My not-so-secret Secret

For some reason, last year when I started this blog, I neglected to mention one small detail of my life and as the blog went on it became more difficult to just add that detail back in. The detail is about my ‘other’ job; as if being a full time stay-at-home June Clever-esk mom isn’t work enough. I am also, an On-call Scheduling Coordinator for a home health care agency. Basically, when the office closes at 5pm, they roll the phones over to my cell phone and I take any calls that come in up until 8am the next morning. I take calls from anyone that calls any of our 6 offices. Sometimes its clients needing additional services, sometimes its caregivers canceling off of a scheduled shift, and sometimes its junk calls that do not require any action. I’m responsible for rescheduling and staffing any clients in need. I don’t personally go out to anyone I simply call the available caregivers to staff the open shift.

It is truly the ideal job. I get to stay at home with my kids and get paid 40 hours a week. Thanks to modern technology (and a techie husband) I can practically do my job anywhere there’s a cell signal and or wi-fi. I started out 5 years ago working weekends only. Friday 5pm until Sunday 5pm. Then, after a few years, I switched over to the week nights, Sunday through Thursday 5pm till 8am. Sometimes I’d get woken up in the middle of the night with a call but it was a rare occurrence. Just like any job sometimes its all-consuming and sometimes its slower. Well, recently, the last year or so, it’s been slower and slower and slower. So much so that I was actually let go about 8 months ago. So many of my co-workers fought tooth and nail for me to keep my job though that I was hired back on a week later. I was so grateful to my coworkers that fought for me but I was hired back at reduced hours and reduced pay. Since then I’ve been keeping an eye out for another job but this type of job is rare. Usually if an on call job opens up someone from inside the office jumps on the opportunity to work from home and the job posting never sees the light of day.

I'm not really sure why I have never mentioned it before. Everyone that knows me in person knows about my other job but I just never put it down on paper, so-to-speak. I guess maybe because this blog was designed to highlight my life as a stay-at-home mom so I kept my career out of it. However, it’s such a part of my life that I should have documented it as well. This job is what helps support me staying at home with the kids, it helps pay the bills, pay for the vacations and feeds my Starbucks addiction. It also can consume my nights when its busy. I've spent nights locked in my room on the phone and computer making Brad deal 100% with the kids while I deal with a crash call. I've had mornings when I'm woken up at 4am with calls and have to rely on Anthony to help get the girls ready while I calm down panicked clients and corral wild caregivers.

A few weeks ago, after yet another cut in my pay from my current company, I happened to stumble across an On Call position posted on Craigslist. Needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity to explore the position. I’ve been interviewing with the new company for almost two weeks now and was offered the position last Friday. Today, I tendered my resignation with my current company and accepted the position with the new company. Despite the reduced days, hours and pay, I hate leaving my current company. I have been with this company through thick and thin and am not the type of person to leave when times are tough. However, I’ve stuck it out for a little over a year of lean times watching my position be whittled away piece by piece and the truth of it is I have to do what’s best for my family. My salary was never something that Brad and I had to have to make our bills but it was what we used for our weekly groceries, savings and fun money. As my pay slowly started to disintegrate, so did our savings and extra activities. If I can help it, that’s now how I want to live our lives. I’m so grateful that Brad has a stable well-paying job that can completely support us in all the critical ways but I want to be able to enjoy the extra’s in life too.

That being said, it’s not worth it for me to go into an office to work. The daycare cost for the kids is astronomical. Brad and I decided when Hailey was born that I was going to be a stay at home mom. It’s something we feel is important to the mental and emotional health of all of our kids. The On Call job is the ideal way to meld both worlds. I get to bring home a paycheck every week that helps us enjoy the fun things in life as well as ease some of the financial stress and I get to stay home with the kids.

I will be starting my new job in the next week or so and will have to go into the office for 1-2 weeks for training. Fortunately we are surrounded by family who will help watch the kids (the girls particularly) while I am in the office but it will be a BIG change and require a TON of juggling. Five years ago when I started the other job my sister-in-law Monica was living here in town, between jobs herself and was kind enough to come live at my house for 2 weeks while I trained. She is now married, has two kids of her own, is enrolled in the military and lives out of state so, that’s no longer an option. This time, Brad and I will be driving the kids between my mom and step-dad and my mom-in-law and my sister-in-law’s homes for the next few weeks.

My anxiety is already sky high just thinking about juggling it all. I seriously don’t know how other mom’s do it all the time. I am working on a meal plan for the two weeks, a school schedule, a laundry rotation, driving schedule, sleepover schedule, homework help schedule plus back up plans if anything changes. I think I may be starting on Wednesday of this week (two days from now!) so I have a TON to get ready.

Any advice from you mommas that work full time? How do you do it?

Almost done

My 'monthly resolution' for February is to do a complete load of laundry every day. (Have I mentioned how much I LOATH laundry? Yea, loath, hate isn't strong enough of a word.) My January resolution is to clean out a purge every space in my house. So far, I've purged the kids room, my room, my kitchen and most recently, in preparation for February, my laundry room and linen closet.

With the motivational help of my task master momma (Seriously, if I could rent out her crafting, organizational and motivational skills we'd be rich. For now, I'm just very grateful!) we gutted the laundry room, scrubbed every surface, re-arranged the washer, added a shelf, painted and made cute boxes for storage. It also took 17 loads of laundry at the laundry mat just to get to the floor!

After (but not quite complete)


I have been saving this ugly mirror for years and years. I loved the idea of it but it wasn't exactly my style. So, instead, I took the mirror out, repainted the frame and hand-painted a canvas with saying I found on Pintrest.*

Before



After (it's hard to see in this light but the frame is purple!)


And here's the linen closet after 2 garbage bag full of blankets donated to Goodwill.





*Have you found Pintrest.com yet? Go, now, trust me. But, don't blame me if you get lost in it for hours, or create a to-do list a mile long.

Valentines Day Craft

I saw a quote the other day on another mom-blog that said:

"I Didn't Choose to be a Stay at Home Mom to Clean the House."

It made me stop and think about the reasons I did choose to stay at home. Needless to say, I've been taking time-out from cleaning every day to play, read and create with the kids.

Today's craft came via Pintrest.com (my new web obsession-be warned, don't visit if you don't have hours to browse and subsequent hours to create what you've seen!)

Valentines Crayons

Start by unwrapping all your box-less, broken and past their prime crayons. The butter knife helps if you cant get the wrapper to come off. Next, break them up into small pieces. Its a great little kid job - they get a chance to revel in doing something they usually aren't suppose to do!





Place your little crayon bits into heart shape trays. I found these in the Target dollar section years ago but they have som variation every year. HOWEVER, as I unfortunately discovered, these are ICE cube trays, not intended for heat. I melted my two so now, thy will only be crayon molds. (Or trash given I hate holding onto unitaskers.)


Bake at 325 for 10 min until just melted. Let them cool completely then unmold.




We're going to do another set later this week and we plan on giving them to the girls friends at the Jungle Gym. (AKA the Gym)

I have a few more cute crafts for next week too.

So Far So Good

Well, my Christmas guests officially left on Friday of last week so although the New Year started 10 days ago, I’m only counting this week as the start of my New Year.

So Far:

• I returned to the gym after a 6 week hiatus and walked/ran 3.2 miles.
• I am continuing my purge and cleaned out all the Christmas boxes and only put away things that I cherish and put up every year, everything else was donated or given back to my mom. The girls room was purged (again!) and cleaned today.
• I started writing in my journal Monday night
• I also just sent out my invitations to friends and family to join a book club

I’m not deluding myself that I’ll stay this on track the entire year but it does feel good to start off right. I’ve been using my e-calendar to schedule clean out/purge days so I keep myself on track. It kind of sucks but helps me not feel so overwhelmed like I have to do it all at once. I still have my linen closet, desk/craft area and garage. Between now and the end of the month I have to have each area purged without ditching it into another area.

Ugh, why did I sign myself up for this again? Oh yea, I’m crazy. That’s why.

Next month, given that it's one of the shortest, I think I'll tackle the load of laundry every day.

Yea, that's going to be fun. Not!

(Haha, nice 90's come back, huh!)

Professional Photo Shoot

I swear, the gals (I assume somewhere at a JCPenneys far away there is a male photographer) that take the pictures have to be just about ½ crazy to do it. I would wager a bet that it’s part of the job application process; a psych evaluation.

Fail normal sanity?

Work at JCPenneys!

Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re not idiots or incapable of their job, it’s the exact opposite in fact. They are so patient, so kind and so “go with the flow” with so many screaming, non-participating, pain in the ass kids that they have to be 6 short of a dozen. That whole ignorance is bliss theory.

None of that takes into account the overly picky mothers, grandmothers and wana-be glamour-shots-rejects that then, after “she” has coaxed smiles and snapped pictures at lightning speed (capturing a fart that somehow distorted the kids face into a fake smile – all while pretending not to sniff), now has to suffer thru all the crop’s, touch up’s, fake holiday borders and sepia color changes. By the end of the photo shoot “she” sounds much more like an optometrist (number 1…or number 2? Better this….or This?) than a photographer yet I’m quite certain she is paid much, much less.

One circle of hell (for me) would certainly be being a JCPenney Photo girl.

That being said, our Angel with a Camera did a fantastic job taking our group of 4 adults, 2 grandparents and 3 children and turning us into a beautiful collage of family.

All of us: My Dad and Step-mom, my 5 and my brothers

Just the parents and kids

And one of the added borders, shaded backround, black and white, red-eye reduced, stray hair clipped out, just right but not gonna actually purchase, amalgamations:

The Grandparents and Grandkids

And finally, my classic 5.

See the lollie pop? Yep, I'm ok with it because she wasn't screaming. Plus, the look on her face is 100% genuine. "See - I scream, I get the lollie - nananabooboo!"

Its almost too bad Grannie (my mom) wasn't there with the can of whipped cream. Although, I can see a million ways that would have gone bad. :)

Done! With clutter

I’m so done with my house right now!

I’ve been in survival mode for the last 6 weeks or so and my house defiantly shows it. Well, maybe not defiantly, no one else seems to notice but I can feel the clutter and hidden dirt encroaching on me in the middle of the night. It scurries around me like cockroaches!

(Nice imagery huh! Wana come over and hang out here?)

Thus far I have deconstructed my entire kitchen: Cabinet by cabinet, drawer by drawer getting rid of crap I don’t have to have or need to use. I got new plates for Christmas so I’ve gotten rid of every plate, saucer, bowl or platter from all other sets. I’ve gone thru all my glassware and either gotten rid of all the excess or moved them into a “party” box in the garage. I had a million wine glasses, I swear, a million! I did every dirty dish, washed everything by hand that didn’t fit in the dishwasher then paired up every Tupperware with a matching lid. If I couldn’t find the lid, I tossed it! Done! Then, I got up onto my counters and scrubbed the top of my cabinets with industrial strength cleaner (TSP-ph Ever heard of it? Magic! I’m telling you, I could write my own infomercial about this stuff, I love it!) It took me 2 ½ hours to clean the top of the cabinets. There was 6 years of kitchen dust acuminated up there. (Don’t judge - I’d run the extension duster up there every now and then but its that kitchen dust, the kind that’s ½ dust, ½ grease so it just stuck and piled up.)

Now, even though it’s taken me almost two days in rubber gloves, using every ounce of elbow grease I possess, you can’t see a visible difference. I know it’s better though. I know it’s actually clean vs. just looking clean at first glance.  I essentially killed half of the clutter-roaches just by cleaning out my kitchen. Next, my desk/office/crafting area’s getting blown up. Then the kids rooms, then the linen and coat closet then the garage. I can’t stand it any more! (I’ve mentioned before that I’m a bit neurotic right? This isn’t something new, right?)

New Years Resolutions

When I started thinking about my New Years resolutions there were so many things I wanted to accomplish but not all of them were worthy of a year’s devotion if that makes sense. My full year resolutions this year are:

• Keep a journal, writing every night
• Go to the gym a minimum of 3 days a week, every week
• Do one Christmas gift craft every 6 weeks
• Create or join a book club

As for the other ideas I had, I’ve decided to accomplish a monthly goal every month this year, a new goal each month. For example, this month, I want to touch/clean/de-clutter and organize every room and closet in my house. In the next 11 months I’m going to try some of the following goals:

• Eat a vegetarian meal two times a week for a month
• Run 60 miles in one month (3 miles a day 5 days a week)
• Spend one day every week with no TV for a month (a summer month)
• Post one new post every day for one month
• Wash, dry and put away one load of laundry every day for a month
• Go an entire month with out purchasing commercial bread, tortillas and pasta. Making my own homemade substitute.
• Substitute one meal a week, for a month, with a new food – experimenting with recipes or restaurants featuring foods we’ve never tried
• Write and send a new snail-mail letter or card every day for a month - kids helping

So far, that’s all I’ve come up with. I need 2 more goals. Anyone have any other ideas? What are your New Years resolutions?