I can do hard things...

A few weeks ago I started working night shift. Anyone who knows me knows how much I like to sleep. I like to go to bed early and sleep as long as I can. It's my hobby. Sleeping. Can't get enough. Literally. Being a new grad ane new on the job, night shift is just one of the rites of passage. I don't have a choice. I will have to do it until a shift opens up on days and my name comes up on the "list" of "Please move me to days people". I am somewhat of a whiner. Really. But I've been trying to keep this all in perspective. My kids are generally gone until 4:30 p.m. School gets out and then they are involved in sports activities so they are gone all day. I can literally come home and sleep from 8:30ish to 4:30ish. Plenty of sleep. Technically. Except that I'm an insomniac at night and even worse trying to sleep in the days. I spend my nights at work fighting to stay awake and fighting even more to remain mentally alert. It's an ICU people! These babies are sick and they need a nurse who is awake and competent..neither of which I feel at night at work. I loved my 5 weeks orienting on days. It was soooo busy. All the different people are in and out..doctors, speech therapist, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, ultra sound techs, x-ray techs, parents, family members, etc. etc. All the procedures happen during the day. All the craziness happens during the day. The days go by FAST! Nights, on the other hand are the opposite. There is always a doctor somewhere in the unit, but that's about it. No excitement. No procedures. No nothing. Which is exactly why lots of nurses really like to work night. You do what you have to do and generally have plenty of time to read, be on the internet, text, whatever...all of which are big no no's during the day. No one is there at night to enforce the rules so no one cares. Which....is exactly why I'm bored out of my mind all night long. I can't do all those fun things yet because I am orienting and someone is looking over my shoulder. I just try to keep moving so I don't keel over in the middle of the night. Anywho..that's not what this post really is about. I've been trying to get my family on some sort of regular routine when i work nights. I have really wanted to be better about scripture study with them so I have started reading it to them over dinner before I go to work (I rarely it what they're eating and when they're eating...so it's not a big deal to do it that way.) Tonight we were reading in first Nephi about when the Lord told Nephi to go back to Jerusalem and get the plates and he basically said, "I can do hard things." Many times I expect my kids to do "hard things." It's just part of life. It made me realize...working nights is hard. But I can do it. And I think I will be more blessed if I do it without being such a whiner. So...good things about nights...More $. We are trying to pay off Rick's student loan and the second on our house (which we got when we initially purchased the house to avoid PMI). A couple more months and we'll have that second on our house done with. Sweet. The more money I make, the faster I can do something more fun with the money than paying off stupid debts...Fun stuff...like get Carter braces and save for missions... Rick is amazing. He handles everything when I am working. When I work nights, I can get the kids from practices, go to their sports competitions, fix dinner, and do all the after school stuff. I head off to work and they only have another hour or so before they're in bed anyway (where I wish I were headed too...but boo hoo for me). If one of the kids is sick, they can stay home with me. Even if I'm sleeping, I'm here... I'm tired all the time whether I work nights or days. Might as well get paid more for being tired. I'm an insomniac. If I'm gonna be awake, might as well get paid for it, right? Once I am on my own without a preceptor, I can read and do other things at night to keep myself awake. Anywho, the point of this is that right now I have to do a hard thing. It sucks, but I can make it suck less. This is a temporary situation, not permanent. I am going to keep this in mind next time I have to make my kids do something hard. It sucks. But it's doable. So suck it up and do it (talking to myself here, not the kids...).