I’m under-employed.

It stinks to be a statistic. But I am one. My current employment offers me about 4-6 overnight shifts a month. Each one is a double shift. And each one means that I lose about half of the next day trying to sleep (a little) and get my body back on a normal schedule. (You know, the one that the rest of my family lives on…)

I’ve made some choices about how far I’ll drive and how long a commute I can handle. Realistically, that limits my opportunities for employment. But I am persevering, working on gaining hours towards the minimum requirements to apply for board certification as a chaplain.

Tomorrow starts the school year for Reedy Girl, who will be a senior at Lake Woebegone High School. My schedule will, of necessity, change to the O-dark-ridiculous hour of the morning so that I am at least awake (well, OK, upright with eyes open… let’s be real) when she leaves for the bus.

As I prayed about the year ahead, I began to think about the projects that I have not been able to tackle because of finishing my M.Div., CPE and working nights. So I made a Post-It project line over my desk to remind me — there are plenty of tasks that I’d like to accomplish before Thanksgiving. Projects like writing some articles. A book. Cleaning out the various clutter traps around the house, garage and shed. It was an impressive list when I finally started writing them all down…

I need to do some more planning and organizing, but I’m looking forward to seeing some plans become real!

So let’s roll.