Working part-time has been...

a rocking of my world. Honestly.

The job came at an opportune moment both time wise and of financial benefit to our family. I had recently completed an eight year commitment to a volunteer position, the boys were now old enough to be home alone for short periods of time, Husband had finished building an office so he could work from home, and it all seemed like a just right moment.

I took a part time position with an organization I had worked with as a volunteer for 11 years. I thought I knew all the ins and outs. I believe in the mission. I have a personal connection to the mission. I liked all of the staff. So there I was, ready to step in and do the next thing.

Boy oh boy.

Multi-tasking within the home was a skill I have taken the last 20 plus years to develop. And even that development is rife with its faults. Housekeeping being only one example. I've learned a certain level of co-existence with dust bunnies. Ergh.

Multi-tasking between homeschooling, working outside of the home, and those other life things I enjoy like teaching Bible study, well, suffice it to say, I didn't know which side was up, which door was out, or what was for dinner for almost four months. And remembering to reboot the laundry was the last thing on my mind.

Insertion: moms take the time while your children are young to teach them multiple household skills from the kitchen to the laundry room. More than once the boys were invaluable in being able to help and work alongside me in the tasks of running our home.

It was a major transition for all of us. And we didn't make it through without multiple mistakes of short tempers, misunderstandings, temptations to laziness, poor habits, and missed opportunities. We had to restructure our week, our homeschooling schedule, and our time together as a family.

Some of those things are still a work in progress, but I am grateful, oh so grateful to have experienced God's sustaining grace and mercy in that work. I have had to learn hard lessons about myself, about contentment, about expectations, and about my place in a mostly secular environment.

Together as a family we have confronted our failures and celebrated new successes. The days have not been easy, but the lessons have been necessary. Sanctification comes in all sorts of packages. But every time it comes, we can rejoice in the promise of God to complete what He has begun, to provide when we are empty, to forgive when we fail, and to love us enduringly.

It was just supposed to be this little ole' part-time job. Instead it has become a function of God's multiple graces to us.