5 Positive Things - 25 Oct 2010

1. Ryan has a new friend, who seems to be becoming a good friend.  Mason invites Ryan over every so often and has come to our house a few times.  I always assumed this would happen earlier in the elementary years, but Ryan is in the 4th grade.  I am learning that it is really the parents who make things happen, and Ryan just never hooked up with another kid whose parents were the type to make it happen.  And I'm certainly not the type.  But now that I see how happy he is to be with a friend, I will be working on it with his other friends and also helping Luke in that respect.
   
   
2. I am having more and more fun at work.  I was recently asked by my manager if I would like to lead a new Design & Development group he is working on pulling together into his organization.  I accepted the challenge.  I'm scared and excited at the same time.  My BS is in Workforce Education & Development, so I have the background - but I haven't had much of an opportunity to use my design skills in quite awhile.  And when I was using my design skills, it was not true to instructional design.  So I am brushing up in that area, studying our processes, and becoming familiar with stakeholders.
   
   
3. Aaron and I have admitted our communication problems to each other.  We have both owned up to having problems communicating and have made a commitment to discuss things with each other in a non-destructive way.  We have also committed to making more time for ourselves and for us as a family.
   
   
4. I have been feeling really good lately, emotionally.  Between the changes at work, Ryan's more positive attitude, and our commitment to more "couple" and "family" time - I feel like things are finally pulling together.  I've been making a HUGE effort to focus on positives, and I think it is also rubbing off onto Ryan. 
   
   
5. I finally made the oatmeal scotchies Luke and I have been craving.  I made a pan version and they are very yummy.  We had some that were still warm after school.
   

Excited and Scared!

I work in a Learning & Training organizatiion within a VERY large company.  We've been needing a reorganization and cleaning up of RAAs (responsibility, authority, accountability) for a long time.  People who do the same job report to different managers and even are located in different sections of the organization.  It makes it difficult to get agreement on how and what to do in certain situations.  

Well, things are finally going to change.  As a result of the upcoming changes, I will be in more of a leadership role.  Not a manager - which I would not want - but like a team lead. I will be the lead for the Design & Development group.  These are the people who identify learning solutions and the people who either develop the solutions or work with suppliers to get the job done.  I would also hope that this is the group that will own the processes.  Not owing the process has been a major problem in the past.

I'm excited and scared at the same time.  I have not been very motivated about work for the last year or so and my manager finally told me that he sees that.  He shared with me that he thinks I'm a good candidate, but that I would need to be more assertive and MUCH less passive.  I think it is really great that he would trust me with this role, in spite of his reservations.  I think it is what I need to push me in the correct direction and get my working groove back.  And a lot of the changes they're talking about making will resolve problems and remove roadblocks people in this position experienced in the past.

Some Things Have Changed for the Better!

I've been thinking about this for awhile now and thought that it is time to share.  I'm naturally a happy person, but had a long spell of grumpiness that I feel I'm coming out of quite well.  There were several contributing factors.  Motherhood is much harder than I ever dreamed.  I used to cherish my independence, but now I have two kids who need quite a bit of my attention.  I'm not a very patient person, but these kids need more patience than the average kid.  I am learning though.  You'd think almost 10 years into motherhood I'd be pretty patient, but I realize I am naturally an impatient person.

I recently had a hysterectomy because of constant abdominal pain.  I've been mostly pain free since then, but had a bout of pain over the last few days.  This made me realize how much of a contributor the constant pain was to my bad mood.  I was more likely to snap at Aaron or the boys, swear over minor frustrations, etc.

Now for the biggest change, my acceptance of the problems in my life.  Over the past year I've been informed that Luke has ADHD, then was told that it is not ADHD, but Asperger's.  I've also been informed that Ryan has Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).  And to top it off, I've been dealing with my own anxiety / depression.  I have come to accept these things over the last few months.  I was in denial for a long time about Luke's Asperger's.  I was looking for a cure and now I know that I need to focus my energy on looking for ways to help him function to the best of his ability.  I was also looking for a cure for Ryan, but have switched to helping him learn how to manage his anxiety.  In the process of doing this, our relationship is improving.