Next on the To-Do List

When I got home from Utah after defending my thesis, I was enveloped in a whirlwind of activity. I arrived back at LAX late Friday night, and the next morning we spent most of the day with Dan's parents down in Orange County. I was responsible for the lesson in Nursery, which I had procrastinated until Saturday night for obvious reasons. So that kept me busy when we got home Saturday night. On Monday I figured I'd finally get to catch up on my sleep and spend some time reading or quilting or scrapbooking or any of the things I haven't been able to do for the past few days. By Friday, I was starting to wonder how I had every accomplished anything while working on my thesis, because I hadn't yet had time to just sit down and read. All week I'd been busy pulling my life back together, going grocery shopping, cleaning, visiting teaching, balancing the checkbook. I'm starting to understand why young moms always tell me that staying home with their baby isn't the vacation it appears to be. I'd been busy (although not really frantic or stressed) all week and I don't even have a baby demanding my attention. My husband demands my attention, which is part of the reason why I haven't had as much time to read, but he doesn't get home until eight, so I can't really say that he's keeping me from doing all those other things. I decided that being a housewife really can be a full-time job if you want it to be.

And I was happy with that situation. I've been thinking of trying to get a temporary job for the next few months, but after today I'm not so sure. Saturday night we got a phone call from a member of the stake presidency and he asked to meet with my husband and me right after church. Since we're only here in California for a year, we were sort of shocked. What on earth could he want to talk to us about? Did he remember that we're moving in September?

Stake Girls' Camp leader is what he wanted to talk to us about. So yeah, they had a stake Girls' Camp director, but she had to quit for unexpected reasons two weeks ago and the camp is in August. And because this stake presidency member is in our ward and his wife knows me and that I just finished defending my thesis, she suggested me. I sort of thought that Girls' Camp might be a possibility, and I love Girls' Camp, but the stake director?! I think this was the first time that they asked me to do something and I actually felt fear. Are they crazy? Maybe desperate is the better word. I guess they'd asked a few other women who came up with excuses. I could have said no; he gave me the opportunity. I believe in never turning a calling down, but this was an "assignment" and he was careful to let me know that if I couldn't do it, then I didn't need to feel bad about saying no. But I really don't have any reasons for not doing it except for fear. I have no children and no job. I've been spending my time re-thinking my eight-week menu. I have time, but whether or not I can do it is another thing. It's starting to look like I won't be doing that temp job thing; I think I'm going to have plenty to do for the next five weeks.