Loving, Helping Family Members

I am in the process of finding a new job. My part time work in the home respiratory sector (oxygen patients) has come to an end after 20 years of it. We were hoping to stretch it out for another 6 months to a year,but Congress passed new legislation regarding Medicare reimbursement for oxygen patients a couple of years ago and the financial impact has just hit the companies last month. All of the oxygen companies are now scrambling, trying to find ways to stay in the business and still make a profit. Since I am an RN, I am in a good position to find new employment. I just need to find a good fit since we are still home-educating our last child. In the process of going out to apply for positions this morning, I needed to update my resume, which brings me to the point of this particular blog.

As I was drifting off to sleep, I tried to remember how my resume looked and just how much editing I would need to do, since the last time I used it was to apply for a Dept. of Education job (long story) which was not in my regular field. I woke up a little anxious this morning. Did I mention resumes are not my strong skill? My skills are with ill people. I found the resume file quickly and remembered the whole scenario two and a half years ago, as our youngest son became my hero. Someone really wanted me in the DOE position and was moving fast. I had to file a resume online pronto. I had not done a resume since nursing school in 1980. Panic attack. My son, who had just finished a virtual business course, jumped in and saved the day. As I reviewed the resume this morning, I was struck again by what an excellent job he had done on it. A couple of edits and my resume is ready to go!

My mind wandered to how many times my children have helped me. We typically think of how much parents do for their children over the years, but I have been helped so much by my children in our reciprocal relationships over the years. I cannot begin to list them all, but I can give a few examples.

After my neck surgery in 2003, which was very traumatic, I had a hard time coming out of anesthesia. I had problems breathing normally. I would go in and out of awareness. One thing I carry a clear memory of is our daughter Lindley who was 15 then. She had been volunteering at the hospital during the previous year and I had not even realized what skills she had gained. She glued herself to my bedside during that awful period of time and took care of me as well as any experienced nurse could have. She already knew at that time she was going to be a nurse in her future. I will always be grateful as she patiently fed me ice chips time and again and just had herself available to me.

Our daughter Shelley is an "old soul". When she had just a little age on her, she was already playing second mother to the rest of the kids. Since I am not creative even one little bit, she saved me every Halloween with taking over the Halloween costumes. In fact, any time creativity has been called for, I call on Shelley for help automatically. She's that good. She had always kept an extra watch over her siblings. She was watching over the younger two's Facebook and MySpace accounts the minute they had them. And she has taken on the task of updating my look!Since I am not always willing to be updated, she has had great patience with me. How many other women have a personal shopper without paying for it?

Our son, Jared, also played a role in watching out for younger siblings. However, I think Jared's greatest contribution to my life is intellectually stimulating my mind! We do not agree on many topics, but he makes me stretch myself to really think about issues and topics. When he was 17, we were driving along and he made the pronouncement that the American Revolution should really never have happened. He believed it was just wrong. I was about to drop him off at TCC and I almost wrecked the car! Well, after my pondering, I realized he had been raised to obey the laws of the land, so applying that to the early American revolutionaries had helped him to come to that conclusion. The Jared 9 years later is a very patriotic American and is deeply concerned about his country,which has led to many many discussions and comparing of thoughts.

All of our children have been totally supportive with every endeavor or project I have undertaken as has my husband. Years ago, the whole group of them did many a nursery, set up and clean up as I and other ladies carried out activities for our women's organization at church, the Relief Society. They were always there to help with all of it.

I am not going to go into my husband's help and support right now, since that is worthy of a whole blog (actually a book!) by itself. Needless to say, he has set the example to our children of a supportive spouse and partner.

Our children are some of my heroes in life. Their dad and I have sacrificed much over the years to raise them and don't regret a minute of it. However, they have surely blessed our lives just as much. We have had so much joy due to them. As the older two have selected spouses and the third one has selected her future spouse, the family has been strengthened and enhanced.Everything is not always perfect. We have to practice patience and long-suffering with each other at times, just as every family. We are blessed to be able to communicate with each other, even when it's painful, and get over it. That is a tremendous blessing in our family. The family setting really is like a laboratory and we do practice on each other. If you have blow-ups, you clean up, analyze what happened, forgive, and go on. So a big thank you to our children! You are each so important and vital in our family setting!

Fish Galore!

On Thursday my dad was off of work, so we decided to go fishing. We left around 11am and just explored for some good spots (We never found any). Then we decided to go to St. Marks Lighthouse, and fish at some of the bodies of water there. So as we were fishing, I got lucky (actually it was all skill) and caught an 8 pound 1 1/2 foot long Large-Mouth Bass!!!!
All my dad caught was a 6 inch brim.

It was a fun trip overall, because usually only my dad catches ANYTHING! And I never catch anything, but this time I caught the biggest fish I ever have. Below are some pictures if you wish to see it. Please comment!!!!!








Until next time...
-Matt