Horray! I have a button!

I LOVE FREE..and gardens

Last night I spent some time making some free pots for my garden this spring/summer out of newspaper!

I made 20 and I'm hoping to get some seeds planted this weekend to start them indoors before planting them outside! Click on The Grocery Cart Challenge button for more great ideas!

Timing is 3verything

For those of you who don't know let me catch u up to speed, I moved to Roanoke, VA to accept a GLORIOUS JOB in November! A paycheck, health insurance, therapy hours I need, and the works. However, anyone in the mental health field is aware of how AWFUL Medicaid Billing has become, and I too quickly found myself in a very unstable and frustrating/highly stressful position. About half our In Home staff and supervisor left in a period of just a couple of weeks, as did I too. Sick at the thought of looking for another job after this past year, I prayed the Lord would provide quickly, and He did!

I am working in Roanoke still, now as a part of the Therapeutic Day Treatment program at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare. It has been about two weeks since my first day of training and I am very excited to once again have hope for a steady income and therapy hours accumulation! Next step getting Licensed!

A lot of things have been going through my head in this time. What am I doing wrong? What is God trying to teach me through this? What is the reason this is happening? Through all this I have come to one conclusion. It doesn't really matter if I never figure out why this past year/years have been so difficult. While I have had doubts my purpose has never changed. I think the best thing I can do now is continue looking toward the future and move forward. If I find out along the way great. If I don't I will be no worse off...It's character building.

I have been reading in Ecclesiastes this month and love the reminder in chapter 3 of God's timing in life...He's given a time for everything. Nothing about these past couple years has surprised Him.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor, it is the gift of God.
Ec 3:12-13

Here We Go Twenty Ten!

I'm starting to get into a routine now...o how I missed it. New job, new city, and of course...new ways to think of saving money. I sat down today and plotted out new goals for the year...I'm not a big fan of resolutions but Goals I LOVE.

Here's a few I'm hoping to accomplish this year....

• Pay off my car
• Work toward my LPC
• Buy a Bike
• Maintain my financial goals
• Build a larger emergency fund
• Stock my Etsy store :)
• Read 5 books I have that I have never opened in my library
• Study at least 6 books of the Bible intently.
• Get rid of things I do not need
• Use what I have to make what I need when possible
• Container Gardens?
• Do at least 2 things on my “Things to do in Life list” this year

Hoping I can fit all that in this year! Here's a frugal rainy day project any regular card writer could enjoy. I'm thinking about making some sets of these for fast birthday presents

coming up:

EASY POSTCARD PROJECT- (Need: Camera, Glue, Marker, Assorted Cardstock)

1. Take some fun pictures of places you have been, creative angles, colors, etc.

2. Develop your pics in the regular 4" X 6" size (I like matte finish).

3. Cut Cardstock out to glue on the back of your picture. Leave 1/2"overlapping pic on all edges.

4. Design the back of your postcard for whoever you are sending it to. Make sure to leave room for their address on the right side as well as postage.

5. Bundle a few of them together with ribbon or twine add a few 28 cent stamps and VIOLA a nice present for a couple dollars!

I Move Fast

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I did get the position I was hoping for in Virginia. HORRAY! They called and offered it to me the 13th of November and I started the 16th. What a relief to watch things fall into place and know I will not have to use my car as a closet anymore! Me and a good friend of mine are still getting situated into a house we moved into last weekend. I LOVE IT. Great neighborhood, decent rooms, basement...really what more could we want?

More importantly.....I HAVE A JOB!...AGAIN...lol. I began work at Family Preservation Services in Roanoke as a Intensive In Home Counselor and have been doing training there these past couple weeks. It will be challenging, but I think I will get a ton of experience, and learn a lot. I am so grateful to have a job and place to finally settle. While it is far from many of my friends and family, I think it will be a great opportunity.

Here's hoping after my stuff gets to the house next week (from both Lexington, KY and Knoxville, TN) I will have the time to post some new creative thoughts and ideas about projects I'm working on!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

As I have posted earlier...these past 7 months now have been some of the most confusing/ frustrating times. Celebrating graduation and making the transition to adult world has not gone very smoothly. Smoothly is definitely not my style. Lets rewind a bit.

May - Graduation. What a glorious day. All my 7 years of hard work rolled up into one piece of paper. Beautiful. As I began to search out what path to take my wonderful credit union was gracious enough to give me some pretty good hours to hold me over for about a month...or 6 months....haha

The months following I will summarize briefly. I spent a lot of money, gas, and time trying to find a job. Obviously the economy sucks right now so I was told endlessly I was overqualified. Last count I had bugged, emailed, called, and applied to roughly 183 places. That my friend is when discouragement overcame me. Lexington, St. Louis, Knoxville...nothing was seeming to work out.

October 5th, 2009. IT's OVER. I got a call from Child and Family TN offering me a position as LEAP Coordinator. I was ecstatic. All my hard work searching had paid off! I was slightly off guard because the position I accepted was not what I had interviewed for, but nevertheless IT WAS A JOB....WITH HEALTH INSURANCE. I began training the 21st of October, and after 3 days of training was thrown into the position both at a local school and group home. I was exciting about this new adventure although confused about my position still.

To make a long story short the position was not what I had thought it would be. I had come to understand it would not include therapy hours (which would be necessary for me to become licensed), and many other confusing and uneasy additions. Basically, I quit after 5 days. I knew from the beginning it wasn't gonna work out even though everyone I had met had been very helpful and nice. This is not in my nature and was a weird circumstance, but I feel very good about my decision.

Since then I have had a promising interview in a new state: Virginia. I have a second one tomorrow, and hope that it will prove to be the real end to my job hunt. It would be a great opportunity to start out in, and it would be close to my good friend! I have appreciated all the support of my friends and family in this time, and feel very blessed to have so many people who are willing to lift me up in prayer!

The Storm

At some point I would really like to use this space to post fun things I've made and what type of ideas are flowing through my brain. However right now creativity is far from my grasp it seems...

I graduated in May with a Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy/ Professional Counseling. I couldn't believe I was finally done with 7 years of college and ready to leave the papers, late nights, frustrations, firsts and acomplishments all behind. It was a bit of a surreal feeling...Definately exciting, but a little scary as well. But alas, HOPEFUL was the overall theme I carried.

That was about 4 months ago...

Now I so desperatly find myself trying to swim to the surface and find the HOPE life perserver searching for me. Somedays I find it easily and float securely on it..Other days I'm enguled by my Tidal waves of emotion...and struggle to see anything else. Often, I think I can see land ahead, but only get pushed away further by the tide. This has been the ongoing battle in my life lately: ME versus JOB MARKET. I'm sure it is the same story many are facing right now. I was not prepared.

I hope that this month of September brings me some calm in the storm. It would mean so much to me for my heart to be stilled in this storm. I do not wish to drag others through it, yet it seems like that is what is happening.

This verse has been a comfort to me and gives me hope that I will have that peace someday.

Phil 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.