Such a Relief

Today, I signed my contract for school!  I'm under continuation of service status now, which is life tenure-lite.  Basically, they need to give me a reason if they fire me, and they need to give me a month's notice. 

I have a hard time believing that I've been teaching for three years now.  This is the longest period of time that I've ever held a job.  Usually by now, I'm itching to leave.  But really, I'm doing alright.  I have big plans for the kids next year, and I'll be teaching a new class for the first time since my first year.  It'll be busier, but more fulfilling overall.

Becoming a Godmother

*B* and I have been asked to be godparents for a very close friend whose son was born in January.  She will be baptizing him Catholic, so we can actually fulfill the roles if I am the godmother and *B* is a witness.  I've been doing a fair bit of research on my duties in the church in this manner, and I'm very excited.

The mother of this child is not herself particularly religious.  She was baptized Catholic, but I'm pretty sure she never had communion, and I know she wasn't confirmed.  I take it as my job to instruct my future godson in the faith in a way I was not nurtured as a child.   Though we live a country apart right now, I envision sending him his own Bible and letters (emails) about how to pray and lead a good life.  When together, I look forward to taking him to Mass and explaining the liturgy.

One thing I've realized as I've done my research on being a good godmother is that our children will have no one to be godparents to them.  This cuts me deeply.  My brother would have been a choice, but he was not confirmed and has no real religious belief.  We have one other friend who is Catholic.  We've known each other 20+ years, but I'm not sure she'd be a good choice as she's religiously sound, but not domestically stable.  *B*'s family is not religious in any manner, so there are no options there.

For now,  I'm going to invest my energy into praying for my future godson.  I think the only thing I can do is to ask God to send me someone in the future that could show the same devotion one day to my future children.

What Family Means

When I was younger, my cousin and I were very close.  She had some "attitude issues" and could be hard to get along with, but overall we were friends.  Sometime about five years ago, she was effectively disowned and moved far away.  My family hasn't seen her since then.  She will call sometimes, and I found her on Facebook, so we keep in touch a little bit.

When I was in grad school, she'd call me occasionally, asking for money or trying to sell me stereos at a good price that I was pretty sure were stolen.  She didn't stop asking until I explained to her that I couldn't make my own rent (which was 100% true at that time).  She hasn't asked me since then, but she asks the rest of the family at least a couple of times a year.

A few months ago, she had a baby.  I knew about it before she had it, but no one else did.  She told her mother about him when he was a week old.  The father was deported, so she's raising him on her own, living on welfare. 

I'm having a hard time balancing how my family treats her with how I should treat her.  I know that she's manipulative and has deeply hurt her parents in the past.  On the other hand, I feel so bad that her son will grow up without ANY family other than his mother.

I also feel like this is a warning sign that any false move on my part will put me in the same boat.  Rather than family meaning unconditional love, I walk on eggshells all the time.  Did I forget a thank you note or haven't called in a couple of weeks?  Ticks go in the negative column.  I have to pull something big to get back into good graces.

One of my biggest fears is incorporating the negative characteristics and habits of my existing family into my newly formed family.  I never want to put my kids - or anyone else for that matter - in the position of having to choose between who they are, their dreams, and their family.

Garden Goings-On

Relief At Last

Our lives are finally coming back around to normal.  Not that I know what normal is given what's been going on the last few months.  After the wall was fixed, we saw that there was water damage on the floor.

My father-in-law came over, ripped out the subfloor, and he and *B* replaced it.  I'm so thankful that I have such a handy family!

We decided that, since we needed new carpet anyway, we'd paint the room any color we'd like.  My mom suggested a brilliant idea - a focus wall.  We agreed on green, but we were very nervous when I first got it on the wall.

 

Because our room was originally bright (read: neon) yellow, the green looked absolutely gray.  I persevered though, and I'm so pleased how it turned out, especially with the gorgeous carpet we had installed:

We wasted no time in getting things put back.

Evie supervised :o)

 

 In the end, I think it turned out pretty well.  

 

The picture doesn't do it justice.  It reminds me of a spa - so clean and peaceful.  Given the awful beginning, we need the rest!

Mold Be Gone

Tomorrow, two guys will come over, seal off my bedroom, and demolish the wall under my window and tear out my carpet.  I have to pay them to destroy my carefully crafted room.  In exchange, I can be sure that *B* and I don't get sick from black mold toxicity.  I guess it's a good trade off.

The mold on the corner of the window trim was really obvious.

 

It wasn't until someone came out to give us an estimate that we found out it was underneath of our carpet, too.

I disassembled our room today, and it's a little sad.  Slowly, it's looking more and more empty.  At the same time, the rest of my house is filling up to the point of being uncomfortable.  Given that *B* was at work all day, I was on my own to get the whole room emptied minus the bed.

I have just a few more things (painting supplies) that I have to pick up before they get here tomorrow at 9:30

On the upside, Evie and Wicket like the fact that they now have new playtoys in strange places.  

We've picked out paint, and we've picked out new carpet.  I'm hopeful that this will turn out to be a good thing, a blessing in disguise.

Productive, But Not As Expected

The last three days have been both very productive, but my spring break plans have gone woosh right out of the second story window.

On Saturday, I worked all day long.  I used a coconut I picked up last week to have some coconut water, make coconut milk, and make some dessicated coconut meat.  Yum!  I fed my sourdough starter, and I am researching recipes for sourdough breads.  I started peas and lentils soaking for Curried Lentil Soup.  I made crispy pecans from Nourishing Traditions that are oh-so-tasty!  *B* made paneer, and I saved up a TON of leftover whey.  With the whey, I made whey biscuits to pop in the freezer.


Yesterday, my little brother was inducted into an honor society, of which I am a member.  It was a long drive - two hours each way - but it was good to spend time with him and his girlfriend.  I'm very proud :o)

Today was the day that everything was supposed to happen.  My mom was to come over at 8 am, we'd patch some joint tape that stripped away from a wall and repaint most of my bedroom.  We needed to power wash some chairs, and paint a metal table I had outside.  A lunch of fried oysters was our treat. 

Well, she got there at 9, but we weren't too bad off.  When she cut the tape off of the wall and removed our electric heater, there was black mold on the wall.  We went onto a website of which she knew, ServiceMagic, and looked up people to get estimates to fix the problem.  Within two hours, we had someone at my house!  While we were waiting for them, we did get the table painted and the oysters fried and eaten.  Yum :o)  I also managed to finish making the curried lentil soup I started two days before. 

So the company came over.  It turns out that there was a problem with the siding where the windows meet it, which had allowed water to enter the house.  Though I have another company coming for an estimate in, oh, about 15 minutes, it seems like we're going to have to tear out our carpet, cut out the wallboard under the window, remove the trim, and scrub and encapsulate the floor and studs.

So I've taken two things off my list (table and soup), postponed one (painting), and added dozens of more things that I need to do this week.  When spring break is over, I'm gonna need a vacation!