Oh, you really do have a job?

Yesterday I not only managed the Tokyo train system (again) but I did something else very cool. For the first time I laid my hands on a magazine that I helped to edit. 

There is something great about being able to handle something that you actually had a part in. I guess that is one of the things that is hard about being a mum - you rarely come out with a finished product. You put hours and months and years of work in, and find your outcome is not very tangible. Or even on the day-to-day front. You wash clothes, they get dirty and need washing again. You clean toilets, they get dirty etc.

The same thing for my role as an Occupational Therapist. Very rarely do you get anything tangible that you can say, "I did that." You don't even get to see kids graduate like teachers do.

But yesterday I went to help get this magazine out in the mail. Then I could bring one home and show my boys - "Here is something I did and here is my name in the front". 

My eight year old was particularly impressed. Firstly along the lines of "You could become a famous editor"  - ah, no, not really! Then "Oh, you really do have 'a job'!?" 

I do lots of things with my time but none of them look like a regular job to my boys - not like a teacher who goes to work and comes home again. So it is very cool to have something tangible to show them.

The other amazing thing about this whole editor's job is that about eight years ago I remember a gathering of missionary women where, as a get-to-know you activity we were asked to name one thing you'd can imagine yourself to be doing if you hadn't ended up as a missionary. My answer? "Magazine editor."

Incredible! I never imagined that I might end up doing both - a missionary and a magazine editor!