The leisurely days of Summer have ended for me.  No more sleeping in or waking without the sound of an alarm clock.

Having started a new job in July, my days are now filled with lists, lists, lists, and more lists it seems.  Surprisingly, I look forward to going into work and interacting with my co-workers as well as the general public.  I’m now doing something that I absolutely love; Accounting!

There are other aspects to my job, of course, but for the most part, I get to play with numbers all day.  To a number cruncher like me, that’s what dreams are made of!

In high school, I took business courses which consisted of Accounting I, Accounting II, Office Supervision & Management, Business English, Business Math, Shorthand I, and Shorthand II.   I thrived in these classes and enjoyed immersing myself in my “pretend” company I was responsible for back then.  I enjoyed sharpening my pencil and writing the figures into my ledger book.  It thrilled me to no end to see how fast I could enter those numbers into my calculator, too.  When all my books balanced, I felt accomplished and proud of myself!

Fast forward all these years later – some 27 years – and I am now managing the office and keeping the books for a well known company in town.  The books have been kept the old fashioned way, too, so it was a little intimidating to go way back on how things were done all … those … years … ago.  Yet, that is what I’ve had to do until we can get all of the information into a computer system!  We are in the process of doing just that, as we had a demonstration just this afternoon for a software program with an accounting package included.  Up to this point, I have been creating spreadsheets to get away from handwriting everything into the ledger books.  I’ve made great process and now have from January forward in the computer!

Woo hoo!  I can cross that off of my list!

The staff is absolutely amazing, too, I might add.  While I realize I’m new and just learning their way of doing things, I have been asked several times by different people within the organization how I like it and if I plan to stay.  They check in with me, and that is refreshing in and of itself!  I have never worked for a company where they thank me, and MEAN it.  They “hate to bother me” when they are the owners coming to ask for my assistance.  That is new to me as well.  I’m used to people barging into my office throwing papers on my desk covering up what I’m currently working on as they bark orders at me, even when they were not in a supervisory position!  Here, it has been so refreshing as they ask for my help politely when they are not able to figure something out on their own, and they thank me repeatedly for my assistance while letting me know how much they appreciate me being there.  They try to make sure I know I’m appreciated, and that is like a breath of fresh air!  I welcome this change in my career, and I thank God for this opportunity!

This job was pretty much dropped in my lap.  I decided, after leaving my last employer that allowed coworkers to abuse their authority and mistreat people, that I just was not going to look for another job.  I was content staying at home with my children who are growing up way too fast for my liking!  My oldest – at 19 – is in college with a part time job to help pay for tuition.  My youngest – at 11 – is going into 6th grade this year.  Time is slipping from my grasp as my babies are not babies any longer.  So, I welcomed the opportunity to stay home with them from January until July.

My oldest had a really nice class schedule this past semester that allowed us lots of time together during the day while my youngest was at school.  Then, I had the entire evening with my youngest.  I would be waiting just outside the door of her school when the dismissal bell rang, and away we would go to spend the afternoon and evening together.  I also had a wonderful Spring Break with her, and we went on so many camping trips in our new-to-us RV from March to June.  As it heated up, we decided to take a break from the trips until it begins to cool off in the Fall.  But, this summer has been packed full of family time and memory making that I will forever treasure.

Having decided not to look for another job, I did say that I would entertain a position if someone came to me with a job opportunity.  Little did I know when I said it that I would have two positions presented to me within a two week time period.  I decided to go with this position, though, as it had number crunching involved, and I live and breathe to crunch numbers!  And I am SO glad God afforded me this opportunity!

God has provided me with an opportunity that I could not resist, and I am thrilled to go into work each day now and begin to go through my list of things to do.  I have such a feeling of accomplishment with each item I’m able to strike off of my “to do” list.