Monday, August 30, 2010

Exhausted

That's how I feel!

I've picked up a few shifts at the local feed store to make up for the fact that I wasn't getting many hours at the market. Of course as soon as I did that my hours at the market picked up. I'm thankful for the money but life at home is seriously suffering.

I've always maintained that when you work outside the home something suffers whether it's your work or your family. For me it's always my family because I want to do my best and I want to keep my job. You wouldn't think that working at a small market would be exhausting but it is. The work itself isn't bad but the environment is exhausting. For a small market there is enough drama going on behind the scene to fill 2 daytime soap operas with story lines forever. It's impossible to just go to work and do your job since all of the drama is brought into the workplace. People complain, gossip, and are just generally difficult to work with. Unlike a big market where you are tied to your register, we are expected to keep busy but stay in the front of the store. The summer season is winding down so business is slow making it difficult to keep busy. There are only so many times you can wipe down the same set of shelves during a shift. There is also a lot of interaction between the employees because we are so slow, this exacerbates problems that are brewing under the surface...

Lorna had a breakdown this past week, telling me that she feels like she has too much on her plate. When we talked about what was going on I found that it isn't her activities that are the problem but that she has too many responsibilities at home. She has picked up 95% of the jobs I can no longer do because I'm gone. She also tearfully told me that she misses me so much and just wants me to be home! How many mothers of teenagers hear that? After the pleasure of hearing that she wants me to be around I feel guilty because I have to work!

We are looking at solutions and I think we may have something worked out. If everything comes together in 2-3 weeks things will slow down for all of us.

Due to my busy schedule we haven't been able to work on our new property. We had planned to be moved out there by now but we still have some work to do before that can happen. Hopefully we can get things moving this week so that we can actually set a move date.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Catching up

I seem to do a lot of "catching up" posts lately.

Paul's new job seems to be going well. The company has provided lots of training and help so far and he has even made a few sales. Given his previous jobs, I'm still a bit skeptical but they are paying him so I'm mostly happy.

My job is going, I can't say well or pleasantly but it's a job. Too much drama and favoritism for me to actually enjoy it anymore.

We continue to work on the new property but working has kept us so busy we aren't as far along as we hoped to be at this point. Unrelated and unexpected expenses means everything has been downsized. We hope to move into the RV sometime in the next few weeks.

Lorna and I just had our Ice Cream Social for the local Sweet Adelines Chorus. We were both asked to sing in the double quartet which made for some extra excitement. The evening was fun, made our chorus lots of money, and we had extended family actually come watch.





During the evening we also hold an auction. I always donate something I've made. This year the items didn't do so well.




I made these baskets and filled them with bath salts, a bandana, mini-wipes (for removing make up and such), a wetbag (for keeping wet items contained), and a cooling neck tie (one of those things filled with crystals that hydrate and keep you cool). Even though they didn't make much money for the chorus, it gave me time to perfect a few patterns.

We have had one showing on our house so far. It seemed promising but nothing has come of it. It's frustrating because the house is priced at less than half of what we paid for it 4 years ago and we have made many improvements in those 4 years. We would love to sell it so we can just move on but it's looking more and more like we are going to end up foreclosing. The only benefit of foreclosing is that we can leave our stuff here for a number of months and pack as we have time. Hopefully we will be able to save enough for a shipping container to be dropped on the new property so we won't have to rent a storage unit. There is also a lot we can take from the property that we would leave if we sell the house. On the whole it's just really stressful!