Extra Gravity

The other night I made my kids' favorite dinner, Cheeseburger soup. It's hamburger meat, tomato soup, cheddar cheese soup, milk and noodles all cooked together until the noodles are done. My kids LOVE this dinner. I usually make a double batch and TallBoy usually eats it all.

We sat and ate our dinner, and TallBoy kept dropping noodles on his shirt. He starts making up pretend bad words and giving me dirty looks as a joke. The dropping continues. He starts to get seriously annoyed- it's his favorite dinner and he can't get it into his mouth. Finally he asks me,

"Mom, what's wrong with this cheeseburger soup? I keep dropping it! Did you put extra gravity in it or something?"

I found this exchange hilarious and "extra gravity" became a catch phrase at our house just for sheer silliness.

However, it's with sincere extra gravity that I was given a layoff notice at work. They are employing everyone for 3 weeks guaranteed starting December 29 (but we'll all be on mandatory vacation) and they will call people back as work develops. However they cannot promise who or how many will be called back at the end of this 3 weeks. I'll have a paycheck until roughly mid to late January. My immediate supervisor and the president of the company have both told me they will be GLAD to reccomend me and write excellent references for me, which is a blessing and a solace to me.

I'll be honest, I had about an hour of pure terror and desperate hurt. I wanted very much to cry, to swear, to hurt something. And then I remembered I had to tell my kids about this.

One thing I've always wanted to do as a parent was to make sure my kids knew that the grownups were in CHARGE, and that they would handle the grown up problems. To show fear, or anger, or frustration in the face of a grown up problem does not say (to me) that I am in charge or that I could handle my problem.

So I bucked up and discussed it with them. It was a tough discussion, and they handled it as themselves. My TallBoy was determined and grim faced while SweetPea was tearful and emotional. That's just who they are and I get to help them through this just as much as I get to help myself.

So I spent a long time in prayer last night, asking the Lord to direct me and move me where he wants me to go. I have to put absolute faith that he will provide for our family, and that we will survive this and be strengthened through our togetherness and reliance on G-d.

I'm encouraged that I already have several leads and a wonderful friend from church gave me several ideas already. I'm lucky to have a very flexible skill set and I'm heartened by my family.

I'm a little excited at the idea of a vacation, but I know I will be working every day of it. The positive is that I'll be able to spend some time with my kids. I'm praying this time will be a blessing to all of us and that we'll find a treasure in the midst of all this challenge.