Respite, business, packing, shopping

Yesterday was the last class I have to teach until after Thanksgiving. It will be good to have a respite in my teaching schedule. As we near the end of this year and look forward to the first quarter of next year we, as a group, are looking back on 2021 to gauge the interest in our class offerings for the coming year. I began this year to record classes that were cancelled or classes in which we had low attendance. Taking those classes off the monthly offering list will lighten my schedule next year and allow for the even spacing of the class I am required to teach most often. That still does not alleviate the need for onboarding an additional trainer to take the load should I retire after next year.

As I was talking with my management Monday, we reflected on the fact that we have been very blessed this year in that I have been healthy – only missing two of my scheduled classes of the almost one hundred I have taught to date. That is a blessing, and I am glad we all realize the significance of it. However, the panic is beginning to build in the conscience of my management that my time with the company is growing short and one year is a limited time in which to train someone to assume my duties in full. Nevertheless, this two-week break will be a benefit to me in allowing me to concentrate my emotional energies on Mama and the Thanksgiving season.

Even with the lighter work schedule, Mama and I will be busy this week. Tomorrow and Saturday evenings we are hosting an Open House for Mama’s Color Street business. I have extended the invitation to all my co-laborers at work and Mama has extended the invitation to all her contacts as well as our church family. We are not sure how many to plan for, but it is going to be set up for a casual come and go sort of event during which Mama will apply and teach others to apply the nail appliques. We will have snacks, drinks, games, and door prizes. I am hoping my manager brings his wife and daughters on one of those evenings. I have certainly made the special invitation to him to do so. His wife is a teacher in a local Middle school and Mama and I have a special interest in getting teachers involved with this great company. With that on the schedule we have a lot of little things to do around the house to be ready for visitors and Mama is in a spin over those preparations.

Most of the work involves packing up and finding places to store the enormous amount of crafting supplies she has accumulated. The cedar wardrobe I outfitted to help is completely full. The chest we moved into the spare bedroom is completely full. Twelve totes are completely full and yet still more storage space is needed. A lot more. It would not be presumptuous to assume we have amassed over $1000 of items that were purchased for less than $5 each. Now we have to hide all of them. Such is life with Mama.

Fortunately, we have the open house scheduled for the evening so, it will be dark before anyone arrives. That limits the amount of effort we are required to put into fixing up the outside of the house and the farm for visitors. I am sure some will want to see the goats and look into the back yard, but we will not need to beautify things too awfully much for those kinds of remote inspections. Sidewalks will be swept and the driveway will be blown clear of the leaves that are quickly accumulation on that surface. Most of the activity will happen inside the house and we can have it presentable in short order. At least that is my expectation.

Amid all that preparation, I need to spend some time shopping for a printer to replace our now defunct unit. The issue is that there are not very many models available in the price range I have set that are compatible with the MacBook I typically print from. The MacBook has the most recent operating system available from Apple and that operating system is not compatible with very many printers. So, I have to read through the list of compatible systems for each printer I look at for purchase and if that operating system is not specifically listed, I have to assume it is not going to work with my MacBook. It has become a frustrating challenge to overcome especially since I have limited time to spend in that shopping endeavor – either online or in store. We will prevail, but it may take more time than I had anticipated.

Somewhere along the line Mama and I will rest a bit, but that will not happen this week.