adult predators who try and test other adults. I was victim to a sociopath so I have a painful and expensive experience to look back on. Just be on your guard is all I'm saying. Trust in God. Don't trust in man. Be blessed 🙌 

Quick post

 Happy Sabbath.

I had asked my son to run out to the car to get my phone so I could do the two step verfication in order to access this account. Tell me why he grabbed the keys and wanted to sit in the drivers seat and chill?  He was thinking over to himself how he would turn on the AC.  He is 10 years old and that is NOT what I told him to do. 

I had a good week. Some parts were challenging but it was a good week.  I tried my hand at giving behavioral assistance to another child and the session didn't go so bad.  I was able to stop at Trader joe's for the first time in a long time and get many goodies I have missed out on.  I was able to get a good amount of rest Sabbath evening and am so thankful for this. I mowed the lawn yesterday and got a great deal of work done around the house.  

I have no complaints.  In about a half hour I'm leaving out here to go support with the nursing home ministry.  I will go play some songs on the piano for them and am bringing my son with me.  Most people are out of town for vacation so it is just a handful of us.  We are going to make it happen, even our small number.  

God is good :)

Just Happy

Happy Sabbath,

I have had a good week and am happy to be home. The host church was scheduled to use a space so we had to leave right after service. I had a good Sabbath school class with my children and had a great meal of chana I prepared yesterday when I returned home. I'm back into the swing of things with my main employers. The most recent addition has me giving a side eye. Communication and consistency are ery important to me and for me to have traveled all the way to the office for a supervision that no one could communicate was cancelled doesn't sit well with me. For some of these jobs I could make up the funds doing door dashing. I could do even better with my notary business. I need to get my notary business moving forward so I hope to take some time tomorrow to get closer or finish my training program and take the test. I have not put time into it and that is unacceptable considering I paid at least $300 for it.  

I am thankful for the position I'm in financially. I am thankful that at present I still have time for myself and my son. I am thankful I could get outside and mow the lawn yesterday.  I ate more grapes from my vineyard. I can look out the glass sliding door and rain is not pouring and completely obscuring my view because of a clogged gutter. My handyman fixed it. I am thankful for all these and many other things. I want to clean up and take a nap. I am thankful I am home to enjoy my home.

God is good.

Job # 5

Happy Sabbath,

Time is upon me. I am striving to do better with time management among other things. God is good.
I had received a text I believe Sunday asking when I would like to come in for an interview.  I wanted Friday but offered Friday along with Wednesday.  Then I received a message I want to say Tuesday saying that I needed to bring my computer to orientation on Friday. I set the time for 3pm with them because I already had a fingerprint appointment scheduled Friday at 1:30pm. It wasn't until we were trying to do registration on my trash laptop (that thing really is trash) that I asked her if she was going to ask me any questions.  I spent about an hour that same day trying to think of questions to ask and come up with responses to questions that interviewers typically ask. I prepared the last minute and prayed for the Lord to be with me as I walked in that building. I had no idea that I was already hired. 

My son's therapist hired me and she is offering help to me to get myself licensed and become a therapist.  I have the degree but found a different job and became complacent for almost 8 years now. I wanted something steady and that I the job I've had for all these years. She suggested I come on board but it never clicked in my mind that the job was mine. The person doing orientation showed her invoice sheet for this week. She was making $45/hour and my boss said we can take on as many cases as we feel comfortable with. The orientation lady said when she started she became greedy and was taking way too many cases. If I were able to do 40 hrs a week consistently at that rate, I would make $93,600 in a year. I will be working with children and factoring in drive time, and knowing I'm not dropping my lower paying FT job, I imagine I would do 13 hrs weekly. I want to be home with my son and help him with homework,  prepare dinner, and have time with him. I don't want to drop my overnight part time. I do want to finish my notary program and pass that test.  I am a notary but purchased the NNA program to make sure i really know what im doing before i start seeking out customers. I also want my vehicles in good shape so I can do door dash if I have down time.

If I keep my main, my overnight and take on say 2-6 cases during the week, I could make over 100k, which was my goal for this year. If I kept 2, and put my all into two I could make $150k. 

I'm going to get things together and see how I can make this work. I don't want to quit my full time main because I have a good retirement fund going and they do I think a 75% match.  I have health insurance, some of the best offered out here. I also have my clients. I can't leave them. If I did, they will spiral and not have consistent people over seeing their cases. I told people I would not leave and I'm a veteran at this point. Most quit after 2 years if not 2 months. I want to be there for them and I enjoy seeing them and hearing about their progress.  I'm invested in them. If I were to quit, there a few I would hang out with because they are that cool.

So if anything goes, it needs to be Walmart.  But I also know God gave me that position too. He brought it right on time. Much to think about and pray for. I had one of my biggest children's Sabbath school classes yet. It was stressful and children tested me but I hung in there. I will see how all this goes.

The orientation lady encouraged me. Prior to Friday I was looking online for videos or reddit feeds about people working multiple jobs by choice. I couldn't find much. As I drove to the meeting I passed an area that I was at in 2004. I had decided upon myself to work 3 jobs. I worked at a supermarket, clothing store, and did surveys with strangers in the mall. I just wanted to see if I could do it. It wasn't about earning a lot of money.  I laughed to myself as I passed that area on my way to my orientation. I have come such a long way. The orientation lady told us that she had multiple jobs. She too had a full time, a part time, a business, another side hustle and this. She is managing it all and if she can so can I.  

I will give this a try and see what will become of it. This is a door to licensure, more money than I could ever imagine, and even more freedom with my time. I need a new roof. I want to do some car repairs.  I want to pay off my mortgage in 2 years instead of 5 or 30 years which was what I signed up for. I want to pay off my student loans and be free from debt.

I am willing to eat trash for two years to live on steak and creme Brule with gold flakes for the rest of my life. 

God is good and fiercely faithful. He will bring me through.