Blog a Day for the Month of May

While driving home the other night, I was thinking about the fact that it was soon to be May.  Also, recently, while attending a women's gathering, I was once again inspired and encouraged to share some of the things God has placed on my heart to share with the women within my "circle of influence".  With these things being said, I have decided to write a blog a day for the entire month of May.  


Now if you know anything about my life and know the crazy schedule I keep, you may be saying to yourself, "What is that girl doing?  Is she crazy?"  Don't worry, you are not alone in that thinking......I too have questioned this idea of posting a blog every day for 31 days.  After much prayer and asking the Lord to guide me, I really do feel that this is something that He has planned for me for this time in my life.


Finding a few moments to carve out of my day to create a blog post will be a challenge.  But my personal experience is that He never asks us to do something that does not require some sort of sacrifice.  I guess "finding Big Foot" and "The Voice" will have to wait.....I am blogging!  LOL!


It will be interesting to see where He would lead me with this idea.  So, without further delay, here is my first of 31 daily blogs.  Please be praying as I seek to do what it is that I feel He is asking me to do here. :)


May 1st
Ever wonder why your life took a particular, unexpected turn?  Dale and I were talking about this the other night.   But, before you read any further, I do want to share this:  this subject can sometime cause disputes among women....the subject of  being a "Stay At Home" mom and a "Working Mom".  I personally do not like these terms, as they seem to immediately draw a line between women, and we think we have nothing in common and should "stick with our own kind", so to speak.  With that being said, I have walked in both sets of shoes and have enjoyed aspects of both "roles" and have disliked aspects of both as well.

When I was a SAH mom, I hated the question, "What do you do?" (meaning "What is your line of work/your job etc).  I would usually reply, "Everything!  I don't have a "job"....but I DO work!"  Then when I became a "Working Mom", I would get asked, "Oh, well, don't you feel like you have neglected your children?"  Seriously, people, are you really that insensitive?  Or my favorite, "What do you do?", then I reply and they would ask, "Well, doesn't your husband support you?"  My reply has not changed throughout the years, "We work together to make ends meet."

Now that I have established that I am not seeking an argument of otherwise want to create an atmosphere of  upsetting anyone, or offending anyone, I would like to share my personal experience in this area of being a mom.

When we were first married, I did not have a job outside of our home.  Almost four years later, when Zach came along, I was a SAH mom for the first four years of his life.  It was when I was two weeks away from delivering our daughter, Alyssa, that a turn took place in our lives that would change the road in which I was traveling along.   Dale lost his $30/hour job (great wage today...let alone a great wage in 1993) and we were faced with some very rough decisions.  He was working at a facility that manufactured missile and Space Shuttle parts.  He was the Leadman of a 26 person crew and they all worked in the "Mix Room"....a large warehouse where they made all of the adhesives for the various gaskets that they use in creating such items and were they painted all of the parts and shells for the items they made.  As part of the "Separation Package" the company offered when they laid him off, they offered to send him to a trade school so he could be better able to find work elsewhere.  This schooling was free, but would take two years to complete.  He had always had an interest in cars and loved to work on them from as far back as anyone can remember, so after much prayer and lots of confirmation, he attended a trade school and became an ASE Certified Mechanic/Auto Body Technician.  In order to make ends meet, I took a job as a cashier at the local K-Mart when Alyssa was just two weeks old.  It was soon after starting that there was an opening in the Electronic/Home Improvement department, so I was promoted to that area.  It was here that I first learned to mix paint. :)

After about 6 months of working there, I heard of a fulltime position available at a local hardware/lumber store for a cashier.  I applied and was hired that day....working both jobs for two weeks before going fulltime at the lumber store.  This job allowed us to have some benefits, something we did not have as Dale was still attending school and working a part-time job installing windshields.  I continued to get promoted within my company and within 3 years, I was promoted to Retail Manager and was the leader of over 20 other employees.  I was one of two women within our company that held ANY position at all that was not a secretary.

While at work one day, I received a letter that was addressed to me (still not sure how that happened) and it was inviting managers to join a company called Copeland Lumber with locations throughout Oregon.  My parents had moved to Oregon and I loved to visit the ocean and all that IS the Oregon coast.  We began to pray that if this was something for us, that God would make a way for us to move to Oregon.  That was in May of 1998.  In Sept of that same year, we came to Oregon once again on vacation and I was interviewed by three Copeland Lumber stores (one in Newport, one in Waldport and one in Seaside).  I was offered a job at two of them and took the one in Newport.....as a counter clerk.   I moved to Oregon two weeks later, and then Dale, Zach and Alyssa moved in February once our house in Utah sold.  I worked at Copeland's for 1 year when one day my manager sent my to a new Sherwin-Williams store to purchase some paint to repaint a lumber sign outside of our building.....another unexpected turn.  I was asked to come in later that day  for an interview and a month later, I was working part-time at Sherwin-Williams and part-time at a local coffee shop...once again, to assist with making ends meet.  In the meantime, Dale had opened his shop and was restoring and maintaining old Volkswagen's at his shop Old Volks Restoration.  After 1-1/2 years as a part-time employee, I applied for an accepted the position of Assistant Manager.  At that time, I was one of three women in our District (approx 20 stores) who actually worked in the store (rather than at a credit office or District office).  We recently had a District wide meeting for all of the women in our District and there were 22 women in attendance!  I was shocked!  In July, I will celebrate 13 years of working at the same store location in Newport.  I love my job and cannot imagine my life any other way, but it is so interesting to me to think of all of the turns that my life took in order to get me to this place.  If you would have told me almost 19 years ago that I would be where I am today doing what I am doing, I would have thought you were crazy!

Sometimes (well...honestly, oftentimes), God has a plan and it is different that what I visualize for my life and for my family.  Being a SAH mom had huge blessings for all of us......but my having a job outside of our home had some unexpected blessings.  The biggest blessing being that it allowed Dale to have time with our kids that he otherwise wouldn't have had since owning his own business allows him a bit more freedom that a "regular job".  

Now that I have shared my journey from "SAH Mom" to "Working mom", I would like to close with this thought.  Which ever way is right for you and your family, may the Lord bless you. May you never experience the hurtful words of another mom who is on the "opposite side of the fence" and may you do what is best for you and your family.  Blessing to each one of you moms out there....working in or out of the home, you each have a juggling act to perform each day.  And to you gals who aren't moms or who don't want to ever be a mom (I know that you exist as my sister is "one of you"), know that you are valued and loved beyond words!  Ladies, to each of you I want to add.......What you "do" matters....no matter what it is that you "do"!