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Categories Thankful Thursday, Work

Thankful Thursday: Work

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Five years ago, when I was halfway through my undergraduate education in dietetics, I never would have guessed that I’d be working in long-term care.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea. I just intended to go a different direction. Should I not end up married before the time came to get a first professional job, I’d try to find something in community nutrition, education in the community.

And that is what I tried for–but jobs in the community are few and far between (and not always that greatly funded.)

So instead of a community position, I found myself in Columbus, Nebraska as a long-term care dietitian. And I love it.

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Today I’m thankful…

…for a good first day at the two facilities I’m now consulting for (even if the previous dietitian couldn’t be there to orient me to the facilities)

…for a just the right length to-do list. Now that I’m caught up from my conference and am full-time, I have enough work to keep me busy but not so much that I’m scrambling to keep afloat.

…for affirmation from a coworker who thinks I’m doing a good job (Thanks, Jen!)

…for a visit from my consultant RD who was able to catch something I was doing inadequately so I could correct it (before it became an issue)

…for conversations with coworkers before weights meetings

…for dark chocolate from my Secret Santa in our post-Christmas exchange

Above all, I’m thankful that God, in His infinite wisdom, has chosen to place me as the in-house dietitian in one long term care facility and as consultant dietitian to two others. It isn’t what I would have chosen for myself, but apparently God’s better at choosing than I am!

Categories Everyday Life, Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Easy Days

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It’s not too often that I have an easy day–a day where it feels like things are running smoothly and I’m getting things accomplished and I’m not too rushed.

Which means that when those days do come, I need to stand back and savor them and not forget to send my Thank You‘s heavenward.

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Today I’m thankful…

…for temperatures above freezing and a jaunty walk to and from my car

…for a new computer at work–that means I don’t have to wrestle for someone else’s (I’m sure Heather is just as thankful–or more–for that one!)

…for 90 days at my “new” job–and that they still want to keep me after this first quarter

…for smooth assessments. I notice and complain when admission heights and weights aren’t taken, when I have to go digging for orders or information. But some days, the nursing staff is all at the top of their game–and I need to remember to say “Thank you” that they’ve recorded all the information I need.

…for prompt faxes from MDs. Sometimes it takes forever to hear back from an MD–or the MD just seems to ignore my faxes. Today, my faxes have been returned promptly. Thank you, docs of Columbus!

…for leaving work early (just a bit, and feeling unrushed–that NEVER happens)

…for a delightful seven note sixth grade band concert. I know I’m gonna love Columbus. These kids, this life, is fantastic.

This has been an easy day–and I am most thankful for it.

Thank You, Lord, that You know when I need a little rest–and that You provide it, even amidst an eleven-hour workday.

Categories Everyday Life

In Which Rebekah Says Much (Little of Note)

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I got home rather late last night and decided to take apart my planner. It’s started to get a bit ratty, and I’m a young professional and feel I should try for a more polished look. Problem is, I love my planner and I hate spending money. I’ve been considering making my own planner using the old shell–last night I just made it official by taking a utility knife to the planner so I can figure out how to make my own.

So far, I’ve got…

Cardboard planner

The finished product is intended to be covered in black vinyl, with lots of interior pockets, room for pens and pencils, etc. There’ll be a large flap that closes on the front with a frog closure (aren’t frogs just the funnest things?)

Now that I’m officially working and unofficially residing in two towns, I’ve decided I need to get the blogs I follow into a format that allows me to easily read them on the road (when I’m away from my desktop). So I’ve been resubscribing to all my blogs on GoogleReader.

Not that I expect to do much blog reading on the road. I’m gonna be working 20 hours out of the 43 I’ll be there. Hopefully I can get 7 hours of sleep each night, which will leave me with 9 extra hours to eat, go to Bible study, dress each morning, pack my stuff up, grade a few papers for my other job, etc. etc.

I’m also considering going back down to one post a day. Two is a lot to keep up with while working–especially with a commute. On the other hand, I want to keep up a mix of “thinking” and “fun” posts–and have a hard time doing that when I’m just writing one post a day. Grrr!!!

Why have I never noticed all the agains in Matthew 13?

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…” (v. 44)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls…” (v. 45)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea…” (v. 47)

This suggests that in each of these parables, Jesus was RESTATING His original point. Which is curious since His original point was explaining the parable of the tares to His disciples.

I’m looking into this further…

In other news…

On Tuesday I asked whether anyone could guess which two Dewey Decimal categories account for over half of my nonfiction reading.

A total of 3 people guessed–and came up with a total of 4 categories amongst them: 200, 300, 700, and 800.

The answer?

300 and 600

Nobody guessed 600–but the 600s contain some of my favorite types of books (although not always ones that I blog about.) I have read 173 books from the 600s, including books about medicine, nutrition, time management, cooking, sewing (for the home), and parenting.

My second highest category was the 300s with 103 books read. These books included books on politics, marriage and family issues, money management, and books of etiquette and traditions (I read Emily Post for fun. Honest.)

Coming in third was the oft-guessed(?) 200s (religion) with 53 books. I only started reading items from this section in earnest this year–along with my goal of exercising my mind towards the things of God. Furthermore, I tend to take longer with these books since I really want to fully explore the issues the books raise. These are, however, the books I’m most likely to blog about–so it makes sense that my readers would guess them!

As for 700 and 800? They’re fourth and fifth (go figure!)

So y’all are pretty good guessers. Give yourselves a pat on the back you who participated.

And the rest of you? I really like comments. Please comment, even if it’s not much. (Although you’re certainly welcome to take a page from the spammers’ book–“This is the most fascinating treatment of this topic that I have ever heard. I have read a lot about ____, but no one has ever explained it as well as you do.”)

Categories Everyday Life, Faith

Snippets of E-mail messages from today

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E-mail 1:

I was going to go in to fill out paperwork for doing laundry at Shands
hospital today, but they called back and said that the temp agency doesn’t actually do laundry and they need to run background checks on everybody–so it’ll be at least a week before they can start anyone. So I’m back to job search mode. Blah! And I already paid ten bucks to get a TB test done at a local clinic. What a bummer!

We had a “stick night” last night–which was basically just a time of
intense sharing, pouring out our hearts to one another. It was definitely amazing. I just can’t get over how God placed our group together in just the right way, so that we can all minister to one another and help each other through our struggles. God is totally awesome!

Email 2:

I found a job. Amazingly. I’ll be doing housekeeping at the Sawgrass
Marriot Resort. I think it should be pretty neat. If I understand right,
my wardrobe is a company issued black dress with a little white apron. I’ll feel like I’m wearing a costume the entire time. Our pay will be $8 per hour, which is fantastic as a starting wage for seasonal full time work. My orientation is at 3 pm. I’m borrowing Stacy Plouzek’s car right now and had my first experience with Jacksonville roads this morning going to apply and interview. The streets are definitely less scary when I’m in control of the vehicle. Riding with my team leader, Allie, can be somewhat, shall we say, harrowing.

We’re having problems with our AC–if the AC is turned to “cooler”
which tends to equal about 50 degrees, the room is frigid but fine. If
the AC is on anything more than “cooler” the room gets unbearably wet. Even at 65 degrees, the room was too humid to sleep in–our clothes and sheets were all wet. Yuck! But it doesn’t seem we have many options. Oh well.

Email 3:

My orientation was great! I had to sign about 50 different papers, but I managed to get it all done. Okay, but that’s not the truly exciting thing about the day. I settled down to a nap around 1:30 and was planning on about a half an hour. But then I got interrupted by first this and then that. Finally I fell asleep–only to be awakened from a now somewhat deep sleep to the sound of someone knocking on my door. It was Eric (who will be working at Sawgrass Marriott as well). He was wondering if we were going to leave for orientation soon. It was 2:40!!! And we had to be there at 3!!!! Yikes! Thankfully, we made it there on time.

Tonight we had a “rally.” Jerry Bridges was our speaker and he spoke
about how justification is by faith in Christ Jesus. He said something
kind of interesting. He said that after salvation, many Christians tend
to think that the rules have changed, that now we relate with God on the basis of our own performance. But that’s not true. Galatians 2:20 uses the present tense in reference to justification, saying “the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.” Although justification is a past event, it is also a present reality. When God looks at me, He sees me as holy.

That was particularly powerful because I think I have a tendency to think that justification means that God stuck a piece of paper in my file saying that I’m holy. And at the judgment seat of Christ, He’ll look at me and say, “My what an awful person you are. Let me check your file.” Then after He checks my file, He’ll be like “Oops. This says you have Christ’s righteousness.” But that’s not how it is at all. When God sees me, He doesn’t see my sin or my old sinful nature. He sees Christ. Period. That’s it. I am righteous in His eyes. The end.