I have to say that I dread Mother's Day. I really do. I know that the sentiment behind it is awesome, and I really do think mothers should be pampered. I'm happy for all my friends and family who are mothers and I try to do my best to extend that happiness toward them on their day. And, this is my first year with an official mother-in-law (though, I feel like I've been in her family from day one, which happened 2 years ago). So, there are lots of people to celebrate.
And yet, here I sit, struggling not to cry. I miss my mom. I can't say that enough, because it will never stop being true. I want one more Mother's Day with the best person I could possibly imagine. There is a piece of me missing now that she's gone and nothing will ever replace that. I've basically learned to live with the empty feeling, but on days like today, it's about all I can feel.
I often think about our future kids, and hope that Mother's Day will be a happy day for me once we have them. I'm sure it will be a mix of emotions, but I hope it's not always ruined. I don't want that, and I know my mom wouldn't want that.
And that's about all I can write without breaking down. Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful, wonderful mothers out there! Know that you are cherished and appreciated and so completely necessary in the lives of your children, no matter how old they are.
And to my mom, Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! I don't have words to tell you how much I love you and how important you are in my life. Always.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Friday, May 07, 2010
Attempts at Greenishness: Carpooling
I realize "greenishness" isn't a word. That won't stop me from using it. I like it. I may try to use it several times throughout this post.
I promised in an earlier post that I would write a little about our attempts to be green on the farm, and some of the unavoidable actions we take that aren't even remotely greenish. So, here is part one. I was planning on making it once post, but the thing is...it's a lot of explanation because of our lifestyle. So, I'll focus on one thing at at time and make this topic a series of posts.
A lot of the things I do that are green are things I've done for a long time, not because it was trendy to be green, but because I really believe they are good choices for my lifestyle (now our lifestyle.) A lot of our green choices are also because it will save us a tremendous amount of money.
We drive about 70 miles one way (well, Mike would be a little less on his own since he works about 10 miles closer to home than I do). We decided it would probably be good for both the environment and our fuel budget to carpool whenever possible. When I was working part-time, we never missed a day of carpooling unless there was something major. Now that I'm back to full time, our goal is to keep it at least 3 days a week of carpooling, the 4th if I'm up to it. This week, we rock and have made it all 4 days. So, what do we save?
My Ford Escape averages about 23 mpg, and Mike's Chevy Cavalier averages around 32. We'll go with his car, since we mostly drive the Escape when we carpool. By him not driving to work separately, we're not using 4 gallons of fuel per day. The price of fuel near us right now is about $2.85/gallon. That's $11.40 saved per day, $45.60/week, and a whopping $2371.20/year. Can you believe that? I couldn't when we first started doing it. Now, the green part...we're saving 16 gallons of fuel per week or 832 gallons per year.
Also - since I drive 140 mile per day, I should be having my oil changed about every 21 working days, which for us is once a month. Since it's mostly highway miles, we usually try to stretch it to 5000 miles between changes, which ups it to 35 days between oil changes..or 6 weeks of working. Oil changes cost $30ish each time (when we have someone else do them - Mike does them when he has time, and obviously, the cost drops significantly.) 9 oil changes a year per car driving to work = $360. The car's oil does need to be changed about 4 times a year, but we're still saving 5 oil changes (or $150) per year by not driving both cars daily. Not to mention the quarts of oil that are saved...I can't remember off the top of my head how many quarts of oil it takes to change the car's oil, but we'll go on the low end and say 4 per change. That's at least 16 quarts of oil that are not being used per year by the Vogt clan.
We're making our vehicles last a lot longer too, by not driving both of them 140 miles per day...the wear and tear is much, much less. The amount of air pollution we produce is cut by half-ish (I'm not knowledgeable in the ways of emissions, but I assume the Escape produces more than the Cavalier, so I say half-ish).
The other thing that's particular to our situation relates to time, but is also green. Here's the story. Mike works 10.5-hour days, as I've said. I work 8.5-hour days. On days when I don't work late (which is none this week), I have 2.5 hours to kill (I drop Mike off at work before I go in at 7:30, so he kills 30 minutes in the morning..that's why I have to kill an extra 30 in the evening.) Anyway, I use the time I have to run whatever errands we have to for the week...grocery shopping, trips to Target, stopping at the bank, visiting my family, etc. We don't have any of those things where I live, but obviously do in Omaha. I take the time that I'm already there to do them, and save myself the trip into Lincoln on the weekends (at least 25 miles each way, depending on where we're going.) Even assuming that I could do all of those errands on one trip, in one shopping center in Lincoln (except visiting my family), we're saving another 50+ miles a week of driving. When I take a trip to visit my family, it's only 13 miles max from my work. When I drive from home on the weekends, it's 74 miles. So, every time I can visit them from work instead of home, I'm saving 61 miles each way or 122 miles round-trip.
I've obviously thought a lot about this, both in terms of our impact to the environment living so far from where we work and driving an SUV, and in terms of the effects on our budget. That's what happens when you spend 2+ hours a day in a car going to & from work.
I know that's a lot of explaining, but carpooling in our case is a big one...thanks for getting through that, if you did. If not, I don't blame you. Though, you probably won't have read that I don't blame you. Eh.
Like I said, this is part 1 in the series. Next up: Gardening
I promised in an earlier post that I would write a little about our attempts to be green on the farm, and some of the unavoidable actions we take that aren't even remotely greenish. So, here is part one. I was planning on making it once post, but the thing is...it's a lot of explanation because of our lifestyle. So, I'll focus on one thing at at time and make this topic a series of posts.
A lot of the things I do that are green are things I've done for a long time, not because it was trendy to be green, but because I really believe they are good choices for my lifestyle (now our lifestyle.) A lot of our green choices are also because it will save us a tremendous amount of money.
Carpooling
We drive about 70 miles one way (well, Mike would be a little less on his own since he works about 10 miles closer to home than I do). We decided it would probably be good for both the environment and our fuel budget to carpool whenever possible. When I was working part-time, we never missed a day of carpooling unless there was something major. Now that I'm back to full time, our goal is to keep it at least 3 days a week of carpooling, the 4th if I'm up to it. This week, we rock and have made it all 4 days. So, what do we save?
My Ford Escape averages about 23 mpg, and Mike's Chevy Cavalier averages around 32. We'll go with his car, since we mostly drive the Escape when we carpool. By him not driving to work separately, we're not using 4 gallons of fuel per day. The price of fuel near us right now is about $2.85/gallon. That's $11.40 saved per day, $45.60/week, and a whopping $2371.20/year. Can you believe that? I couldn't when we first started doing it. Now, the green part...we're saving 16 gallons of fuel per week or 832 gallons per year.
Also - since I drive 140 mile per day, I should be having my oil changed about every 21 working days, which for us is once a month. Since it's mostly highway miles, we usually try to stretch it to 5000 miles between changes, which ups it to 35 days between oil changes..or 6 weeks of working. Oil changes cost $30ish each time (when we have someone else do them - Mike does them when he has time, and obviously, the cost drops significantly.) 9 oil changes a year per car driving to work = $360. The car's oil does need to be changed about 4 times a year, but we're still saving 5 oil changes (or $150) per year by not driving both cars daily. Not to mention the quarts of oil that are saved...I can't remember off the top of my head how many quarts of oil it takes to change the car's oil, but we'll go on the low end and say 4 per change. That's at least 16 quarts of oil that are not being used per year by the Vogt clan.
We're making our vehicles last a lot longer too, by not driving both of them 140 miles per day...the wear and tear is much, much less. The amount of air pollution we produce is cut by half-ish (I'm not knowledgeable in the ways of emissions, but I assume the Escape produces more than the Cavalier, so I say half-ish).
The other thing that's particular to our situation relates to time, but is also green. Here's the story. Mike works 10.5-hour days, as I've said. I work 8.5-hour days. On days when I don't work late (which is none this week), I have 2.5 hours to kill (I drop Mike off at work before I go in at 7:30, so he kills 30 minutes in the morning..that's why I have to kill an extra 30 in the evening.) Anyway, I use the time I have to run whatever errands we have to for the week...grocery shopping, trips to Target, stopping at the bank, visiting my family, etc. We don't have any of those things where I live, but obviously do in Omaha. I take the time that I'm already there to do them, and save myself the trip into Lincoln on the weekends (at least 25 miles each way, depending on where we're going.) Even assuming that I could do all of those errands on one trip, in one shopping center in Lincoln (except visiting my family), we're saving another 50+ miles a week of driving. When I take a trip to visit my family, it's only 13 miles max from my work. When I drive from home on the weekends, it's 74 miles. So, every time I can visit them from work instead of home, I'm saving 61 miles each way or 122 miles round-trip.
I've obviously thought a lot about this, both in terms of our impact to the environment living so far from where we work and driving an SUV, and in terms of the effects on our budget. That's what happens when you spend 2+ hours a day in a car going to & from work.
I know that's a lot of explaining, but carpooling in our case is a big one...thanks for getting through that, if you did. If not, I don't blame you. Though, you probably won't have read that I don't blame you. Eh.
Like I said, this is part 1 in the series. Next up: Gardening
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Goings On & Garden Beginnings
I'm learning to adjust to working full time again. I know some of you are reading this and saying, "Oh, boo hoo. Welcome to our lives." I know, I know. I've been working full time since I was 21, and moving to part-time hours was definitely not my choice. That being said, I was working 3 days a week for 4 months...I sort of got into a rhythm. I like having days to sleep in. It means I can work later into the evening, which is a huge blessing when you don't get home until 8pm.
Anyway, this is my first week of full-time hours in a long time. Like I said, it's an adjustment. The cool thing is that I love being at work right now. My new role is so interesting and challenging. I love it. It's nothing I haven't worked on before, but it's so nice to be able to do something new for this particular organization.
We've still been trying to carpool. Someday, I need to write a post our efforts toward being green and the special challenges we face living in the middle of nowhere. Even though it means longer days, I'm thankful that we've managed to do it all week. It means 2 extra hours of time I get to spend with my husband.
Mike works 4, 10-hour days, so he has Wednesdays off to do things around the farm. Which means that I'm rushing home on Wednesday to spend an entire evening with him. Seriously, it's the small things that make me ridiculously happy. 5 hours at home with my husband instead of the 1 I usually get in the evening = pure bliss.
I got home relatively early last night, about 6pm (later than I wanted by an hour, but still really early compared to other days). We went right to work planting the garden. Our garden is pretty big, so we have to work on it in stages. Mike was able to till about half of it last night so I could get my tomatoes, peppers and brussel sprouts in the ground. We planted several kinds of everything, but I can't remember exact numbers this morning. I plan to take some pictures tonight, so I'll count then. I would guess we planted about 15 tomatoes, 8 cherry tomatoes, 7 bell peppers, 8 or so jalapenos, 12 brussel sprouts, and one cabbage plant. Woof.
Seeing it in print like that makes it seem excessive. Trust me, it's not. I will also be writing a post shortly on our aspirations of being mostly self-sufficient in the ways of food. We haven't planted any seeds yet, so I imagine that will be next week's project, after Mike gets the other half of the garden tilled. We also have 10 strawberry plants, a raspberry bush, and some grapes we need to get into the ground.
After ALL that is done, I can finally focus on buying some more plants for my make-shift herb garden, and then for my flower gardens. Here's hoping my thumb isn't too brown this year.
Pictures of my early garden to come :)
Anyway, this is my first week of full-time hours in a long time. Like I said, it's an adjustment. The cool thing is that I love being at work right now. My new role is so interesting and challenging. I love it. It's nothing I haven't worked on before, but it's so nice to be able to do something new for this particular organization.
We've still been trying to carpool. Someday, I need to write a post our efforts toward being green and the special challenges we face living in the middle of nowhere. Even though it means longer days, I'm thankful that we've managed to do it all week. It means 2 extra hours of time I get to spend with my husband.
Mike works 4, 10-hour days, so he has Wednesdays off to do things around the farm. Which means that I'm rushing home on Wednesday to spend an entire evening with him. Seriously, it's the small things that make me ridiculously happy. 5 hours at home with my husband instead of the 1 I usually get in the evening = pure bliss.
I got home relatively early last night, about 6pm (later than I wanted by an hour, but still really early compared to other days). We went right to work planting the garden. Our garden is pretty big, so we have to work on it in stages. Mike was able to till about half of it last night so I could get my tomatoes, peppers and brussel sprouts in the ground. We planted several kinds of everything, but I can't remember exact numbers this morning. I plan to take some pictures tonight, so I'll count then. I would guess we planted about 15 tomatoes, 8 cherry tomatoes, 7 bell peppers, 8 or so jalapenos, 12 brussel sprouts, and one cabbage plant. Woof.
Seeing it in print like that makes it seem excessive. Trust me, it's not. I will also be writing a post shortly on our aspirations of being mostly self-sufficient in the ways of food. We haven't planted any seeds yet, so I imagine that will be next week's project, after Mike gets the other half of the garden tilled. We also have 10 strawberry plants, a raspberry bush, and some grapes we need to get into the ground.
After ALL that is done, I can finally focus on buying some more plants for my make-shift herb garden, and then for my flower gardens. Here's hoping my thumb isn't too brown this year.
Pictures of my early garden to come :)
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Grampa, Doggies & Heaven
I've talked before about my faith when my mom died and how that was what got me through everything - knowing that my mom was in Heaven and that God had bigger plans for her.
What I haven't talked about yet was my feelings about my dad when mom passed away. So, a little background on that, before I write the post:
My dad was raised in a non-denominational Christian church. My grandparents (his parents) are very faithful. Religion is a part of their everyday life, but not in an obvious way. They say prayers, they talk about God & their church family, they often took my brother and me to church with them on weekends. But, for my dad, it was never part of his public life. I have no idea what was going on in his head most of the time while we were growing up (that's a whole other story), but I know he adamently refused to come to church with us on the weekends. He rarely came even on holidays. I actually only remember my dad in our church a couple of times (Mom, my brother & I were all Catholic) - first communion, confirmation and maybe a couple of family weddings. God & religion were just never part of his life, which lead me to believe he was seriously questioning his faith or that he wasn't a Christian.
So, when my mom died, one of my biggest fears was that my dad would die, and I wouldn't have the comfort I did with my mom. Would he end up in Heaven? I had no idea. Later, as my faith strengthened, I decided that yes, he would go to Heaven (for reasons I won't go into here - it's a personal belief not at all rooted in organized religion.)
Okay, there's your background. Here's the sweet story.
Last night, we went to dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday. Mike, my brother, Dad (of course), my nephew Michael (who is 4) & I were all there. At the end of the dinner, my dad was asking Michael questions and out of nowhere, Michael said "Grampa, can I go to your house and play with your doggies?"
My dad told him no, not that night, but the next time he came over they would be sure to play with the dogs. He asked Michael if he remembered how many dogs he had. Michael said, "3 Grampa. Karma, Penny and Snickers."
My dad teared up. He and I recently went to put Snickers down after almost 15 years of the best puppy companionship our family could imagine. It was a really awful day for both of us (Dad & I both have HUGE hearts when it comes to animals, especially our own.)
Now, my dad is not an emotional guy. At all. We laugh about everything and scream about a few things, but I've really only seen him cry openly twice. So, he choked back the tears and he told Michael, "No, buddy. Only two doggies now. Snickers went to be with God in Heaven. God must have needed a puppy to play with."
Oh, my gravy. It took everything I had not to cry. 1. What a sweet answer to give to Michael. He was perfectly fine with it by the way - his response was "Oh, okay Grampa," and went back to playing with his cars. 2. My dad used the same words to Michael that I often use about my mom - God needed both of them. I've never told my dad that I feel that way. 3. My dad does have faith in God and believes in Heaven.
My heart filled up with joy at that. My faith was confirmed. Such a happy & comforting feeling. Maybe the bigger purpose in Snicker's death - what God needed him for - was partly to give me comfort about my dad's futurue. Who knows.
It was such a sweet moment between my dad and my nephew. I'm really glad I was able to see it. When my mom died, one of the first things my dad said was "Well, I guess I'm going to have to be a better grandpa. I'm all Michael has now."
He definitely stepped it up last night :)
What I haven't talked about yet was my feelings about my dad when mom passed away. So, a little background on that, before I write the post:
My dad was raised in a non-denominational Christian church. My grandparents (his parents) are very faithful. Religion is a part of their everyday life, but not in an obvious way. They say prayers, they talk about God & their church family, they often took my brother and me to church with them on weekends. But, for my dad, it was never part of his public life. I have no idea what was going on in his head most of the time while we were growing up (that's a whole other story), but I know he adamently refused to come to church with us on the weekends. He rarely came even on holidays. I actually only remember my dad in our church a couple of times (Mom, my brother & I were all Catholic) - first communion, confirmation and maybe a couple of family weddings. God & religion were just never part of his life, which lead me to believe he was seriously questioning his faith or that he wasn't a Christian.
So, when my mom died, one of my biggest fears was that my dad would die, and I wouldn't have the comfort I did with my mom. Would he end up in Heaven? I had no idea. Later, as my faith strengthened, I decided that yes, he would go to Heaven (for reasons I won't go into here - it's a personal belief not at all rooted in organized religion.)
Okay, there's your background. Here's the sweet story.
Last night, we went to dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday. Mike, my brother, Dad (of course), my nephew Michael (who is 4) & I were all there. At the end of the dinner, my dad was asking Michael questions and out of nowhere, Michael said "Grampa, can I go to your house and play with your doggies?"
My dad told him no, not that night, but the next time he came over they would be sure to play with the dogs. He asked Michael if he remembered how many dogs he had. Michael said, "3 Grampa. Karma, Penny and Snickers."
My dad teared up. He and I recently went to put Snickers down after almost 15 years of the best puppy companionship our family could imagine. It was a really awful day for both of us (Dad & I both have HUGE hearts when it comes to animals, especially our own.)
Now, my dad is not an emotional guy. At all. We laugh about everything and scream about a few things, but I've really only seen him cry openly twice. So, he choked back the tears and he told Michael, "No, buddy. Only two doggies now. Snickers went to be with God in Heaven. God must have needed a puppy to play with."
Oh, my gravy. It took everything I had not to cry. 1. What a sweet answer to give to Michael. He was perfectly fine with it by the way - his response was "Oh, okay Grampa," and went back to playing with his cars. 2. My dad used the same words to Michael that I often use about my mom - God needed both of them. I've never told my dad that I feel that way. 3. My dad does have faith in God and believes in Heaven.
My heart filled up with joy at that. My faith was confirmed. Such a happy & comforting feeling. Maybe the bigger purpose in Snicker's death - what God needed him for - was partly to give me comfort about my dad's futurue. Who knows.
It was such a sweet moment between my dad and my nephew. I'm really glad I was able to see it. When my mom died, one of the first things my dad said was "Well, I guess I'm going to have to be a better grandpa. I'm all Michael has now."
He definitely stepped it up last night :)
Monday, May 03, 2010
Living Room Makeover (In Progress)
We spend more time in the living room than anywhere else. Considering on days we work, we don't get home until almost 8pm (and go to bed at 9:30, at the latest), we really appreciate those few minutes we get to relax on the couch, watch tv, play games, and cuddle with Molly.
Mike & I wanted to invest some time and money into the room to really make it more cozy. We also wanted to add more seating to the room...when we have people over, we tend to hang out in the dining room eating, but it would be nice to actually relax in the living room after the meal is over. Hopefully, our family will grow someday and it would also be nice to have a place for the kids to sit.
So, here are the before pictures of the living room. I have to say, these are very candid, real pictures. I didn't bother to dust the end table before I took it, or even vacuum up the package of sunflower seeds that Molly spilled on the rug. She's awesome like that. So...take the befores with a grain of salt :)
This view is looking in from the dining room. You can't see it in the picture, but I have an antique wooden rocking chair on the left side of the couch as well.
This is the view from the far wall in the living room.
And this is the view of the tv which is directly across the room from the couch. The ottoman is normally in the middle of the rug for our feet, but it's also nice to be able to move it for extra seating.
Here's the makeover in progress:
New couch. It was delivered on Thursday, and we love it. This isn't exactly the placement we planned for everything, but it's definitely working. We should learn to take a tape measure to the furniture store.
This is where the chair & a half ended up. I love the ottoman like that, it extends the length of the chair. My biggest complaint about this chair is that the seat is too shallow, so it's nice to be able to fit on the seat AND put my legs up. Maybe we'll actually sit in this chair occassionally.
This is the corner that's diagonal from the chair & a half. Haven't actually put anything back on the shelves yet because I want to reconsider what's on there and how it's placed.
And finally, the corner diagonal from the couch. This is the rocker I was talking about in the before pictures. (I used the same picture in yesterday's post - sorry about the repetition)
So, I haven't decorated yet. The mirror over the tv is coming down because 1) it's not centered over the tv and it's driving me nuts and 2) I'm probably going to put it in a different room. I need to figure out what will be on the walls over the chair. I've ordered float wrap prints of our wedding pictures for the walls over the couch. That collage frame is coming down for sure. I'm probably going to do a collage of some of those pictures again, but in individual frames. We'll see. Oh, and I need lamps. Lots of lamps.
There's obviously a lot to do in terms of decor, so it will take some time. I do like having a warm, cozy blank canvas to start with though. Looking forward to exploring flea markets, yard sales & antique stores this summer to find things that will fill the space and make us love being in there even more. I'll post pictures as I add decor, and final pictures when it's completely done.
I'm linking up (for the first time) to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.
If you haven't visited this amazing blog yet, do it today. Do it now :)
Mike & I wanted to invest some time and money into the room to really make it more cozy. We also wanted to add more seating to the room...when we have people over, we tend to hang out in the dining room eating, but it would be nice to actually relax in the living room after the meal is over. Hopefully, our family will grow someday and it would also be nice to have a place for the kids to sit.
So, here are the before pictures of the living room. I have to say, these are very candid, real pictures. I didn't bother to dust the end table before I took it, or even vacuum up the package of sunflower seeds that Molly spilled on the rug. She's awesome like that. So...take the befores with a grain of salt :)
Here's the makeover in progress:
New couch. It was delivered on Thursday, and we love it. This isn't exactly the placement we planned for everything, but it's definitely working. We should learn to take a tape measure to the furniture store.
This is where the chair & a half ended up. I love the ottoman like that, it extends the length of the chair. My biggest complaint about this chair is that the seat is too shallow, so it's nice to be able to fit on the seat AND put my legs up. Maybe we'll actually sit in this chair occassionally.
This is the corner that's diagonal from the chair & a half. Haven't actually put anything back on the shelves yet because I want to reconsider what's on there and how it's placed.
So, I haven't decorated yet. The mirror over the tv is coming down because 1) it's not centered over the tv and it's driving me nuts and 2) I'm probably going to put it in a different room. I need to figure out what will be on the walls over the chair. I've ordered float wrap prints of our wedding pictures for the walls over the couch. That collage frame is coming down for sure. I'm probably going to do a collage of some of those pictures again, but in individual frames. We'll see. Oh, and I need lamps. Lots of lamps.
There's obviously a lot to do in terms of decor, so it will take some time. I do like having a warm, cozy blank canvas to start with though. Looking forward to exploring flea markets, yard sales & antique stores this summer to find things that will fill the space and make us love being in there even more. I'll post pictures as I add decor, and final pictures when it's completely done.
I'm linking up (for the first time) to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.
If you haven't visited this amazing blog yet, do it today. Do it now :)
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Weekend Decor Projects
I actually did something sorta creative yesterday. Yay me. :)
Both things ended up in this corner of the living room. That wasn't planned. I actually planned to put them in two different places. (It's the flowers & bird pillow, by the way.)
Here's a close-up of the bird pillow. I probably should have stuffed it fuller. I'll do that on my next one. The words behind the bird (if you can see them) are "this day I will marry my friend, the one I live for, laugh with, love" repeating for a block of text.
We had a really terrible storm the other night and it knocked out most of our flowers. And now the lilacs are on the way out as well, so I wanted to make sure to bring what I could in the house. I wish I could attach smell to a blog because the living room smells amazing right now.
The crate is a wine crate that I bought a few years back to use as decor at my cousin's bridal shower (it was wine themed). I haven't really found a place to put it, but I'm so glad it works for this. It had been living in the bar, but we have more of a beer and poker bar than a wine and conversation bar. I wanted a really big container to make a big statement with the lilacs, and this accomplished it. I wonder if I'll be able to fill it with peonies later in the summer.
Something to look forward to :)
We had a really terrible storm the other night and it knocked out most of our flowers. And now the lilacs are on the way out as well, so I wanted to make sure to bring what I could in the house. I wish I could attach smell to a blog because the living room smells amazing right now.
Something to look forward to :)
Saturday, May 01, 2010
New Direction
I guess it's true that things happen when you least expect them.
I think I've mentioned before that I work in the human resources department for a long-term care & assisted living facility. I've been with thie organization for about 2.5 years now (which is a long time for me to stick around anywhere). In December, I was notified that due to budget constraints, my hours would be cut from 40 to 24 in 2010. So, I've been working part-time hours for the last 4 months.
Last week, I was offered a temporary role, in addition to my responsibilities in HR. I will be the Marketing & Fundraising Coordinator 20 hours a week and reducing my HR hours to 20 per week. I'm FINALLY full-time again! (If only for now.)
I've never officially had a job doing marketing or fundraising. My education is in HR, but my previous experience is definitely more geared in the direction of marketing & recruitment. I have, however, always been a part of the fundraising efforts for every organization I've worked for (I've only worked for non-profits before). And recruiting, no matter what the goal, is all about marketing. What I'm trying to say is that I'm really excited about going in this direction again.
My two big tasks during this next couple of months will be planning and hosting a charity golf tournament, and designing and implementing a website. Two very big tasks that I can't wait to take on. I've helped develop a website in the past, though not to this level. I have a little bit of computer geek in me, so I'm excited to learn more. I've planned 2 golf tournaments in the past, and worked on a 3rd, so I'm really excited to get my hands on another one. I think it's going to be a great success! :)
I never talk this much about work, so I guess I'm pretty excited. Which is a great feeling, going into a new role.
PS: If you know anyone in the Omaha area who loves to golf and would want to support a fantastic non-profit cause, let me know. We'd love to have them golf with us!
I think I've mentioned before that I work in the human resources department for a long-term care & assisted living facility. I've been with thie organization for about 2.5 years now (which is a long time for me to stick around anywhere). In December, I was notified that due to budget constraints, my hours would be cut from 40 to 24 in 2010. So, I've been working part-time hours for the last 4 months.
Last week, I was offered a temporary role, in addition to my responsibilities in HR. I will be the Marketing & Fundraising Coordinator 20 hours a week and reducing my HR hours to 20 per week. I'm FINALLY full-time again! (If only for now.)
I've never officially had a job doing marketing or fundraising. My education is in HR, but my previous experience is definitely more geared in the direction of marketing & recruitment. I have, however, always been a part of the fundraising efforts for every organization I've worked for (I've only worked for non-profits before). And recruiting, no matter what the goal, is all about marketing. What I'm trying to say is that I'm really excited about going in this direction again.
My two big tasks during this next couple of months will be planning and hosting a charity golf tournament, and designing and implementing a website. Two very big tasks that I can't wait to take on. I've helped develop a website in the past, though not to this level. I have a little bit of computer geek in me, so I'm excited to learn more. I've planned 2 golf tournaments in the past, and worked on a 3rd, so I'm really excited to get my hands on another one. I think it's going to be a great success! :)
I never talk this much about work, so I guess I'm pretty excited. Which is a great feeling, going into a new role.
PS: If you know anyone in the Omaha area who loves to golf and would want to support a fantastic non-profit cause, let me know. We'd love to have them golf with us!
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