Busy, Busy

My daughter took the opportunity to lease space and open her own Day Spa. The last two and a half weeks have been pure chaos, but except for one element that the landlord is responsible for, she is up and running. We have a temporary measure in place for that, so she is able to do treatments already. It has been an exciting, exhausting and expensive experience (alliteration, I know). I'm proud of her and delighted that she has taken the ball and run with it despite the risks and insecurities inevitable in starting a new business.

In other news, I've completed our family album for 2008 - an accomplishment that pleases me mightily. I'm back to knitting again. I survived some kind of stomach bug which zapped me of all energy for several days, but I managed to do what needed to be done as far as assembling all kinds of things for my daughter, verifying shipments, pricing products, setting up her financial books and records, etc. The list is long, huh?

Expecting a visit from my son this week. I'm looking forward to that. It will be good to see him and spend some time together.

I had a call this morning from a friend telling me she had been laid off from her long-time job with a major pharmaceutical company. As I started to sympathize with her, she told me, "No. Wait. Let me tell you the rest." And then she shared with me how this has been a phenomenal blessing for her and her family and how God has orchestrated everything so that this is already a good thing. It was exciting to hear how God is at work in her life and even better to hear how she sees and acknowledges Him in all of it. So to my friend, Congratulations on losing your job! It couldn't have happened to a better person and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!

And that is about it for the past couple of weeks. I've been so busy, but ultimately, it was just working on the day spa that took up my time and thoughts.

I hope you see God at work in your life this week.

Happy 2009!

Yes, I'm a little late. I've been busy. As soon as my son and daughter left for Missouri, I started taking down the Christmas decorations. That's a big job because I've collected so much stuff over the years. I gathered and stacked and when hubby got home, he helped me put it all in the plastic totes and take it all upstairs. The next day, I took down the big Christmas tree. I have two small ones in the front windows - easy up and easy down, but the big one takes awhile. I have ornaments I have collected over the years for my kids, and those have to be separated out and put in different boxes. This year I wrapped them in tissue paper and I don't plan to use them any more on my tree. I will give them to the kids when they want them, and they are ready to transport.

When I finished all of that, I started the power layout to finish the two albums I was working on earlier in December. I completed 45 pages in the layout box and took that with me when I went to Missouri for my son's birthday and to retrieve my daughter. Got all of those pages assembled while I was there, so I'm finished with two albums. Since each page was doubled to make two identical albums, that means I completed 180 pages in about 2 1/2 weeks. I'm delighted.

Came back on New Year's Day exhausted but glad to be back home. The next day was spent doing inventory and end-of-year books, taking down those two little trees (that took about 30 minutes) and catching up on laundry. I finally finished with the day's chores about 9pm. I slept well that night!

Yesterday, I sewed sequins on a calendar for my mom. That took most of the day. But then came the best part of the day.

My daughter interviewed with a lady who wants to add a day spa to the offerings she currently has at her place of business. She was a little apprehensive and overwhelmed when she got home, because she will have to provide all of her own equipment and supplies and just rounding up those things herself (not to mention paying for them) is a massive undertaking. The lady suggested she bring us back to look at the space, so we went back late yesterday afternoon. The whole thing sounds very promising. We are praying for God's guidance before she makes a final decision, but so far, we have not encountered any significant negatives. It's exciting for her.

My son will be coming down for another short visit sometime in the next few days. I look forward to that, too. In short, the year is starting off well. Hope yours is as well.