A week in review

This has been one of those weeks that I am glad to see wrapping up.  We have just had a lot of stuff going on.  First the great news!  I got an email from Fiona's school this week to let me know that she had created a Jeopardy style game in school. It was her own idea and the finished product was used successfully for the kids between two classes and pertained to a subject they had been studying.  They are going to tweak the concept and keep it as a part of the curriculum.  I was so psyched to hear this!  Fiona is amazingly creative and that it could be utilized in her scholastic curriculum is beyond fantastic.

This was "review" week at my job.  It is my first review with our new company after my 90 day probationary one back in March of last year.  They rate you very differently from my former employer.  I guess I scored well but I was not really happy.  I was given about 8 minutes to discuss my feelings on the ratings and it was hard to do that in 8 minutes and not sound defensive or adversarial.  But, really, being told to "think outside the box" when one does federal paperwork is an odd comment.  As is being told to one does not do well staying in the budget when one does not purchase things or even order them (other than copy paper??)    I am apparently getting a small bonus so it wasn't all bad, it was just sort of weird. 

Then K went in for what we thought was her review and it turned out they were eliminating her position effective immediately.  I felt really badly for her. She loved what she did with the kids there and was very very good at it.  It just is not the thrust of our new company to work with kids.  Does not matter I guess that 380 of them live there . . . So that was a pretty rough night emotionally for us all.  She actually has an interview next week with a YMCA where the hours look flexible enough to work with our family. And has a resume in to a local optompetrist looking for clerical help evenings which would also be ideal.  We will see. On the plus side, there are definately more job options out there than there were about 6 months ago.  And we can get by on our piece work and my salary it is just that there is no cushion which is not a good way to live.  Something will happen. Windows close, doors open, etc.

My mom emailed me and she and her boyfriend of several  years have called it quits.  He has decided somewhat precipitously to relocate to the south and Mom is understandably grieving.  I feel badly and am trying to help her see that this does not mean she spends holidays alone forever, that she is always welcome to be with us and the kids were ecstatic at the idea of more nana time.  But she had visions that had a different story and it is hard to let that go and move on.

So, we will see what the new week will hold. . .