Today begins a new phase in our family's life. I thank God that it is a temporary one. It's long-term-ish, but temporary nonetheless, which is helping me be optimistic about this. My husband is going to work the night shift for about six months. It is going to be quite a change to our family routine and rhytms. We are expecting this schedule to have lots of plusses and minuses. I am guessing that after a couple of weeks of this, we will fall into a routine that fits and we will all better understand what is expected of us, who does what, when and at what time and how loudly! I am hoping that it will become a comfortable second nature and that we learn to lean more on the plusses than the minuses of this schedule. Today at church, our Pastor was speaking about using the gifts that God gives to each one of us. He was teaching about how some of us see our gifts as limited, but that doesn't matter to God. We are to use what we have. I generally struggle with WHAT to write about in this blog so a few minutes ago, I decided to be inspired by Pastor David and use this blog to exercises the muscles of God's writing gift to me by chronicling what this journey will entail for us as a family. Pastor David said that if you don't use it you'll loose it! So here we go!
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DAY ONE
This morning, I was thinking about how the Jewish calendar goes from sundown to sundown. That's it, right? I'm not certain. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I do know that they consider each day to begin at sundown the day before. So tonight, when my husband goes off to work at 6:30 P.M., he's kinda heading off in a Hebrew sort of direction then, huh? :) Knowing that God is on duty both day and night, I am sure he will be Master over my husband's work days.
Arvin went to sleep about 2:15 today to get just three hours' nap in before getting up. He'll be exhausted tomorrow, but we expect this. My friend, Denise, who's wonderful husband, Greg, is a police officer, told me to expect Arvin to be very, very tired. Fact is though, fatigue has been a constant state of life for Arvin for well, forever. I believe it is a combination of factors for him. Number one, he works HARD. No matter where. No matter what. He expends a LOT of energy. Number two, I don't think he gets very restful sleep because he suffers from allergies, and may have a deviated septum or sleep apnea (just call me Dr. Kiki because I have diagnosed this so perfectly! Ha!). But what I have seen over almost 16 years of marriage is that we can sleep the same amount of hours and he always is more tired than I am. I do not think he gets good rest because he cannot breathe. Then there's the thyroid issues. Another of life's yo-yo's! So anyway, all that to say that I will be very curious about if this night shift will really change much at all for him in the tired department. It MAY, but it may not. We shall see.
Over the last five years, or so, we have encountered a variety of challenging work shifts. I can remember 12, 18 and 24 hour work days. We've packed him bags of changes of clothes and coolers full of sandwiches because we didn't know when or if he'd be able to come home. For his most extensive project, for three years, he commuted and hour and a half one way just to get to his job site, work one of his 8, 10, 12 hour days, then commute back home. And don't ever tell me that all government workers are slackers, because every minute of that drive he was on his speaker phone, working. Often when he was home, too. Believe me, the state has got it's money's worth in this man.
He's worked on a lot of projects that have been in isolated areas. One time a HUGE bolder had fallen off a mountainside and landed smack in the middle of a narrow, two-lane highway that was the only outlet for a small community. Without this road, they were cut off from the world, removed from their only source of food and fuel. He traveled probably and hour and a half to that site as well to begin the work of restoring the road for that community. As he's snoring away in the other room, I reflect back and am incredibly proud of him.
When the opportunity came up for him to take this current job, one of the benefits in his mind was the fact that this job is local. It's right in our own town. He's really happy for this chance to give back to his own neighborhood after so many years of working so far from home. He's also doing a bit of a different twist on his usual work by adding new skills to his repertoire. He will be learning how it is to work in a more urban environment, having to consider all the factors of utilities, municipalities, business's' needs, and different traffic control. Arvin is looking forward to learning as he goes. He is that rare rolling stone that actually gathers lots and lots of moss. He doesn't just punch in and punch out, he gathers, gleans, and internalizes information at an amazing rate. He's the perfect guy to be doing this job. Well, any job.
Personally, he is excited that he will not have such a long commute to work and he expects that despite the nocturnal hours, he will actually have MORE time to spend at home, with family, where his heart truly resides. His PLAN is to come home by 6:30 A.M. and make lunch for the kids (as he usually does) and to wake them up, get them ready and take them to school! Well! We shall see! Like I said, we'll have to learn what routine works best as we go. That would be great and all, but I have seen waaaaaaay too many days where he is late coming home from work and while that is one thing in the evenings, it would be disastrous if I was snoozing away and he wasn't home to get the kids off to school. So for now, we have agreed that I will get up at my regular time and see how it goes. Of course, this is with the caveat that he will still set the coffee pot so that the Coffee Fairy has my brew all ready for me when I stumble down the hall! :) Yes, I am high maintenance, and I know it. He's cool with that or he wouldn't still be sticking around.
Anyway, my hopes here in this bloggy is to kinda journal each day how it's going, what we're learning, and how this season affects us and those we love. A little bit ago, I was feeling a bit unsure. Our son was off at a friends house and our daughter was playing in her room and Arvin was sleeping I was alone and wondering what have we gotten ourselves into???? Is this gonna be okay? WILL it work out???? I was kinda mini-panicky, with all these unknowns swirling in my brain. What if I need to get something out of my room?! Which, of course, I needed to do--I had to do laundry and the hamper was in there....so I tip-toe in....and he's snoozing away, with the blinds fully open (Who does that?!), with the DOG on the bed with him! Sheesh! I turn my back for one minute and he's got another girl in the bed! ;) Anyway, he just got up...a half hour earlier than he was supposed to! Now it's time to make dinner and wish him a good day at work! Stay tuned for scenes from the next episode of As the Time Clock Ticks!
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