Have you heard about Blog Action Day? I heard about it in passing last year, but I didn’t give it much thought. But just this morning I stumbled upon a post about this year’s Blog Action Day, and saw that the subject is poverty. I quickly signed up.
As someone who has lived below the poverty line and is a resident of one of the poorer parts of this country, poverty is a subject that really hits home for me. But I’m not so blind as to not realize that a lot of people have it much, much worse than I ever did. Anyway, I felt compelled to put my two cents in on Blog Action Day this year.
I’m not exactly sure what I’ll write about yet, but I do know that I want to be a part of this important event. I believe that we bloggers can make a difference in the world, especially when we unite. So if you have a blog (or podcast or videocast), won’t you join me? It’s on October 15th, which gives us plenty of time to come up with something good.
I think we might actually have a buck or two left out of Hubby’s paycheck after paying the bills that are due this time. I’m also getting a little mid-month money, so you know what that means: Time to go shopping!
I’m far from a shopaholic, there are just so many things that my family needs right now that we haven’t had the money for. I need to stock back up on grocery essentials, for one thing. Pumpkin needs a new pair of tennis shoes and a new backpack. And I need some clothes.
I bought Pumpkin some clothes before school started, so all she will need for a while is a few cooler weather items. I scraped up enough money to buy Hubby some work pants a few weeks ago, and he’s pretty good on everything else. I’m not running around naked or anything, but I don’t have much of anything that’s in decent shape to wear. So this time I’m getting a little something for myself.
I’m not going all out by any means. I’ll probably get a new pair of jeans or two (on clearance if possible), and maybe a couple of button-up shirts or some of those funny t shirts I’ve been looking at. Probably some socks and undergarments too, because all the ones I’ve got have seen their better days. Maybe if I try really hard I can fit all of that into my meager budget.
Of course the stuff for Pumpkin and the groceries come first. When it comes down to the needs of her and of the family as a whole, I’m not above dressing like a bum for a little longer if I have to. But it sure will be nice to have some decent clothes for the first time in what seems like an eternity.
I was out running some errands this morning and saw our former landlord driving down the road. I see him pretty often, and almost every time he’s by himself. Strange for someone who’s supposedly in such bad health that he had to make us move so his son could put in a trailer where ours was…
In case I haven’t mentioned it, it is in fact his son who moved in there. But the BS about his health was a total lie. Obviously his son’s girlfriend either didn’t want to pay lot rent where she was any more or they couldn’t afford it. He always said he would never move back in up there, but you can’t believe a word that comes out of anyone in that family’s mouth. If they told me the sky was blue and the grass was green, I’d have to look and make sure they hadn’t changed colors.
One reason I say that is because his son is not helping mow the bank between their places, as they said was one of the main reasons they wanted him to move in there. He is paying someone else to do it. Hubby used to help free of charge, but it got to the point where he was doing it by himself rather than helping with it. That went on for a while, until the landlords started acting hateful toward us. That, and for a while Hubby was really in too poor of health to do it.
As you may have noticed, I’m still rather bitter over the whole thing. I talked to the old man during the transition from there to our new house, and he acted like he had done us a favor or something. Said we would be happier in a house than we were in that trailer. I quickly told him that we were perfectly content in our trailer, which we were. It was just the land it was sitting on and the idiots surrounding us that were driving us nuts, but I somehow found the tact to leave that part out. I did go on and on about how peaceful it is at our new place, though. 
It’s true that I am much happier here. I can walk out the front door without being stared down or hearing a bunch of squawking from their screwed up family. If you’ve never had to deal with that, you have no idea what wonders it has done for my stress levels. Sure, we have been seriously scraping to come up with the house payments. But we’re managing, and things should be getting much better on that front.
If I never speak to those people again, or see them for that matter, it will be too soon.
I’ve got work piled up to do, as usual. I’ve got 10 articles and a report that must be done by next week. Not a lot really, but I also have about 30 other articles I need to get done as soon as I can. Even that’s not all that much, but my brain has been like mush lately.
It’s not that I’m writing about complicated stuff like rocket science or how DNA testing works. It’s fairly easy stuff that I have a pretty good handle on. But I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and am still having issues with concentration. I made very little last month because of it, and I can’t afford to have that happen this month. We’ve got to get caught back up on the bills.
If I can just get started maybe it will all fall into place. But if I keep sitting here spinning my wheels, it definitely won’t.
Hubby got Pumpkin a puppy. I think he’s really the one who wanted it, but he said it was for her so I wouldn’t say no. Not that saying no would have done me any good anyway.
Don’t get me wrong. I like dogs. But this puppy happens to be a coonhound, and if you’ve ever been around coonhounds, you know how mouthy they are. We kept it in the bathroom the first night we had it, only to be awoken at 2:00 and 4:00 A.M. by its cries.
Hubby wasn’t happy about that, so he got to work building it a house and small lot when he got home yesterday. He put her in it last night, and we didn’t hear much out of her until early this morning, since he put it on the other side of the house from the bedrooms. The little booger managed to get out somehow, and was in the front yard yapping her little head off.
I wish there was some way I could keep her from sleeping all day. Pumpkin tried to keep her awake by playing with her yesterday, but every chance she’d get, she would curl up and go to sleep. And I can’t even attempt to keep her up, because I’ve got too much other stuff to do. Maybe if she would stay up more, she wouldn’t be such a nuisance at night.
I’m trying to talk Hubby into finding something to put her in that we can leave in the garage. It’s detached, and far enough away that we wouldn’t have to hear her all night. Besides, she would be safer out there because she couldn’t get out and pester our other dog (who has yet to warm up to her).
This is a guest post by Beth Pratt of It’s a WAHM Thing. Enjoy, and be sure to check out her site for more great information for work at home moms!
You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say that working from home is emotionally harder than working in an office, separated from home and family. But there are pitfalls to working at home, and trying to separate work life from home life is one of them. Working in an office, you don’t have to worry about your kids or spouse interrupting you in the middle of a phone call.
How do you create a barrier between work and home when you are always at home? Just creating a separate work space is not enough when it comes to determining where work ends and home begins. Sometimes, no matter your persistence, family and friends will continue to demand your time and attention. It’s not enough to tell them that you’re busy and cannot be bothered. As long as you’re visible, you’re accessible in the eyes of loved ones and kids. But there are ways to differentiate work time from home time. Here are a few suggestions:
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So I told my mom that I would come see her this past Friday. Hubby was getting paid and I had a check on the way, so for once I should have had enough money for the gas. But wouldn’t you know it, things just didn’t quite go as planned.
Hubby got paid alright, but they took out a bigger bite in taxes than we had figured. And as for my check, it didn’t materialize. It was due from a client I’ve worked for about eight months now, and they’ve always paid on schedule. I’m not sure what the deal is, but I guess I’ll be contacting them to find out.
Anyway, that amounted to not having enough to pay the mortgage payment and Hubby’s truck payment. The mortgage comes first, so I’ve got that ready to send. And since there wasn’t enough to pay the truck payment anyway, I figured I might as well keep my word to Mom. Pumpkin and I hadn’t seen her all summer, so I went on up there and let her spend the weekend as planned, then Hubby and I picked her up today.
I still haven’t gotten to pay any money on my laptop. I hope he doesn’t sell it to someone else. It’s brand spanking new, and I’m getting a killer deal on it, so I definitely don’t want to lose it. I might have to buy some software that I need to do my work for it, but I definitely won’t have to buy memory for a while because it has tons of it. Hopefully he will hang onto it for me until we can get our finances straightened out.
One good thing: Hubby will be getting three paychecks this month instead of two. So maybe, just maybe, things will not be so bleak by the end of the month.
I haven’t posted much lately, and for that I am sorry. I’ve truly missed it, but life has just majorly gotten in the way. I’ve also been behind on my writing work, and there hasn’t been time for much else when I’m on the computer.
Today I’m going to see my mom, finally. It will be the first time I’ve seen her all summer, and the second time since we’ve moved. That’s hard to believe. I’ve missed talking to her about random things such as exotic pets and diet pills. Must make it a point to do plenty of that while I’m up there.
Maybe next week I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging. If I don’t, I think I might go through withdrawal.
