I love this stage of life where my family is at. My kids get older and more self-reliant, but still need me. My calling is busy and great, and there are down times that help me re-group and ponder how I can best serve. I enjoy using creative outlets to feel productive, grow and learn. I find myself always pondering ways to use my skills and strengths in a way that feels energizing and helps me stretch and grow. I want to learn new things and earn extra money, and be at home. I want my kids to see me trying new things while I continue to set up a life that that makes me happy. I have tried several things over the years, and pondered things I could start up, but there is always a time where it pulls me away from my family.
Our good friend Kent in our ward is the Executive Director of A Child's Hope Foundation. I've learned about this foundation for years, as many of our friends go on service trips to Mexico and spend a week in orphanages with kids doing service projects. One day Kent came over to borrow a tool or ladder- I can't remember (he comes over to borrow stuff a lot) and we ended up chatting a bit. He told me he'd like to hire me as his HR/ Office Manager at ACHF. I could tell he was serious, but I didn't take it too seriously. I did think about it over the next week or so. He reached out to me again, and I told him to send me a job description. I continued to think it over for a few days. He reached out again and asked me to submit a resume and cover letter so he could have his gal set up an interview. I did! Every time I thought about this job, it felt good. Even exciting! I did a phone interview with Leksi, who was great. She said she was talking with a few other people who had applied. Soon enough, she scheduled a zoom interview with her, Kent and I. It was good to talk through everything and answer each others questions.
Well, they offered me the job and I started just before school started. I can set my own schedule, even hours, although I feel like I could work all day and still have more to do right now! I work from home, but pop into the office two days a week to check on things. I am over the office organization, supplies, the warehouse where all things are stored from donations to events and t-shirts for all the groups going on service trips throughout the year. I do payroll, I post jobs on our website and others when we need to fill a position and do all of the first interviews with applicants. I organize volunteers and make sure all of the managers are checking in with them. I set up all the training and onboarding as well as terminations. I'm currently working on adding to the employee handbook and organize all of the team activities. It's a lot! The first month I was meeting constantly with different managers as they trained me on tasks they were more than happy to hand over to me. They've never had an HR Manager, and it was greatly needed! I've learned the software systems they work with and use to communicate. I felt my brain literally stretching and dusting off circuits that haven't been used in years. Everyone is so nice and patient and positive and encouraging- really, the culture is amazing! I feel so welcomed, it has been so great! I realize it has checked all the boxes for me. I love it! Leksi has been doing all of my training and she is so great. It has been so fun getting to know her and I now consider her a dear friend. It's strange I didn't even know her a couple of months ago!
My first visit to the office in Orem, I could see how drab and unorganized everything was. Kent said while I had a very small budget, he was happy to let me do some sprucing. I met with the team that works in the office daily and talked through some pain points. They were all so excited and happy to help me paint the space and get it more organized. (In hindsight, I could have waited to tackle this once my training was done, but why not dive in head first?)
The current layout worked, and they had these cute big bright photos of the orphan kids from trips all around the room. There was just a lot of fake dusty plants, a too-small community table for those that don't have a desk, and piles of stuff that had no home.
One fun thing about Kent, is that two of his daughters work there and are "my girls"! Kassidy and Madelyn were my laurels and I love them dearly. Kassidy has gone on to get a graphic design degree and is over marketing. She has experience with murals and wanted to do one in the office. She designed a big, bright, fun mural in ACHF brand colors to cover the main focal wall that tells who we are. So many gals came in over Labor Day weekend and we cleared the front office into the back office, steam cleaned the carpets and got to painting! We painted a warm, creamy white on the top and the rich blue on the lower half. (ACHF trademark colors are blue and orange, so I wanted to incorporate those, without it screaming "Preschool", ya know?)
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| This shelf area is too small and not working. |
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| I spray painted what I could to keep the mis-matched (donated) office furniture as streamlined as possible. |
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| Jonny came over one night and helped me hang all of these shelves- apparently drilling into concrete calls for a special drill-bit. |
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| I grabbed storage baskets and better looking fake plants from home to style the shelves. |
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| I snapped this photo months later while I was sitting in a meeting and looked out at the full shelves, the trip t-shirts bundled waiting to be picked up- it looks cute, doesn't it? |
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| Jon found this solid wood door that I stained and painted and added legs to and now we have a nice large community desk. It makes me happy when I come in and see all the seats filled with volunteers working away. |
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| I think those bright photos look so cute on the colored walls now! |
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| I grabbed some more storage bins from Ikea to keep things better contained and labeled, and the printer is sitting on a better base with plenty of storage underneath. |
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| As the weather turned chilly I set up a hot coco and tea bar. We were gifted a really nice filtered ice water and boiling water system from a company that just wanted to serve us. Everyone was so excited about it, I just had to set up some coco! |
It makes me happy to have a cheery, fun space that everyone loves. There is plenty of storage now on those shelves. And I have spent some time down in that warehouse. I have gutted it and got rid of so much stuff. It is so clean and organized now, and all the departments have been instructed to put their items directly down their in their assigned space and not leave it stacked in our beautiful clean office.
My next project during a long holiday weekend is the back half of the office. It's Kents office and meeting room. There's a lot more dusty faux plants in there...
I'm still learning so much, I still don't feel like I have everything down, but I love it. It feels good to be a small part of an organization that is doing so much good in the world. It has been fun to meet such good, smart people. It has also been good for me to use some skills I learned being a District Manager. As I recruit and interview and manage people, it feels so familiar. I look forward to every day, and can't even imagine what I would be doing without this busy job! I don't remember how I filled my days before. I can only reorganize the linen closet and sew new pillow forms so many times, right? I am reminded that I accomplish a lot more in a day when it is filled to the max. Really! I was heading to the office one morning around 9am. I thought about how I was showered and ready for the day, I had done laundry and dishes and scrubbed the downstairs bath and put in a grocery order to be picked up on my way home. I realized any other day I would have only done maybe one of those things by that time. I sent up a little prayer of gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who heard my desires and even though I was happy and content, knew I could be even more fulfilled, I just needed a new direction- and to ask for it!
So there is the story about how I got my new job.
