A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

Hubby’s brother got married yesterday. It wasn’t a big affair, they just went to the courthouse and made it official. Since they didn’t have a reception or anything, he wanted to do something to celebrate, so he decided to buy lunch for everybody from KFC. Since he doesn’t have a car or his license, he called and asked us to take him out to pick it up. And since we were invited to eat and all, how could we say no?

So off we went. I had to stop by Wally World to pick up some sinus pills for Pumpkin, since she’s still feeling pretty cruddy. I would have liked to returned the jeans that I bought her and she couldn’t wear, but there was no time for that. Hubby dropped me off at the entrance, and I walked in, grabbed a water so Pumpkin would be able to take her medicine, jetted right past the makeup and anti wrinkle cream without giving it a second look, went to the pharmacy, got the pills and left. I think that’s the quickest I’ve ever gotten out of there – I didn’t have to wait in line or anything.

After that, we picked up the chicken and headed to the in-laws’ house. Much to my surprise, Pumpkin didn’t want any chicken. All she ate was a few potato wedges. She had to be feeling poorly to turn down fried chicken.

Hubby and I ate, then we sat around and visited for a little while before we came home. I had laundry and work to do. I hadn’t planned to go out today, but since when does anything ever go like I planned? But it’s all good. At least we got free lunch out of the deal.

Hubby, Pumpkin and I had planned our trip to Big Lots for today. But we were afraid those plans would have to change after she woke up sick yesterday morning. But I took her to the doctor, who said she had strep and gave her antibiotics. When I woke her up this morning, she said she felt well enough to go to school.

We picked her up and asked if she was still feeling okay, and she said she did, so we headed for Big Lots. On the way there, I noticed that she had a pretty bad cough, but still said she felt fine, so I figured it was just the phlegm in her throat loosening up that was causing it. We forged ahead.

We got there and looked around, and we didn’t find a dresser at a price that was acceptable to Hubby. I did, however, find a set of dishes and some nonstick cookie pans. Pumpkin spent her money on a remote control car for herself, and a whatnot for me. She went behind my back and bought that, the little stinker.

After we got home, she started coughing more and started running a fever again. I had a feeling that she wasn’t feeling as good as she said. She just wanted to go spend her money. I dug through the medicine cabinet, through all of my and Hubby’s prescriptions, the allergy medications, and some expired fat burner supplements and finally found her some cough syrup.

The medicine helped with the cough, and Hubby gave her a Tylenol for the fever she was starting to run. And she’s been asleep on the couch since then. I hate to see her like this. I’ll bet she had a rough day at school, but she stayed just because she knew we wouldn’t go shopping if she had to come home. She’s way too much like her mama.

Guess what I’m celebrating? Give up? Okay, I’ll tell you. I got the job!!!

I’ll be doing my training next week, and barring any problems with that, I’ll get started working the following week. The contract goes through June, so I’ll be working with them at least until then.

If I’m confusing you here, this is technically a contract relationship rather than a job per se. I call it a job because it pays by the hour and there are a certain number of hours I’m required to work each weekday. And to a freelancer, that’s more or less a job. You say tomato, I say tomahto. Whatever you want to call it, it’s more income, which is most definitely a good thing.

Just wanted to share the good news. Now I’ve got to go get some stuff done while I have a chance. I’ve been gone all morning taking the Pumpkinator to the doctor (she has strep once again). Later!

We got our tax refund, which was better than I expected, back last week, and I’ve gotten all the bills up to date. Now is the time to do a little shopping. I’m not planning a big spree by any means, but there are some things we need that can’t wait much longer.

But after paying the bills, the first thing on the agenda was getting Hubby a hunting rifle. He’s been dying for one since we got married, and probably longer than that. He wouldn’t come off of the money to buy one back when we had it to spare, and then he ended up regretting it when money got tight. So I promised him that this year, if we got enough back on our taxes, after the bills were paid that was the first thing we would buy.

He kept trying to talk himself out of it, but I told him that if he didn’t buy himself one, I would. So we finally went out yesterday and he picked out a gun and a scope and bought it. While we were out, I made it a point to look at clothes for Pumpkin. I didn’t find much, but I managed to pick up a couple of things for her.

This coming weekend, we’re going to Big Lots to see if we can find a dresser for Pumpkin’s room. The one that’s in there has been completely unusable for some time now. It was a Wally World special, and while it worked fine for her baby clothes, it just couldn’t stand the weight of her big girl clothes. All of the drawers have fallen apart, and it has served as nothing but a really ugly TV stand for several months. So it’s definitely on the must-get list.

Besides that, I plan on looking there for some clothes for her, and going somewhere else if I have to. She could use some new jeans and shirts, and probably some shorts for summer. Hubby needs some new jeans, too. Those things are next on the list of priorities.

There are plenty of things that I could use. Some new clothes would be nice, and I’d like to find some effective adult acne treatments to try. But I haven’t even bothered looking yet, and I probably won’t until Hubby and Pumpkin’s needs are taken care of. Heck, there are a couple of non-necessities that I’d like to get for Pumpkin that I might look at before I do any shopping for myself. By the time it’s all over, I may not even spend a dime on anything for me.

To me, it feels better to see them get things that make them happy than to get stuff myself. Not that a little something for me wouldn’t be nice. But I’ve got a roof over my head, clothes to wear, food to eat, and most importantly an awesome family. What more do I really need?

I made it through my interview yesterday. As much as I hate job interviews, this one wasn’t too bad. I think I did well, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much. But I may need a super-sized jar of anti-wrinkle cream by the time they get back to me.

The interviewer seemed to be impressed by my ability to work without supervision and my ability to follow through as evidenced by my journey toward becoming a freelance writer. She asked me lots of questions about that, which was good, because talking about it always gets me in a positive, enthusiastic mood. I just hope that gave me enough brownie points to get me the job.

If anybody needs me, I’ll be sitting here biting my nails until further notice. (Actually I don’t bite my nails, I clench my jaw, which is more painful but doesn’t result in damage to my nails. But you get the idea.)

“Gloom, despair and agony on me-e!
Deep dark depression, excessive misery-y!
If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all!
Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e!”
- The Hee Haw Cast

This has been the story of my life for way too long. I’m ready for a change, and I’m hopeful that it’s happening right now.

A couple of awesome things happened last week. First, I got an out-of-the-blue email from a former writing client. When I saw it in my inbox, I figured she was just checking in to see if I was doing any better than when she last heard from me nearly a year ago, because she’s nice like that. That was part of it, but she also said that I was welcome to come back to work for her any time.

After I recovered from the shock of it all, I emailed her back with an apology for flaking out and an enthusiastic “Yes, please, I would love to come back to work for you right now!” She immediately assigned me a small batch of articles. That made me very happy.

The next day, something told me to check the balance in the bank account, even though I hadn’t made any deposits, written any checks or used the debit card lately, and there weren’t any automatic bill pays scheduled. I found that both our federal and state tax refunds had been deposited early. Between that and the reunion with one of my favorite clients, what started out as a rough week turned out to be one of the best I’ve had in a while.

I hope the good luck holds out a little longer, because I’ve got an interview for an hourly work-at-home position this afternoon. I’m really hoping to get this one. If I do, maybe I won’t have to keep applying for gigs writing about running shoes or washing machines or safe diet pills only to never hear anything back any more. And that would be truly awesome.

At any rate, at least I don’t have to constantly worry about the finances for now. And even if the job isn’t in the cards, maybe something else will come up before the tax money is gone. Now that a couple of things have gone my way, it’s not such a struggle to be optimistic.

I noticed something strange about my work habits some time ago, but it’s recently become more pronounced. During the day, when I’m here by myself, I have a lot of trouble concentrating. I’ve tried turning on music, but then I want to concentrate on the music instead of my work. And I just can’t bring myself to leave the TV on in the background because it’s such a waste of electricity.

Around the time Pumpkin gets home, that’s when I start getting into work mode. But then I have to keep her company for a while and help her with her homework. I try to work when she starts playing video games or talking to friends on the phone, but the noise keeps breaking my concentration. And when Hubby is here, there’s no hope for concentrating on much of anything most of the time.

You might think that I just have all-around trouble concentrating regardless of my work environment, and to a certain extent that’s true. But late at night, after everyone else is in bed and it’s quiet again, it seems that I’m the most productive. I still have trouble concentrating, but it’s easier to work through it.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that my brain doesn’t really start focusing until late in the day. I suppose I could invest in some of those noise-canceling headphones to wear when Pumpkin and Hubby are here and I’m trying to work, but then I would worry about Pumpkin getting hurt or something and not being able to hear her yell for help. For now, it looks like my best solution is to do most of my work late at night.

With all those scary statistics about household debt floating around, it’s no wonder that many work at home moms avoid them like the plague. But when used responsibly, a credit card can be an asset to your finances rather than a hindrance. Trouble sets in when you charge more than you can afford to pay back within a reasonable amount of time, make only the minimum payment each month, or use your card to charge things that you would normally pay cash for without paying the balance when it comes due.

But there is help for the credit card clueless among us. Credit Donkey’s Credit Card Tips section has lots of helpful articles for credit card users of all types, from the small business user to the family financial planner. And Credit Donkey can also help you find the best deals on credit cards, so you pay as little in fees and interest as possible while still getting great rewards just for using the card.

If you know how to handle credit properly, it can greatly improve your overall financial picture. It can allow you to get the things you want and need now and pay later. And as long as you make your payments on or ahead of schedule, credit card usage will make it easier for you to finance larger purchases in the future. So don’t be afraid of the plastic. Use it wisely, and reap the rewards.

Today is Valentine’s Day, and quite frankly I was none too thrilled about it. I’ve done quite a bit of writing about it over the past few weeks, and that was rather burning me out on it. Add to that the fact that I’ve always thought it was a bit overcommercialized, and the fact that I’ve been fighting a losing battle with depression for the past several days, and I would have been happy to just spend the day in bed with the covers over my head.

Hubby mentioned something about it while I was watching a commercial for an online university last night, and I told him that we couldn’t afford to spend any money and the best thing he could do was to be good to me and maybe fix me a nice romantic dinner. That kind of went in one ear and out the other, so I just went on about my business.

Then this morning came, and I had to go out and run a couple of errands. While I was out, I figured I’d pick him up a case of beer and rent him a movie that he had been dying to watch. I also picked up an adorable shirt for Pumpkin that was on clearance and a bag of one of her favorite kinds of candy.

I got home, and Hubby fussed because I bought him beer. I told him I might as well make that his Valentine’s Day present, because he would have ended up buying some anyway. I’m not sure exactly how things went downhill from there, but he had to go out as soon as I got in, and we didn’t part on good terms. I lay in bed and cried until I finally fell asleep.

He called and said we needed to talk, and I told him that I was just not in a good frame of mind. I told him the best thing he could do was just leave me be, not because I was mad at him (and I really wasn’t), but because I wasn’t fit to be around. So we said our “I love you”s and hung up.

I went back to sleep, and woke back up with him beside the bed. I couldn’t even make myself turn over. He just kind of talked sweetly to me for a minute and went in the living room until I was ready to get up. When I did, I found that he had laid a single red rose beside of me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so happy, sad, lucky, and stupid at the same time, and I burst into tears.

I got up and gave him a hug, and he presented me with three more gifts: three beautiful frog statues for the yard. Then he cooked me supper and pampered me the rest of the evening.

I don’t have to go to an online university to know that I’ve got a truly awesome man. We fight, we have our disagreements, and sometimes we think each other are completely insane, but we love each other madly. I consider myself extremely blessed to have him in my life.

Normally around the middle of February in the mountains, the weather is cold, cold, cold. And that’s exactly what it’s been for the past little while. But according to the forecast, we should be getting some nice, warm sunny weather this weekend into next week. And that’s what Mama likes to hear.

It’s a bit annoying cuddling up with a nice warm electric blanket one night and then having to shed all but the sheets the next. But when you live where I do, you come to expect it. There is no gradual warming and cooling. It’s just the weather going balls to the wall crazy for a while until it finally settles into the pattern for the coming season.

I just have to keep reminding myself that even though the sunshine and higher temperatures make me giddy, I can’t let them fool me into packing in all of our winter needs. Because we will inevitably need them on several more occasions by the time it’s all said and done.