Another Week.....

Up at 3:30 this morning and sitting here in the dark, one latte consumed. Too cold to move into the kitchen to make another one and asking myself 'why in the world am I up this early?' I will regret it later this evening when I'm sitting in a board meeting wishing I could curl up and go to sleep. And an email reminder about a meeting at 3:45PM this afternoon that I'd totally forgotten about will make trying to take any kind of meaningful 'break' before the evening meeting virtually impossible. Bummer.

We allowed B. to resign his job yesterday. Submitted a letter of resignation and two weeks notice. They are hassling him about his school schedule - now alleging that he is supposed to get their approval about his class schedule before he even registers. Are you kidding me? Colleges are cutting back so much these days that he registers for what he needs, regardless of schedule. He's going to school 4 days per week this term (vs. 3 days last term) and we're thankful he was able to get what he needs this semester. So to hear him tell how his boss and the 'scheduling person' are now asserting that his job has to be the priority - that's just bunk. He's scheduled for two shifts this week that he can't work - so he won't show up.

I worry about him not working - but he's got some savings he can draw on and we are reminding him that looking for another part time job is now his job. Hope he follows through. He'll be repeatedly reminded that the idea wasn't to have 15-20 hours of 'extra free time' each week - it was to focus on school; help out more around here; and look for another job.

He's thrilled to be out of there - he's miserable. He's hated it for most of the past year plus and has only hung in there because we kept encouraging him to 'give it another week'. But his store manager berating him with 'you need to make this job your highest priority' and yelling at him for not following a procedure he didn't know about (he never had to turn in his class schedule last semester and they managed to schedule around his school just fine) was our final straw. I'm sure we'll regret it somewhere down the road (probably when he asks me for money for clothes or shoes which he rarely does anymore since he has his 'own' money) but oh well. He can focus on school and when the weather is warmer, I've got a big list of things he can help with. I'll even pay him to do some major stuff in the garden, etc. He can be our 'supplemental work crew'. Money well spent.

The french dip sandwiches were delicious - everyone loved them. And, I used the leftover broth to make a great beef pasta soup - used up two partially used bags of pasta from the pantry. It's loaded with pasta and beef and is delicious! We had leftover sandwiches for dinner -even sauteed mushrooms and onions to add to them - of course, J. didn't eat any onions but he enjoyed the mushrooms. Tonight's menu is chili dogs - they will be on their own this evening but that's an easy to fix, crowd pleasing meal when it's an 'all guys' night at home.

I'm going to make a huge batch of the meat used in the sandwiches - it would be perfect for home made tacos, fajitas, etc. It was very easy and absolutely scrumptious!

So glad this is a four day week and then we have another 3 day weekend next weekend. I loved the feeling of heading into Sunday afternoon knowing there was still a full day off ahead. Got a haircut, ran a couple errands - tried to make the most of my 'extra' day off. The kids consumed most of a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies I made on Sunday - my KitchenAid stand mixer got a big workout this weekend - and are requesting another batch as soon as possible.

Time for another latte and time to get dressed. I have meetings starting at 8AM solid through the entire morning...so want to get to my desk early to get some things moving (leaving things for my assistant to do while I'm in meetings), etc.

A typical day - especially a typical Monday on a Tuesday.....