A Whirlwind Week

Whew! As I mentioned in my last blog update, I was recently impacted by a downsizing at the company I’d been with for four years. After taking a few weeks to update my resume and spend an amazing week with family and friends in VT, I determined that I would put on a full-court press on the job search court beginning on Monday of this week. I think the job search put a full-court press on me, instead!

When I logged into my email account on Monday, I had messages from three different recruiters who had become aware that I was available. This resulted in a frenzied schedule of phone screenings and interviews on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday…and resulted in a job offer for the position I was most interested in on Friday. Was this a result of my direct actions? I think not!

While I have been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster related to my employment status, I have held steadfast in the knowing that this is exactly where I am supposed to be in my life. God may have closed a door, but He sure opened a few windows. Rather than pray for what I THINK I want in this area of my life, I have prayed for God to put me where He needs me to be. It's amazing how quickly good things can come when we plan the plan, then get out of the way and leave the results to God! I am so very grateful!

It appears that God needs me somewhere a little sooner than my time line accounted for. I start my new job a week from Monday, which my wonderful partner Barb is very happy about. I, however, would have liked another month or so off! I am hoping to get out my burner and finish a project I started in VT and haven’t had time to get back to in the frenzy of the past week. In the meantime, let me tell you about a plaque I recently finished for my sister, Sambo.

Samantha asked me (several years ago!) to burn her wedding vows so she could give the plaque to her husband as a gift. Burning a lot of text can be a bit tedious, so I had put it off. Besides, I had to come up with an overall design, and it took me a while to visualize where I wanted to go. Finding myself with some time on my hands before I headed up to Vermont, I decided to tackle the task. I found a wedding pattern in one of my Walnut Hollow Farms books – a man slipping a ring on a woman’s finger with candles and roses in the background. I decided to “shadow” burn this image behind the vows, as well as add a decorative border and a little color.

This was quite an experiment! Overall, I am pretty happy with the results. If I were to do it again, I would use watercolors or thinned oil paint to add the color rather than the oil pencils, which show the grain in the wood more than I would like. Sam was happy with it, though…and that’s what truly matters!