Starting Fresh!

I'm resurrecting my blog :o) For the past year and a half we've been in a crazy state with our family... hubby still mostly unemployed (thanks, economy), and me working outside the home for the first time. When my husband first got laid off, I figured we'd have a few months of pain, then pick up where we left off. A few months turned into a year, and by then the "fun" of getting by was wearing thin. I withdrew from blogging and other activities until I figured out just what, exactly, was going to be happening in our home.

I confess to initially resisting working outside the home. As a homeschooling mom, it seemed unlikely that I could do any kind of a good job anywhere when my loyalties were divided. I tried a six-week stint as a temp with a large medical firm (which I hated, but stuck out), and looked around for other opportunities. Selling the hairclips and doing boutiques and craft fairs turned out to be a problem for my lower back -- hauling the equipment and standing for hours at a time wreaked havoc on my spine.

It seemed logical to me to find something to do with children, since my own are my heart. I found a babysitting job with a friend's children in the early a.m., which I did all last year. This year I'm still working for them plus am also now a part-time kindergarten aide in a local school district. I love it! It's only 10 hours a week, but it's a foot in the door to the school district.

The jobs bring in some much-needed $$$ and I can be home in the afternoon for my own big boys, who still need me for homeschooling and mothering. Hubby has found two small part-time jobs that help out, too, plus he finally turned 62, enabling him to start collecting social security. That is HUGE for us. My jobs don't bring in enough cash to qualify as "full time", so I'm considered a dependent, which brings in a little more SS, as do our under-age boys. We can pay the mortgage, pay for groceries, keep up with bills... breathe more easily. There's still the hope that I can find a full-time job, but so far I've been unsuccessful.

Blogging about our issues while they were happening was impossible for me. I was unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel for a long time, then had to get in a whole new mind-set when I began working for the school. Now I think I've finally figured everything out!

Another aspect to my working life is that my decluttering business is starting to pick up. I've been a keynote speaker at a women's luncheon talking about organization, and have discovered some new clients along the way. That keeps me busy, too.

Future blogs will fall into various categories: decluttering/organization, gardening, food/recipes, and snippets of life. I'll try to group them in the appropriate folders so you can find things quickly. I'm still working on the amount of time I'd like to devote to the blog, but think that 2-3 times a week is about all you'd want to read of me :o)

I'm open to suggestions! Please comment and let me know what you'd like to read about. I'm going to be as open as I can about homeschooling, finances, and raising teens -- get ready for a wild ride!