Time Flies

My how time flies. Yesterday I had my 90 day review at work. I mean I knew it was coming—I’ve been watching to see how soon I get insurance. Evaluations have also been hard for me. I’m a perfectionist. To receive negative feedback was tantamount to failure to me. That is, in my former life…

Ed explained to me that the review is based on a lickert scale (0 to 5, 5 being the best you can get). He then went on to say that he never gives out 5’s and only rarely gives out a 4. Ok. I took a deep breath and told myself that a three was probably the best rating I would receive in any area. I was pleased that Ed expressed significant approval and appreciation and gave me several 3.5. When it was all averaged out, I was at about a 3.27. Not bad, not bad at all. I actually left Ed’s office feeling good about my performance and really good about how appreciated my work is.

Before the day was done I was back in Ed’s office. I had a materials dilemma and I needed to do some creative resourcing. I was out of bags and the only way to get some for Tuesday’s work was to drive to B-town to get some.

Today was just stressful. The company I order my packaging materials from just isn’t able to keep up with my needs. I did some calling and questioning and it appears that the person I deal with had been ordering based on last years figures. It seems that no one bothered to really update her on all our increases in production and packaging. Hopefully this is going to be fixed. But in the meantime I’m going to have to drive to the warehouse tomorrow (about 90minutes away) to get more bags. I’ll still be backordered but at least I’ll have bags to start the day with on Thursday.

On less stressful notes…I finished a very interesting book: Philip Yancey’s “The Bible Jesus Read.” My focus in seminary was always on the New Testament. Yancey gives some interesting viewpoints on the importance and impact of the Old Testament. Bottom line: it made me want to read more.

Food section: I have found a new yummy breakfast. I have always loved bagels and cream cheese. Yesterday at Aldi’s I found whipped cream cheese that is honey and nut (pecan) flavored. And I rediscovered a wonderful salad dressing: Marzetti’s Sweet Italian. It’s so good I ate a salad as a snack! I’m also quite pleased at another food purchase I made last night. Nelson wanted watermelon. I stood at the bins of watermelons and asked out loud, “How do you know if it’s a good one?” Fortunately, my daughter was with me to answer so that I didn’t look totally daft. We finally just grabbed one. Oh my! It was so sweet and juicy. I nibbled at little pieces while I was cutting it up and then had a few chunks for dessert. I love watermelon…but it does not love me. I spent a little time in the reading room (aka the bathroom) paying for that indulgence!

And some really good news! Last week I saw my PO. I updated her on the situation with T-Net church dissolving. She was surprised. Then she told me that I should pick a church and go. She felt that she knew me well enough to support my going to church. I was sooooo excited! So was Nelson. But we were so busy all week we didn’t sit down and discuss where we wanted to go so we ended up just watching TV church again on Sunday. We’ve talked a little more about it this week—we just don’t know what we want to do.

I guess that’s not exactly true. There are certain denominations where we wouldn’t feel comfortable theologically. We know we want to find a medium size church. Nelson just wants to be fed for a while and not feel pressured to lead. We are both in agreement about our desire for strong preaching and teaching ministries, followed by anointed worship (aka good music). Oh, and we want it here in town. We believe that we’ll be more likely to participate if we’re not having to travel to far (especially given gas prices and winter weather). And that way the people that we hope to befriend will also be close for fellowshipping purposes.

I’m thinking the first thing to do is make a list of potential churches and just start visiting. It’s not a process I relish, but it’s also a process that holds some possible excitement as we truly begin to sense God leading us again.

So, time is flying by…and that’s okay. Or at least I’m okay with it. Now if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll go finish another book…a friend in Canada sent it and it’s really quite good! I’ll review it more when I’m done.