Ruts, School, House, and God

Five days seems like a long time to be away from blogging, but things have been in flux. School has started, and vacation has ended. The hardest part of any vacation is returning to work, and finding your rut. 

The house has moved up in priority. The daycare that Row attends has stopped their after-school care, which means that we don't have a legitimate reason for a school transfer. We have been paying the daycare a small fortune to transport Row to and from school since we both work and have a "transportation problem" with getting Row to his assigned school. Our "assigned" school  is mostly minority (80-90%), on government food assistance (95%), and scored the lowest possible grades for educational success among the students. The daycare has provided us with a valuable service of a better educational opportunity for our oldest son.

Next January, when we start the yearly paperwork for a school transfer, we won't have the legal documentation necessary. We have been window shopping in the area of Row's current school, and the house are about the same price range. The big problem is selling our current house with a lot of houses on our street for sale, and affording the new one in the better school area while all on one income. We currently owe only $40,000 on our current house, but the problem is affording two houses while the old one is on the market. In the spring, I'm on track to take 18 hours next semester, with the additional senior level class, studying for my national certification for radiography, and moving the household across town. I've thought about putting the extra class on hold, but don't want to put my MRI certification behind a year.

So....here I am. I'm taking 16 hours while trying to get the house in marketable shape. My wife is working 2 extra nights a week so that I can get an education without going into debt. I'm "working" (read: no pay intership/clinicals) 24 hours a week while studying for four classes. Two of the classes are going to require at least 10 hours a week to get a B or better, and of course, I want the A.

The world's smallest violin

I know that God isn't supposed to put any more on a person than they can handle, and that does give me comfort. It still doesn't stop the worrying, or a few sleepless nights. When I started school, our pastor had a sermon on getting out of your comfort zone, and I felt God's tugging at my heart to get out of the restaurant business, and use my brain that He gave me. I took a step of faith, and started school. The restaurant that I started working at 24 years ago closed their doors about a week ago. They almost made their 25th year anniversary by three months. The smaller original Grill that I worked at remains open, and helped support the larger albatross of a restaurant. While I don't want to talk bad about my former boss, he has been too kind-hearted to a lot of people that should have been gone a long time ago. Of course, other things come into play such as increased competition, demographic shifts, and city expansion away from the restaurant, but not insurmountable if they had been dealt with early.

My scholarships have miraculously appeared when they were needed, and other things have fallen into place at the appropriate times. All of these things have encouraged me, and leads me to believe that He has a plan for me.

Anyways, I wasn't my intent to unload on the unsuspecting visitor, but rather put my thoughts into written form. Thanks for listening reading.

Keep Right On Prepping - K