Summer jobs...

James and I have several goals this summer, one of which is to make as much money as possible. We had thought about taking summer languages, or getting an internship, or doing a field-ed program abroad...but then we decided to just hunker down and work as much as we can to try to minimize loans next year. And after the crazy busy summer we had last year, I am quite content to stay in one happy location and do no packing or moving (I think I've been moving back and forth from school to home to new places in Seattle every single summer the last five years, so this is the longest time I've been permanently located in quite awhile. It feels great!)

As always, however, it's not easy to jump into a full-time job when you're a student because not many people want to hire you if you can only work for 4 months, or because every college kid in the state has applied to every restaurant or J Crew or Barnes and Noble competing for coveted summer jobs. So James and I have been trying to be creative with tapping into some of the wealth in this area, and we're coming up with some decent options. But I think we've both realized that we're going to have to settle for hopping around from multiple jobs, which means that are schedules are a bit crazy. Here is our job situation thus far:

Nicole:
1) Working at the Running Company
2) Working at Jake's (a clothing store owned Running Co. owners)
3) Working for Professor Isaac
4) Internship with World Vision

James:
1) Working at Princeton Seminary Library
2) Working for Professor Isaac
3) Working for Judith in her beautiful Princeton home garden

So keeping track of our schedules is not very easy at this point, but we've decided to make Sundays our planning days (which is the only day of the week we aren't working so far). We've developed some good spreadsheets for our income flow and expense flow, and we are learning to be more organized as a couple. I was used to keeping track of my own income/expenses, but it is a very different story when you are combining efforts with another person. I think James and I are working towards a good system, however, and we're learning how to be patient with one another as we combine our somewhat different organizational approaches into one team effort.

I have to say that even with all of our odd jobs I'm not sure we're on target to make as much money as I hoped this summer - because daily living expenses in NJ are so high, we have some more car problems to pay for, and our hours at some of these jobs vary from week to week. But God has taken such good care of us in every realm of our life, including our finances. He has provided jobs for us thus far, and we are going to keep trying to replace our "OK paying jobs" with more "really, really good paying jobs." But even if that doesn't happen, we're doing the best we can with the opportunities God has provided us, and we know that God will honor our efforts at working as hard as we can and being good stewards of our money.

All in all, we still feel so completely overwhelmed at the way God has richly blessed our young lives. Even today, when I was walking from one job to the next across Princeton's campus I was struck with awe at the beauty of this fabulous school. And I had shivers up and down my spine when I re-realized that this is the first three years of our marriage - we get to study at one of the most amazing schools in the United States together, live in a great community of fellow seminarians at CRW, develop new friendships with interesting and fun and intelligent people, and explore the great cities of the East Coast. As long as we can put up with the crazy heat and pelting thunderstorms and allergy-inducing pollens that define a NJ summer, all things will be more than well!