simply homemaker

Hello friends!

When this blog is posted, I will have been in Orlando for just short of a month.

I’m sitting in my bed, all showered and curled up, waiting for my Korean teokbokki to arrive from DoorDash. I worked in the office today, had a team devotional first thing in the morning, got a new computer, went to lunch with some ladies from work, and went to a dance class to end the day. It was an encouraging day, and I simply feel grateful for all the things that happen today and in this season.

It’s truly everything I hoped would happen after school concludes. A really great job, an amazing community, new friends, and a permanent address. Even a new hobby 🙂 I started piano lessons three weeks ago and now know three chords that allow me to play Amazing Grace and King of Kings! (Taking piano lessons has been a dream of mine since high school – and I’m so glad I finally get to do it. Especially if the piano teacher is your friend).

I had a dilemma this week of figuring out whether I want to spend 4th of July in Fort Worth, which is very tempting, since my office will work from home that whole week (I actually found out that the week of every holiday is a remote week! How crazy is that!?). And of course, I miss Fort Worth and the Millers and my friends. However, at the end, I decided to stay in Orlando. The first reason is that I’ve only been here for a hot minute, and I am not ready to see the airport again so soon. The second reason is that I’ll be building new rhythms and community, which is so important to me. Realizing how much I’ll miss out if I leave town also was sweet, for I am starting to create a life that I love – in a week, I’ll be missing a piano lesson, a dance class, 2 barre classes, a church book study, a lunch with a new friend/mentor, dinner with a women’s ministry leader from a church I visited, a trip to the bookstore with a coworker, and young adults Bible study that I started going to last week. Even I am amazed at the life I’ve been able to build the past month – just really grateful to the Lord and friends who have introduced me to people here, invited me to things, and agreed to go on adventures with me!

Update: I ended up buying tickets to visit Fort Worth for Thanksgiving for 12 days straight! Praise the Lord for work from home weeks – I never seemed to really take advantage of this when I was at Amazon somehow.

I also had a little bit of hard this past month – mainly from an interaction at the DMV. I had to go home and come back to the DMV two weeks later because of something completely not my fault. However, this opportunity really allowed me to see that even in this season where everything seems perfect, it simply isn’t, and that’s real life. We also saw a roach in my kitchen the first night at the house, but I’ve since learned it’s a big thing in Florida. Thanks to my mom’s bug repellent cubes that we laid throughout the kitchen and dining space, I haven’t seen any more since then!

Having some time on my hands allowed me to do things that I would NEVER do without leisure time, like reading fun fictional romance books and watching travel vlogs on YouTube. I know, I know. Hopefully as my social schedule picks up I’ll have less time for these silly things. I also picked up an old devotional, Becoming and Beholding, by Ruth Chou Simons. It was gifted to me by the Mosleys and the Haentsch’s in 2021, when I graduated college, and I’ve truly never gone through the whole thing even though it is the most beautiful book.

Update: Ok DoorDash said they picked up my teokbokki (aka the yummiest spicy rice cake), I’m so excited! Thank God for DoorDash in Orlando, because truly everything is 30 minutes from where you live. Which is probably good for me.

This week, I started inheriting the reporting inbox at work, and it was SO hard. I would spend 30 minutes each time trying to complete a task or answer a question, because our department uses two different systems to store data/send reports and about a bazillion spreadsheets to give people access to things. People have now known that I am the new financial analyst, so they started sending me questions that I only know 50% or 0% of the answer to. So, that’s been a learning curve as well. But we keep learning!

Today, I also signed up for a certification exam I’m going to take in August, so I’m starting to study for it tomorrow. Thankfully, I have some knowledge about it, just need to dive much deeper into the technical side of this software! So that’s something I’m working toward right now.

I met up with a friend named Carly at work for coffee this week and it was really sweet. I enjoy meeting new people, but somehow it gets harder to make friends with people my age – am I getting more introverted or I’m just a 40-year-old woman trapped in the body of a 25? Somebody please tell me.

I also signed up to get imperfect vegetables delivered by Misfits starting next week! Here’s to cooking and creating fun dishes with more veggies and fruits!!!

As you can tell, lots of little fun things going on in my world. But… No international travel (yet). No more degree-obtaining (yet). No major life-changing experiences (yet). Just simple joys, every day.

And they were exactly what I have prayed for.

Love,

Tram