A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

Is it just me, or does everyone else run out of multiple beauty items at the same time? For me, it always seems to happen when I am extremely low on cash and can’t justify buying anything that’s not an absolute necessity.

A couple of days ago I ran out of my anti-frizz treatment that I use in my hair every day. I’m so low on my acne treatment that I have to squeeze the tube about 10 times to get enough out. I’m getting dangerously low on foundation and powder, and my favorite tube of lipstick is nearly gone.

Oh well, it could always be worse. I do have plenty of my other makeup, and I suppose I can make do until payday without the rest. Just please don’t laugh if you see me out somewhere with frizzy hair, lots of zits and no way to cover them up. Hey, at least I’m not out of deodorant.

Do workplaces actually offer mental health days? I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never worked anywhere that offered them. Although at a few places I’ve worked at, it’s probably a good thing they didn’t, since the workplace itself was detrimental to the mental health of all employed there.

That’s one of the good things about working for yourself I guess. I didn’t get paid for it, but I took a few days off to regroup without having to listen to a bunch of B.S. from a boss. I figured it was the best thing I could do, since I was getting absolutely nothing done. I had plenty of work lined up that I probably should have been going ahead and getting done, but no looming deadlines, so I just stepped away from the computer for a while.

I didn’t get much done around the house like I had hoped, because I have just been in a serious funk for some reason. But today has been slightly more productive, so I’m hopeful that it’s coming to an end. I think taking that little breather was helpful, and maybe now I can get back to regularly scheduled programming.

I’d love to take a nice, long vacation. It’s something that I’ve never really done- I’ve been on trips when I was in high school, and my parents took me to amusement parks and stuff sometimes as a kid, but I’ve never really been on a true vacation. I probably wouldn’t know what to do if I got the opportunity.

I wouldn’t mind going to the beach, but I’d really like to go to an exotic one. Maybe in Jamaica or somewhere like that. And I do love amusement parks, but I’d want to go to a big one with lots of other stuff to do in the area. I like the idea of a road trip, too, but paying for gas would cost a small fortune these days.

I guess everyone has their own ideas of what makes a great vacation. My brother-in-law, for example, would probably like nothing better than an Orlando golf trip. Not my cup of tea, but to each his own. I wouldn’t mind visiting Orlando at all, but I’m just not into golf.

So where would you go on your dream vacation? Feel free to share in the comments.

Last night Hubby, Pumpkin and I camped out for the first time this year. We weren’t exactly roughing it- we set our tent up in his grandpa’s yard. Some of his family was up and they were sleeping in the house, so we had a cookout and set up camp.

We had a good time, but unfortunately we didn’t sleep worth a hoot. There was a street light pretty close to where we set up our tent, so it was rather bright in there. There might as well have been digital signage covering the inside walls. Add to that the in-laws’ dogs barking their heads off all night, and it wasn’t a very favorable environment for sleeping. Pumpkin slept fairly well until about 4:00 this morning, I got an hour of sleep, and Hubby got none.

We finally got up a little after 5:00. Hubby’s aunt and grandpa were up, so we went in and talked to them for a little while and came home to get some sleep. I figured I would conk out and not wake up until about noon, but surprisingly I didn’t sleep well. I might have gotten three or four hours in, broken up into increments of one to two hours. But Hubby and Pumpkin slept like babies.

We went back over there for a while to visit, then packed up and came home. And every since then, it’s been a lazy summer day. It was fun and all, but I’m glad to be back home.

I thought I was having problems with lack of energy and trouble staying awake during the day for the past several months. But that’s nothing compared to what I’ve dealt with the past two days.

Yesterday morning I got up when Hubby did, turned on my computer, and got to work on a project I needed to finish up. I got it done in about two hours, but by then I was about to nod off at my desk. I didn’t think much about it, because I hadn’t exactly gone to bed early the night before, and I’m not a morning person anyway. So I lay back down and went back to sleep for about an hour and a half.

Pumpkin woke me up when she got up. She said she was hungry, and I told her I would get up and fix her something in just a second. Then I nodded back off. The poor girl had to wake me up five or six times before I got up.

So I fixed her something to eat, and got back to work. I was dragging, but I managed to make some progress. But around mid-afternoon, it hit me again with a vengeance. I once again started nodding off. I tried getting up and walking around, playing with Pumpkin, and doing stuff around the house. But fighting it was useless. If I hadn’t lay down, I think I would have gone to sleep sitting or standing up.

Today I felt groggy when I got up to fix Hubby’s lunch, so I went on back to bed. I thought maybe if I went ahead and got plenty of sleep, I wouldn’t have problems today. But I ended up sleeping much later than I wanted to, and I’m still majorly dragging. Ugh.

I need to call and schedule my sleep study. Maybe that will provide some answers.

A site was brought to my attention a week or so ago, and although I’m in no position to donate right now, I feel compelled to pass this along in hopes that someone else might be able to help this woman. As someone who has an aunt who is a breast cancer survivor, and whose doctor just discovered what we’re reasonably sure is a cyst but was rather freaked out just the same, this story really hits home for me.

Holly’s Fund is a site for a lady named Holly Fannin. She has been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer (you can see the diagnosis sheet on the site). She works hard, but lives on a low income and can’t afford health insurance. A friend’s son created this site in an effort to help her get the funds, prayers, and words of encouragement she needs during this tough time.

Please visit the site, leave a comment, and make a donation if you can. I plan to as soon as I have a few extra dollars. And keep Holly in your thoughts and prayers.

My seven year wedding anniversary is coming up. I know we won’t get to do anything major, so there’s no need to go shopping for travel health insurance. But I would like to have a nice romantic evening with Hubby.

We had one night to ourselves over the weekend, and it was nice. We didn’t really do any celebrating, but we enjoyed each other’s company, and I guess that’s the most important thing. Maybe we can go out to eat or something next weekend, once he gets paid. But if we don’t that’s fine too. As long as we’re together, that’s all that really matters.

My cousin had a baby last week. It’s a little girl. I hope I get to go see her before too long, but I don’t know how soon I’ll get up there. She lives near my mom, and as infrequently as I’ve been visiting her lately, it may be a while.

I’d love to be able to get her something really nice and cool, like a Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair. But the best I’ve been able to do so far is pitch in on a gift card for her. And I haven’t actually pitched in on that yet, even though she already has it.

I’d see all of my family more if money were no object. But unfortunately it is. I’m looking forward to the day when I can just pick up and go wherever, whenever I want to. I don’t know when that day will be, but I’m trying to keep the faith that it will come.

With the way women are portrayed in the media today, it’s no wonder a lot of girls are growing up with low self esteem. The ideals set forth on movie screens and magazine covers are virtually impossible to measure up to, yet they’re made to seem like the norm.

It’s hitting at younger and younger ages. Pumpkin is six, and she already has a hangup about her “hairy” arms. It didn’t just come out of nowhere, though. Two of her cousins commented on them, and now she keeps saying she wishes they weren’t so hairy. I tell her not to worry about how much hair is on her arms, that she’s beautiful inside and out. But it often seems like it just goes in one ear and out the other.

Dove is making some great strides in dealing with issues like this in young girls. The Dove Self Esteem Fund is holding self esteem workshops for young girls to help them understand how unrealistic the images they see in the media are. They encourage the girls to realize that their uniqueness is beautiful. Here’s a clip that explains what it’s all about better than I can.

Dove has held nearly 2,700 workshops such as this around the world. I think it’s great that they’re putting forth so much effort to get this message out to young girls. It’s something that’s needed to be done for many years.

I got up bright and early this morning shortly after Hubby, like I have been since he started his new job. I fixed his breakfast and packed his lunch like a good little wife. I hope he knows how lucky he is. (Just kidding- he is very appreciative.)

I didn’t go back to bed this time, because I had to be at the doctor’s office to have blood drawn at 8:30. I did my knee exercises, got Pumpkin up, fed her, and took a shower. Then I hung out the clothes that Hubby had put in to wash, and thought I was going to come back home as soon as I got done at the doctor and get to work. Yeah, right.

I got to the doctor’s office, and they took me back quickly. The nurse came in and tried to get a vein, but she couldn’t even find anything she felt comfortable attempting to stick. So she went to get my doctor, who was with another patient. I waited patiently.

The doc got in there, and she looked and looked for something to stick. She finally found something to try, stuck the needle in, and nothing. She tried another place, and no luck there either. She was going to go ahead and send me to the hospital, but I talked her into trying two more times. I don’t particularly enjoy being stuck with needles, but I’m not afraid of them. And my veins are very hard to do anything with, so I’m used to it.

Anyway, no blood was forthcoming, so she wrote up orders and sent me to the hospital. She told me to drink some water and wait about an hour before I went. So I got gas and a bottle of water, downed that, and took a prescription she had given me to the drugstore. I thought I would wait around there until it was done to kill some time, but as it turned out I would have been waiting for 2 days. They had to order it, and that was how long it would take to get there.

So I went by the grocery store to pick up a thing or two, then went on up to the hospital. I figured that by the time they got to me, an hour would have passed anyway. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes, which added up to an hour, give or take a little.

The phlebotomist had to call the doctor’s office to clarify which tests to send for. But once that was done, she found a vein quickly and I was out of there in no time. But by then I was starving, and Pumpkin talked me into going to get something to eat (not that she had to twist my arm or anything).

I finally made it home around 11:30. Now I’m trying to get started working. I find it very hard to get motivated to do what I need to do this time of day, so here I am blogging.

I should really get to work now. I have three projects that are not going to do themselves. But I’ll let you know how the blood tests go.