As I have tinkered with this website, my attention has been focused on learning the ins and outs of Movable Type. The result? A string of posts written in geek speak–probably incomprehensible to many of you–as I work through my questions about the content management system. It’s a great CMS that can be challenging to learn about because much of the documentation is either out-of-date, too sparse to understand, or simply not available. My hope is that publishing my solutions here can help someone else who finds themselves in the same boat sail can row away from the rocks.
I haven’t written much about it, but adopting a new CMS has also pushed me to learn more about CSS (so you’ve probably got that to look forward to), but my brain isn’t completely filled with visions of website frameworks and style sheets. I really do think about other things too.
Stress
Stress has been winning the battle lately. With a household of five people, my income and insurance plan is more important than ever. Meanwhile, expectations at the office about what I must deliver have soared to new heights as monstrous budget challenges cast a frightening shadow on my future there.
Beginning with Thanksgiving on through Christmas and New Year’s Day, the holidays crank up my stress levels (the numbers go to 11, right across the board). The windpipe-crushing squeeze on our household budget juxtaposed against the need to find extra money for Christmas makes this year is no different.
I have a great vacation plan though the holidays often seem reserved as a time for me to be violently ill, a tradition that goes way back to my early childhood; chicken pox on my birthday, puking on Christmas. I haven’t been sick since the weather turned cold this season, and fear the flu or some other malady will come around to collect on that debt.
Besides the holidays, my tires are bald and my passenger-side headlight is blown. I’ve already been pulled over with a warning about that one. Two big problems1 that cost money I don’t have, and on top of that the rear door on the driver’s side won’t open.
Kids
We have three kids living at the house and a fourth, the oldest who cut me off years ago, somewhere out in the world. I think about him daily and hope he is doing well, regardless of what he thinks about me and my life.
Our youngest is going through all of the joys of adolescence as he begins to wrap up middle school in the rush to high school. Next up is our freshman daughter who has had her own ups and downs (and you will have to trust me on that one, because I’m not getting into it here). Finally, our senior is getting ready to graduate high school.
All three are in band with extra practices all the time, some before school and some after, and my fellow band parents out there know band isn’t cheap.
Hope
Sometimes it’s not easy, yet with all of the challenges we’re facing lately I know we’re going to be OK.
When I was a child and things weren’t going our way, my mom would say, “Oh well. Everything will work out in the end.” She wasn’t dismissing or making light of the challenges facing our family. She had an unshakeable faith that God would take care of us, and every time it turned out she was right.
Even when the stress bubbles over in our house and we start blowing up at each other like bombs. At the end of the day, we take care of one another. We know that we love and take care of each other. We wash each other’s clothes, we cook each other dinner, and watch over one another. I am lucky to have such great people in my life–this family of mine–and just like mom used to tell me I know that everything is going to be OK.
- The parts for my fancy-pants headlight retail for approximately $300, and that doesn’t count the labor that involves disassembling the front of the car. Tires are tires, about 90 bucks a pop (so to speak, please don’t let them pop). ↩