Author: Stephanie Nelson

Last week of Sabbatical

This week has been very productive. The kids and I were able to feed a few more in need in the Houston area.  It wasn’t planned in advance but we enjoyed it so much last week we decided to do more.  In fact, this will become a regular event for my family.  It just seems logical to me that the human race should take care of each other.  One thing my kids have learned from this is that there is always someone who has more.  There is always someone who has less.  I am grateful for what I have and try not to ponder about what I don’t.  And this was prevalent during our time to be of service to others.

Additionally, this week we continued to prepare for the start of school.  This seems like an ongoing task from last week.  My little guy is going into 5th grade and my daughter starts her freshman year in college.  I did not realize how much work goes into moving a kid into a dorm.  Let me just tell you that I have ‘donated’ a significant amount of cash to Target.

I have mentally prepared for her departure all summer.  And yesterday it was surprisingly easy to move her into her dorm.  Because she came right back home as we now prepare for a hurricane to hit the Texas coastline over the weekend.  All schools here in the Houston area and most along the TX coastline, including her University, have cancelled the first two days of school.  I had ‘planned’ to write my last blog on Sunday which will be my last day of Sabbatical.  But, given the inclement weather, I don’t know if I will have power and capability to do it once the storm rolls in.  I come back to work officially on Monday.  I have really enjoyed the past four weeks.  I’ve grown and gained so much throughout this time on Sabbatical.  I am sincerely grateful for this gift from our company.  This is not an opportunity we will find with most organizations.  I am equally grateful to everyone that has helped keep my region running and my customers happy.  But friends, I have to be honest.  I am ready to come back to work. I found that I missed my coworkers and seeing my funeral home friends.  If this is how you feel during and after Sabbatical then you know we work for a GREAT company. 

I have one last request if you are reading this blog.  If you don’t mind, could you say a prayer for all of our homeless folks/veterans, the elderly, hospital patients and anyone in need in Texas/Louisiana as we expect the arrival of hurricane Harvey? 

Blessings to you all,
Stef

Hello FD family and friends,

It’s been a while since my last blog.  Mostly because there has been one thing after another on my calendar.  I might need to come back to work just so that I can rest!  It’s all been in good fun though.  Last weekend I was able to enjoy some very quality time with my best friend and both our families.  This is a rare opportunity given we both live busy lives with kids.  We enjoyed the beach and thanked God for each other and the blessings in our lives.  Then we rushed back to home in the concrete jungle for the work week.  We are down to the last week of summer for kids and it seems like there is more to do than usual to prepare them for the school year.  Most of my week was checking off a zillion things for each of them.  Too many to list and you don’t want to read that anyway.  While I thought I would be doing more ‘fun’ stuff on Sabbatical, this provided me with time to spend with each of them independently.  I recently saw on Facebook that time = love to a child.  As a working mom that travels quite a bit, I have to say this was a huge blessing to have just time.  My daughter is about to leave for college.  This is my first born and I’m not sure what to expect as we are packing her up this week to move into the dorm.  What I do know is that this time is precious so I am cherishing every minute.  Meanwhile, my son (age 10) is starting his last year in elementary school and as a result of them growing up too fast, I may be having a mid life crisis by the end of the week.  This is my last week of Sabbatical.  I plan to make the most of it!  Until next time…

Last week I mentioned it has been hard for me to really disconnect from work. This week has been a little bit easier. I’ve been able to focus on rest and spending quality time with each of my kids. I’ve also tried to focus more on my reading commitment. I love the Book of Mysteries we received at the summer sales meeting.  However, the book I chose specifically for Sabbatical does not seem to speak to me and I was having trouble relating. But as I continued with the book, I realized it related to my closest girlfriend who has been going through a really tough time in her marriage and in life general. Perhaps God has placed me in this position as a conduit to help her through these struggles. To be continued on that…

Also, this week, I began my service project. Originally I signed up to participate with Interfaith Ministries.   As I sat through the orientation, I realized this was not the project for me. My heart was not in it. The volunteer work did not align with my Christian views, nor my political views. So I started my own project to feed people in need. The kids and I assembled brown bag lunches, along with care packages of toiletries items, and loaded up my truck to distribute them to anyone in need of a meal whose path we crossed. Most of the folks we met were homeless. And most of them on street corners making it hard to have conversations or even talk due to safety and traffic. Being in a large city like Houston, you have to be very cautious and I was a little nervous having my kids come into contact with the unknown. I prayed for God to watch over us and knew He would lead us in the right direction. A good amount of the homeless folks in Houston are either drug addicts or suffer from a mental illness. My youngest didn’t understand why one gentleman was shooting a sling shot at cars passing by and yelling at what appeared to be an imaginary person next to him. This opened up a conversation about mental illness. One lady told us she didn’t want to take our food. And one family of five was so grateful, we fed them lunch and dinner. But the one that really got me was the veteran. We had minimal time to visit because we were at the busiest intersection in the city, preventing me from even getting out of the car. He was on crutches with one leg amputated from an injury serving our country. He was young, kind and happy to receive anything we could provide to him. He was on a waitlist for a prosthetic leg with the VA. This man gave up so much to serve our country and for our freedom.  And here he is standing on the street in traffic asking for help of any kind.  No veteran should live this way.  And if you think there was a dry eye in the car as we drove away you are mistaken. My kids were speechless. When I prayed that God would teach us something of value on this journey, He delivered big. And my kids are better people because of it. Also, a lot of folks had full bellies.

I’m off to the beach, this time Galveston Island. Did I mention I love the beach? That friend I mentioned at the beginning of my blog is coming with her family. It just ‘happened’ that both of our families are able to vacation together 😉

I’m thankful for all of you who make this time with my family and friends possible.

Stef

6 days on Sabbatical- The struggle is real

I have been on Sabbatical for six days now.  And I struggled to get the message. My first day off was a Saturday so it was fairly normal.  Somehow I woke up thinking it would feel different.  You know the kind of feeling when you’re a kid and you turn 10? You wake up on the morning of your milestone birthday and expect to ‘feel’ a year older. Well, it was a big buildup and turned out to be just a normal Saturday.  I had this strange urge to check my work emails, look at my sales numbers, or send one last message to my key accounts to make sure they were okay before I left the country.  And then I just ran out of time because we headed out for family vacation! We left for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and had a great time.  Strangely, my phone is the only one in the family that would not work on my international service. At first I was annoyed.  What if an extreme situation occurred and someone could not get a hold of me? Turns out, life went on and if something went wrong, either I didn’t need to know or there was someone else better suited to resolve it.  Since there was nothing else to do except enjoy Mexico with my family, that is what I did!  We always travel in a big herd, complete with all the in-laws and extended family.  This was a special vacation of our family.  My Father in law was just diagnosed with prostate cancer and has been battling complications from diabetes.  All of his medical challenges are manageable.  Even so, life is precious and making memories is what it is all about.  Also, in a few weeks my first born leaves for college.  I’m still in denial.  But I am thankful for this time with family and taking adventures to make memories.

Did I mention how much I love the beach?  The sand is tan and the the water is blue/green.  I think that everyone has a special place they love to be in.  For some it is the mountains.  For me it has always been the ocean.  I feel very close to God when I am near the ocean.  I’ve always lived near the ocean.  As I sat beachside every morning appreciating God’s creation, I could not help but thank Him for the blessings in my life.  The world is a beautiful place when you choose to focus on the good in it.  After a long walk on the beach, I turned around to view my progress and immediately thought of one of my favorite poems (pic below).  He carries us even when we don’t think we need it.

There is also a pic of my kids.  They have not yet learned to appreciate the outdoors as much as I do.  They were taking selfies in the hotel room.