What Is Sleep?

Side note: For the past year everytime I sit down to watch a movie all I want is to eat mounds of "Gushers" Fruit Snacks. And I ignored that craving everyday until now. They were on sale yesterday at Aldi. *Squeeeeal* Dream come true!! I haven't had these since high school!

Moving on to more important things, I have officially worked six whole shifts at my new job and am loving it more and more each new day that I work!

I love how much I am learning in regards to how to prep food and cook for the masses.

I am totally amazed at how so many little things I picked up in Culinary school, are now completely relevant within an enormity of situations at work.

I love meeting all of these new people and feeling like I am a part of something again...a team!

I thoroughly enjoy the surprise in people's faces when they ask me where I'm from and I drop the geographical-bomb that I am actually from Canada. And the responses are always that same: "Why do you guys call it 'Canadian Bacon'?" "You can take Justin Bieber back now." "Ha! You said 'Eh?'! Ha ha ha!" And many, many more...

Besides all of these things, I am tired. I am so tired. This week I have worked 3 shifts so far, but I could have sworn to you that I have worked a months' worth. My days feel so long, and this has little to do with my job itself, but has EVERYTHING to do with how many hours a day I am awake.

My schedule is a set 6:30 AM to 3 PM. Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely loathe waking up early. I am a night-owl through and through! And because Jarryd and I normally go to bed between 2 and 3 AM (Parks and Rec definitely has something to do with this!), this means practically zero sleep for Jenny! My past three nights I've achieved bout 4-5 hours of sleep each. 

The last time I slept so little for a number of consecutive nights was when I was wedding planning, visa filing, marriage planning, working, and going to school. And I was the crankiest woman ever. (Lets never talk about that again!)

I'm just not used to going to bed early at all! And when I am going to bed at night with the knowledge that I cannot sleep-in the next morning, I go to bed super cranky. I hate to sound like a diva, but it's true. It's awful. This is how I have been wired. I think it's Gods way of challenging me to be thankful for everything (having a job, having reasons to get out of bed in the morning, having the gift of another day alive)! He is funny...

Therefore, I am awake from 5:50 AM til 2 AM at night. 

And when I'm over-tired like that I end up losing all drive for productivity and waste hours doing really, really stupid things. A perfect example: I wasted an hour of my life watching "Beyoncé: Baby and Beyond" on Netflix. It was the lamest, most unexciting documentary I've ever seen. I honestly could have produced, edited, and narrated it myself. Yes, it was that bad. Apparently it was made in 2013, but it had that 90's picture slideshow type of feel, where they show you a photo and gradually zoom in on it closer...and closer...Ugh.

Ahhem. So there's that.

And on top of pure exhaustion, I'm slightly freaking out because I hardly get to hang out with my husband anymore. (It's been 3 whole days. Hahaha). We have fallen prey into the opposition work schedule trap; I work mornings/afternoons and he works evenings. I don't want to be one of those couples that are like "ships passing in the night", as some may say. 

Either I'm being a baby, or I've just been really spoiled with the gift of unemployment for the first year of our marriage, being able to hang out with my husband for long periods of time. Or both. Maybe I'm a spoiled baby.

But I must confess, I am loving having the evenings all to myself at home. After a long, strenuous, and exhausting day at work, the last thing I want to do is be drug to a social event thanks to my social butterfly of a husband. (Bless his heart). After work all I want is my king-bed, Netflix, junk food, and a glass of wine.

Even though it's been 3 whole days of business, I've learned alot along the way.

My first ever day-off will be in a week from now, meaning after 8 consecutive days of 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM shifts, I will finally have a day off. And since--BRACE YOURSELF-- Sandy Cove will be hosting a men's conference consisting of 1,200 men, 3 of those work days could be potential 14 hour days (I can't even picture that many men in one room, let alone feeding that many men!!!).

Last night I felt incredibly overwhelmed just thinking about my exhausting upcoming week. Once again, I was a total crank. (My poor husband...again, bless his heart). But he gave me some good advice: "Don't think about next week or any of that. Just think of today, and allow yourself to rest in this moment". To you it may be your average common-sense everyday advice, but to me it meant that world and opened my eyes.

It reminded me of what Jesus tells us in Matthew 6...

"Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, not about your body, what you will put on..."

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?..." (Seriously!!!)

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble".

I hope those words mean as much to you as they do to me! <3 Thank you for reading, and until next time, here are a few photos I took at my workplace. Sigh :)