Energy Boost

Today would've been a really good day to stay home in bed. There was no energy in my body, and it was aching besides, and there were too many things on my agenda today, and the days when there are too many things on my agenda are the days when it is difficult to find my motivation.

First item on the agenda was the meeting with the suppliers - the guys in a Foreign Country who are doing the Software Testing (of which I am in charge) - where they explain why they are behind schedule, and my boss expects me to beat up on them (verbally, psychologically) so that they better understand this Western concept of "deadlines" and "milestones" and "unnecessary stress". Personally, I think their concept is better: it gets done when it gets done. And a rushed job is better than no job at all. I did not enjoy the meeting. I did not enjoy my boss jumping in half-way through to remind me to bring up the fact that they aren't on schedule and are in danger of missing the (artificial) milestone.

Started feeling not-well about that time.

Then there was the volunteer meeting, the one where a bunch of my colleagues who are interested in off-hours training try to put together a schedule of events and speakers so that our fellow engineers can stay up-to-speed on technical issues, company plans, and other things of varying degrees of interest. We usually hold this meeting around lunch time so that it doesn't cost the company any time. Aren't we generous? Only the number of volunteers has been dropping so we're all having to pick up more on our To-Do lists.

Really not feeling well by now.

Went home afterward, thinking I'd grab some lunch (which I'd skipped during the volunteer meeting) before we headed over to the Title Company to sign the paperwork on our refinance loan. Wasn't sure if it was a good idea to eat at this point, but did it anyway. Went over to the Title Company, where we found out the Bank messed up the loan numbers. Again. They weren't supposed to roll up any of the closing costs into the loan, but they did anyway. It was a little better than last time, when they rolled in the entire closing amount. We were wanting to bring max cash to the table in order to reduce the overall loan. When we saw what they messed up, we quickly estimated how much it would impact the monthly savings, and it wasn't enough to make a big deal out of it. But it was annoying. Strike two for that lender. Never again!

I was really ready to nap by this time.

Got home and, instead of heading back to work (because it was only three o'clock in the afternoon), took a bit of a nap. Right up until dinnertime. Woke up groggy when James stuck his head in my bedroom and shouted, "Food!" (He's always very direct when it comes to such important topics.)

It wasn't until later when the girls and I got to church that my energy level suddenly shot through the roof. And I don't think it was the dinner or the marshmallows I passed out during our family Bible study. I really think it being around the kids at church. They are so much fun, they have so much energy; when they smile, all my troubles just disappear and I just want to play tag and climb on the monkey bars and throw the frisbee and run around like a crazy person and do all the other things we end up doing during class. We cleared out the gym of all the extraneous stuff so the middle schoolers could us it during their class, and then I took my kids (4 years to 3rd grade) to our classroom and we studied the story of Adam and Eve, and we made people out of Play-Doh, using different colors for the arms and the legs and the abdomens and the heads, and we talked about how God made us all special, even more special than the animals, because he made us in his image. And the kids smiled and laughed and had a wonderful time. And I forgot all about how awful I'd been feeling beforehand.

Why can't my job give me this kind of energy?