A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

For the past week, I have been alternately depressed and angry due to the whole facing-possible-homelessness-for-no-good-reason thing. I’ve barely gotten any work done, because I simply can’t concentrate on my writing when I’m so emotional. But today I was able to channel my energy and get more work done than I’ve been doing in several days.

I think the difference today has been that I’ve been more angry than anything. Our tax refund was deposited today, and I had planned on getting all the bills caught up and celebrating. Instead, I had to once again pay just enough to keep everything from getting cut off and hang on to the rest so we’ll have something to get moved on. It made me absolutely furious that I couldn’t enjoy the day I’ve been waiting for so long.

At any rate, the persistent anger has been easier to channel into something positive than the bouts of depression. So at least some good came of it. Since I’m on a roll, maybe I should work on promoting my services. I could have some marketing pens made and distribute them with business cards. But I guess I should get my work caught up first. I’m sure I can stay mad long enough to do that and still have plenty of anger left over to work with.

I put our mobile home in the local free classifieds, which go out tomorrow. I need to do some serious cleaning in case someone wants to come look at it. I need to clean the carpet, wash up the curtains and bedding, and get it looking nice in general.

I haven’t done any serious cleaning since Hubby has been sick. Between trying to do enough work to keep us afloat and having lots of interruptions while he was out of work, I just haven’t had the time to keep the house spotless, or at times even presentable. Now I have to make up for that. I guess I’ll have to take the weekend off, even though I need to work.

I have a ton of work to do. I have articles that should have been turned in last week that I still haven’t got done, and I have a bunch of articles and two reports that need to be done by the end of the month. And wouldn’t you know it, I’m experiencing the worst case of writer’s block I’ve ever had.

I just have so much on my mind right now. Between trying to find a place to live, trying to scrounge up some money to help us out with that, and worrying about what is going to happen to my family if it doesn’t all work out, I just haven’t been able to get much of anything done.

I’ve got to pull myself together and get my writing done. If I don’t, I’m going to miss out on income that I can’t afford to miss out on this month. If all this anxiety would go away, maybe I could accomplish something.

With all that’s going on in my life right now, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to pare down my online endeavors, and I also need some money to help with the move. As a result, I’ve decided to sell TBA Deals, my resource site for work at home moms.

It hurts me to let it go, because it was my first actual website. But I haven’t had enough time to put into it for a while now, and things are only getting worse on that front. So if you are interested, here’s the lowdown.

Edited to move this information to a static page. Click the link for more information.

I was looking at the local trading post publication online today, and I found a few real estate listings to check out. Hubby and I are going to look at one of them tomorrow.

It is for sale, not rent, the price is very nice, and I hope the place is something we could live in. It’s a little further out of the county than Hubby usually likes, but maybe it will win him (and me) over. The lady I spoke with about it said someone else had looked at it and was going to try to come up with the money, but we could go ahead and look at it in case that didn’t work out.

I found some other listings to check on as well, but couldn’t get an answer at the numbers listed with them. I’ll try them again tomorrow or Monday. I want to have as many options as possible, because I don’t want to end up in as crappy a situation as we’re in now again.

Let me tell you a little story about when I was commuting to college: I went to class one winter day, and it was cold but sunny out. By lunchtime it was snowing a little, but not too bad. I had a Mustang at the time that wouldn’t go worth a hoot with a little snow on the road, but I went out to eat and came back to school with no problem.

They were showing Eve’s Bayou at the campus movie theater. We were required to watch it for film class, and that day was the only day I could go watch it due to my work schedule, so I went in and watched it with no worries. But when the movie was over, I came out to find that an insane amount of snow had fallen and was still pouring down.

I got in my car to leave, but it wouldn’t budge except to slide to the side a little. So I ended up walking down the road in the blizzard to a nearby hotel and spending the night.

The hotel filled up overnight, as it was the only place in the area that had electricity, because they had a huge generator. My brother came to get me the next morning, and I didn’t want to leave. But he said there was an elderly man downstairs who needed a room because he had an electrical oxygen concentrator that he could barely breathe without. So I hurried up and got out of there.

I really feel for people who need oxygen. I’ve been around several of them, between extended family members and my short time working in a nursing home. It’s hard for them to get out much because of lugging those huge tanks or concentrators around.

But now there are portable oxygen concentrators that you can carry around like a handbag. I think whoever invented those should be awarded a medal. It’s bad enough to have to depend on oxygen to survive, at least now you don’t have to lug something huge around everywhere you go. And best of all, they can be powered by batteries or run off of a car. So if the electricity goes out, you don’t have to worry.

I don’t get why people are so hard on those who are having hard times. Maybe they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but their lack of compassion perplexes me.

In light of my current housing dilemma, I decided to seek out some information so that I can be prepared for whatever transpires. I did some searching for renters’ rights in my state, but wasn’t able to find much of anything that applies to my specific situation. So I decided to look on Yahoo Answers. I found a few questions that addressed some of my concerns, but nothing specific about what I’m dealing with. So I decided to post my own question.

What followed was telling about how people use their anonymity on the web to take their aggression out on others. The first answer was from a woman who told me to get a job and that having a kid didn’t entitle me to free rent. There was also another snarky answer posted by the time I got back to check. People didn’t bother to read my question, because I clearly stated that although I was a little late on the rent (for the first time in 3 years), the reason the landlady gave had nothing whatsoever to do with money.

Most of the answers referenced what had to take place if I didn’t pay the rent, and I’m not concerned about that in the least. The other people who have rented from my landlady since I’ve lived here have been notoriously late with their rent, and while she started pitching a fit once they were one day past the due date, she never took legal action. One particular set of tenants got 2 months behind and stiffed her when they moved out and nothing was done. And even if she wanted to do a written notice, she only has until the end of this coming week to do it. She will be paid in full then.

So much for that. I did get a couple of respectful and somewhat helpful answers, but I don’t have time for those who have nothing better to do than take their crap out on those who are simply having a tough time and seeking help. I had started answering questions for Yahoo Answers and had planned on answering some more, but I don’t want to help people like that.

So I guess I’ll be chatting with Legal Aid. Our income should still be below the limit with them. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll pay for an answer from a professional on Just Answer when I get the money.

As you’ve probably gathered from some of my previous posts, Hubby and I have been having some financial troubles lately due to his ill health. We’re very broke right now, but we were beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Our tax refund should be deposited next week, and he just started back to work for the first time since his surgery. My work has also picked up, so we were beginning to breathe a sigh of relief. Until this morning.

Hubby called to tell the landlady that we would be a little late with the rent. We have only been late once in the 3 years we’ve lived here, and that was only a couple of days late around Christmas, simply because we forgot about it. The landlord came up to see Hubby a few days after his surgery, and he told him to just let them know if we needed some extra time to pay it. It was due yesterday, and he called her this morning to tell her that we would pay it at the end of next week.

She said okay, but that she was going to have to ask us to move our mobile home. She said her son wanted to move in up here, and that we had until April to get out. Lovely.

Here’s the kicker: Hubby called the son’s son and asked him when his dad was moving in up here. He had no idea what he was talking about! I knew it sounded kind of fishy, because he has told us on several occasions that he would never move this close to his parents again. So in other words, she is a big fat liar.

I don’t know what the real deal is. We’re thinking maybe she wants to move their other daughter that we don’t get along with (who is really their granddaughter, but that’s a whole other story) in up here. In a way I hope that is the case, because she would most assuredly make their lives a living hell.

If that’s not the case, I guess she just wants to kick us to the curb for her own entertainment. She is the type who gets off on stuff like that, and I’m not just saying that because I’m mad.

Anyway, this is how it usually goes. Just when we think we’re going to get back on our feet and get ahead in life, something like this happens. We’ll be lucky if we can come up with the money to move the mobile home. What we’ll probably have to do is sell it and rent a house again, and I had really hoped that part of our lives was over. Renting a lot was bad, but at least we weren’t paying so much each month, and we didn’t have to haggle with landlords to get stuff in the house fixed. We could do it ourselves.

We had hoped to save up some money this summer and buy some land or a house. But now that is not going to happen. Lovely.

Hubby bought his first non-scratch off lottery ticket yesterday. His cousin told him about the huge Powerball jackpot ($100 million, to be exact), and he finally broke down and bought two chances. And he won a prize!

Okay, it was only like, $7, but hey, he came out ahead!

He didn’t think he had won anything, but for some reason I took a notion to double check the numbers online this morning. Now I’m glad I did. It would have been nice if we had won the whole thing, but every little bit helps. And besides, it’s nice to have a small ray of hope after all of the bad luck we’ve had lately.

I’m at something of a crossroads with my writing right now. I would love to get some opinions on this, so I would be most grateful if you would share them in the comments.

I have been working on a regular basis for two clients for nearly a year now. For one, I ghostwrite articles on a wide variety of subjects for their clients. For the other, I do daily blog posts as a contributor.

Both clients have been fantastic to work with. They both pay on time every time, and I enjoy the work I do for both. But the company I do the ghostwriting for recently changed hands, and the work has been pouring in every since. It has been quite a feat getting it all done, as well as the blog postings and shorter-term projects. In fact, I’ve been perpetually running behind. Not far behind, but far enough that it bothers me.

I’ve come to the conclusion that something is going to have to give, and I’m not sure whether or not it should be the blogging. You see, I kind of look forward to that every day. It’s fun, my name is on my work, and I have plenty of freedom as to what I blog about (within the blog’s niche). The pay per word is better than anything else I’m doing, although there are not a lot of words required. The thing is, some days it takes me a long time to find a topic to blog about. I have to find something that I feel is worthy, that I think readers will enjoy, and that hasn’t been written about already on the blog. Sometimes I can find something quickly, and sometimes I look for a couple of hours until I finally give up.

I just can’t decide whether I want to let the blogging go or not. I love doing it, but I’m just not sure I can justify the time I’m spending on it anymore. And I don’t know how long the abundance of ghostwriting work will last. I hope it will be ongoing, but I hate the thoughts of letting things go and being without work.

I do have ideas for some other projects, and there are always gigs out there. So it’s possible that I could fill in the gaps adequately. Maybe it’s glaringly obvious what I should do, but I’m just really torn. Any thoughts on the matter?