My boss turned in her resignation last week. She and her newly married husband are taking a leap of faith and moving to North Georgia. They leave at the end of the month. They are moving to a house (or perhaps cabin) in the mountains that will need lots of fixing up on a lot of land that they hope to do farming on. There’s a stream running through the property. From her description, it sounds beautiful.

I am so excited for her, but it leaves me in a not great situation. It leaves her position wide open, which I am more than welcome to take. I believe I have proved myself hard-working, dependable, and responsible in my two years with this company and I know that I could do her job. However, after prayer and late night conversations with the hubby, I opted not to take it. I have had some frustrations at my work lately (I wrote about that in another post that I have been hesitant to post, but perhaps I will soon) and just decided that more work, more responsibility, and more hours would not help my general sanity at this point in life. More money would be wonderful, and I have doubted my decision on several occasions, wondering if I’m being selfish by not contributing more to the household income. My sweet hubby responded by saying something to the effect of, “Did I ever say anything about you needing to take this job?” He agreed that a more stressed out me was just not worth it.

My current job situation, although lacking in the salary department, offers me much flexibility. I work 30 hours (still considered full time in my company… it’s great) which offers me some time to be the housewife that I so desire to be. I like having extra time to clean house, prepare dinner, grocery shop, coupon, and all those other wifely duties. I like to be home and spend quality time with my husband. Were I to work the extra 10 hours a week and be more committed to the work place, I would not have the luxury of being home as much as I would like. The extra money is just not worth it.

Since making the decision to not take the job, I decided I needed to make some changes in my time management. There are a lot of things that I have been wanting to pursue more lately in my spare time, and these might possibly mean bringing some extra money into the household. I have said continually that I want to pursue my music more. There have been several opportunities throughout my life where I have sung at weddings, funerals, or other social events. Vocalists get a good bit of money for these types of things. My goal is to get myself out there more and try to pick up a few more “gigs.” My hubby offered to help put together a website of sorts to help advertise, with rates and recordings. Hopefully that will be up and running soon. In conjunction with this, I am trying to be more diligent about practicing guitar. I am finding it is beneficial to be able to accompany yourself. Having gotten over my fear of playing in front of people, I am now confident in being able to play while singing.

The other thing I am trying to be more diligent in is my writing. I have had a “book” in my head for some time, and I am just now pulling the mesh of ideas out of my head and into an organized structure onto paper (or computer screen). I don’t know what the end result of this will be, but I feel strongly that it needs to be written. I made a decision this week that I am going to actually get myself up earlier than I need to be so I can spend some time writing. This actually became my choice of what to give up for Lent. I am giving up lazily lying in bed as long as I can. It’s time to be more productive.

Although I don’t know what the next month or so is going to hold, I am trying to be as optimistic as possible. Instead of moping around about changes that I am not crazy about (I am nervous that I will end up with a bad boss), I am choosing to just move forward. I have a feeling there’s going to be some good things up ahead.