Yesterday when I went into work, I found out that my one remaining co-worker had quit. Thing is, he has quit many times since he started working for the good folks at World Gourmet Foods, so they aren’t terribly surprised. No doubt he’ll come back at some point and they’ll hire him again. But for now, he’s gone.
Even though I wasn’t particularly close to my co-worker, we still worked toward a common goal of doing all the little things that it takes to keep World Gourmet running smoothly. It actually felt lonely to look around and think that I was the only one left.
But more importantly, I feel a great concern for my employers. I need to stop working and go back to making my family my only focus. I’ve said I’ll work until the end of September, which is a week from Wednesday. My bosses have accepted that, and haven’t said anything about me working past that date. But surely they wonder if I could be persuaded to stay just a little longer. I don’t know.
I suppose I shouldn’t really worry about it. Not my problem. I need to get on with my life.
But I am concerned. Hopefully everything will work out fine.

Ok, here’s one thing I’ve learned from my experience in working at World Gourmet Foods.
Any time you invest yourself in something, you become attached to that thing.
The day after I gave notice to my bosses, they put a “Help Needed” sign on the door, and placed a pile of applications near the register. I have to say, it gave me a pit in my stomach to realize that it was my fault that they were having to find someone else to work there. I don’t know how to explain the feeling, except to say that it just wasn’t comfortable. They were super nice about it, and haven’t at all made me feel bad about needing to be done working there. But I still feel awkward.
I’m thinking that this holds true in other things in life too. If we invest ourselves in something, we get attached to it. If we serve in church, we get attached. If we work hard on remodeling our house, we get attached to it. If we work hard at schooling our children, we get attached to it.
It’s just something to think about.

Last Friday I gave notice at my work. I thought it would be easy, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought.
Still, now it’s done, and I am planning to be done working by the end of September.
I’d like to start writing some of the thoughts I have about working there, and some of the things I’ve learned.
But right now the family is eating breakfast and then getting ready for church. So there’s no time for long thoughtful thoughts.

One side effect of working in a gourmet foods store, is that when I go along on the regular grocery-shopping trip, the food all seems so much cheaper than I remember it being before. I think it’s because I regularly see such expensive items, that no longer does it seem unreasonable to spend a couple of dollars on a tub of cheese. Maybe that’s a good thing, since I was almost too frugal before, wincing and grumbling all the way through the grocery store. Now I smile and admire and notice the prices to be very attractive.

As I work at my job and see the amazing foods that are served in the little restaurant there, I can’t help but want to eat some of those same things myself. However, my bosses have not yet extended the invitation for me to stuff my face with their food, so alas, I only drool on the display case and wrinkle my nose at the prices.
Finally, I had enough of that exercise and decided to make my own goodies at home. I found a recipe for Chicken Tikki Masala, as well as a recipe for Falafel. The necessary ingredients were assembled, and on Monday I had fun making two ethnic dishes. Supper was enjoyed by almost all of the family, with only a few complaints about the unusual flavors.
I was happy with my first attempts, but then it started bothering me that I didn’t have any tahini to eat with my falafel. I kept putting myself off, saying it wasn’t a big deal, and I ate other things as a condiment with the falafel. Then the next time I wished for tahini, I told myself that I could make tahini later, and to add sesame seeds to the grocery list, and that would be fine.

But this morning I snapped. I had to have tahini right now, because I was hungry for falafel, and I was tired of making substitutions.  So I invited any children to join me in my quick errand to Common Ground, where I bought two cups of sesame seeds.  As soon as I arrived back home, I pulled out a cast-iron skillet and started toasting my seeds.  Once they were done, I poured them into the Vita-Mixer and ground them up with some olive oil.  Turns out, it looks a lot like natural peanut butter.  It has a nice toasted smell, and even tastes quite similar to peanut butter.  I warmed up some leftover falafel, topped with fresh tahini, and enjoyed my lunch.

Sometimes, it’s fun to be impulsive.

Today is our first day of school. The children were fairly cheerful, and some downright excited, to begin their new workbooks. I hurried from one child to the next, listening to reading and answering questions.
My biggest challenge is how on earth to manage my two youngest children while helping the older ones do school. Lilly gets into almost everything, and is so quick and can reach so much. What a busy little girl! Judah behaves fairly well, but he gets bored when everyone else is occupied and he’s not. Sometimes he relieves that boredom by “playing” with Lilly, which often makes her scream, which then grates on my nerves, which in the end is not helpful at all.
Ahh, the joys of school.

My hours at work have been cut again, but that’s really ok with me. Right now I’m on the schedule for about 23 hours. When I saw how much my hours had been cut, I tried to get irritated about it, but quite frankly, I just couldn’t muster up any frustration. I’m hoping to start school with the kids on Monday, and I think it will be nice to have a little more time at home to make school actually happen and be successful.
I’m learning a lot about myself and people in general at my job. For many years I’ve wished I could go back to working outside the home again, because I remember it being something I really enjoyed before I was married. But now that I’m getting a chance to try out that idea, I’m thinking that maybe it’s not such a bad thing to just stay at home and run the household, and let Michael go out and work in the outside world. Having said that, I do still enjoy the chance to go do something quite different from my home life. The time flies, and when I get my paychecks, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I’m actually contributing real money to our debt snowball, and that’s amazing. So far I’ve earned about a thousand dollars to pay down our debt. We’re knocking that bad bill right out of the park. I can’t wait until it’s all gone.

As I’ve been charting out the next school year for my children, I decided one of the things I’ll have each of them do is read books appropriate to their reading levels. But as I was trying to think of what they should read, I realized I was stumped.
So I contacted my good friend and most-excellent scholar, Dr. Melody Green, and beg her to share some of her expertise in children’s literature with me. Alas, Dr. Green is such a wealth of information, that we were not able to adequately converse via the modern marvel of “chatting” online.
So I invited Dr. Green to lunch with the hope that we can dig deeper into the idea of literature and home schooling.
I can’t decide what part of this lunch date is most exciting to me… perhaps eating at one of my favorite little places in town (Kelly’s Bakery), or maybe discussing children’s literature (a subject near and dear to my heart), or maybe the fact that Dr. Green and I are such good friends, that I know we’ll have a great time no matter if we actually talk about books or not.
Lunch and literature and a lovely friend. A delightful combination.

Tonight one of the co-owners of the store decided to make supper for her family. She often does her cooking at the store, so I got to peek over her shoulder several times as she cooked her supper. Not only did she make the usual rice and greens and veggies, but she cooked up some fresh squid to go along with it. These squid had just been purchased in Chicago, and they were the whole thingies. So each one had to be cut open, have the ink pouch and beak removed, and then be cut into pieces. How unusual!
When the food was all done, my boss, Sam, offered me a plate of the food. I was so tickled, and asked if I could take it home. When I got home, my oldest three children were still awake, so I offered them part of my squid dinner. At first they said they’d like to try it, but when they saw the curled tentacles, they quickly backed away from my dish and decided they weren’t feeling quite as adventurous as they thought.
The food was spicy and delicious, and the squid was quite chewy.
At least I can say that my workplace offers something new and interesting almost every day.

Last Sunday marked the first week anniversary of my new job.  What a week!  In summary, I will say that the work is interesting, and at the same time challenging, yet still fun.  I can’t help but feel like I’m “playing store”, collecting money from customers, arranging stock on shelves, keeping the store clean, etc.

One of my bosses challenged me to push myself to learn still more about the cheeses and other products in the store, and I have taken him seriously.  Every time I’m there I write down a few more names of cheeses, and then later at home, I pull out my paper and read about these cheeses online.  I’m learning so much about history and cheese and food in general.  It makes a difference, too, when I go back to work, and recognize some of my new friends in the cheese case.  For instance, yesterday my eye caught a glimpse of the “Maytag Blue” cheese, and I smiled a greeting, remembering what I had read about the son of the guy who started the Maytag appliance company, wanting to make a name for himself, and researching and developing his very own blue cheese, with the help of scientists, in the great state of Iowa.   Now the Maytag Blue is not a stranger, but a friend with a story.  I can’t wait until someone wants to know about that cheese and I can tell them this interesting tale.    I suppose all this research is a bit like having homework, but it’s a pleasant study, and I can learn at my own pace.

Meanwhile, back at home, I am challenged to be much more productive with my time.  No longer can I take long afternoon naps and procrastinate on projects.  Time is short, so I must be diligent.  I’m sorry to say that it has been a good discipline, though I do still miss my more leisurely days.

Today I receive my first paycheck.  I’m so excited.  I can’t wait to put it in the bank and get it sent off to the credit card people.  That’s my whole reason for doing this!

Oh, of interesting note:  my co-worker quit yesterday.  So now I’m the only “underling” at the store.  I sure hope my bosses decide to hire someone else to help with the mopping at the end of the day.