Second Week of Part-Time

I seem to be creating a bit of a routine for my non-working for pay days.

I get up and drink some coffee while piddling in the kitchen and seeing the kids off to school. Then I go for a vigorous walk in the park. I hope to transition this to a run in the park….but for now it is a walk. Then I come home and do yard work for an hour or so. Here is some of my handiwork:

northeast corner of yard

After that, I get cleaned up, have some lunch and do a couple of errands. About 4 -4:30pm I start cooking supper. After dishes there is time for reading.

Compare that to a recent weekend day: http://singlemomenough.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/a-perfect-day/

This new pace is just delicious. And my spending is right on track for where I need it to be. But that is a post for another day.

Week One of Part-Time

I just wanted to let you all know what I have been up to in my first week of part-time employment.

First, I have been improving my physical health. I have exercised every single day that I haven’t worked (five so far,) I have eaten only healthy, home cooked items, I have not drunk any alcohol, and with my reduced stress level, I have been sleeping through the night. I feel so much better.

Second, I looked at the long list of books that I want to read, that has been accumulating for the past two years while I worked 10+ overtime hours/week. I went on-line to the library request site and now I have three books to read over the next two weeks. Bonus: beloved daughter wants to read one of them. Bonus plus: No cost.

Third, last week, I had checked out three cookbooks. I identified about thirty new recipes from those cookbooks that I wanted to try, copied them and have made four of the recipes so far. One recipe we like well enough to add to the regular rotation of meals. All ingredients except two were purchased at Aldi, so the recipes are fairly low-cost.

Fourth, I have spent about eight hours in the yard and it looks a lot better. It will probably take me most of the summer to whip it into shape enough that I will gaze upon it with pleasure. But the work is pleasant, satisfying and low-cost. I will be buying a few plants in the next week or two.

Fifth, I had enough time that I could say, “Yes” when beloved youngest son asked if we could tote his entire drum set to the school for a special performance.

I am feeling smugly self-satisfied.

Yee Haaa!!

I am part-time.

And hasn’t come a moment too soon. Virtually every stress reaction that my body has displayed in previous years has manifest itself in the last month. I’ll spare you the graphic details.

I can not begin to describe how expansive my time feels without too many activities and responsibilities compressed like a marshmallow under a big rock. I feel light and floaty. And relaxed.

I took care of some business things to be prepared for my new time/cash flows. I paid off the car loan, I ordered the new refrigerator and I went for a walk in the park at midday. The sun was shining with a cool breeze. While I was strolling there, I found a source for free firewood.

This is the good life!

Another Place I Would Never Have Gone Without a Kid

Last night, a rock star said, “Hi” to me.

No, really.

Todd Sucherman, a drummer for STYX, was giving a drum clinic in our fair city last night. Youngest son, the percussionist, attended the clinic, which cost $10.

I was sitting in the hallway reading my new book Tiny Homes by Shelter Publications, because I am not a drummer, and $10 is $10…no need to waste it.

Mr Sucherman had to pass by my chair a couple of times in the course of the evening to get to the room the clinic was in. When I looked up from my book, he said, “Hi.” I said, “Hi” back.

And this is as close as I am likely ever to get to a rock star. Unless youngest becomes one.

Oooo. And youngest won a pair or drumsticks and a T-shirt in the raffle. So the net cost of the evening was $0.00

College Tour

The kids have been on spring break this week, and the youngest stayed at his dad’s house. I took the junior and the sophomore on a tour to visit two colleges in Chicago and two in St. Louis and one in Champaign/Urbana. I didn’t take photos while we were at the schools for fear of embarrassing the kiddos, but here are a few from other parts of the trip.

Scary Easter bunnies watching us leave town.

Windmill farm on the drive up to Chicago. These just make me so happy. Yeah, they are not perfect, the noise and vibration can be a problem if you live close. But if one (or three) of them fail catastrophically, at most the world will lose a couple of humans and a few hogs. If a nuclear power plant fails catastrophically, we lose tens to millions of humans, same for domestic and wildlife, and the damage to the ecosystem could be unimaginable. Windmills are a more elegant solution.

This is me and the kids reflected in “the Bean” at Millenium Park in Chicago.

We found this fellow outside the library at University of Illinois. We think he may have failed a test.

The trip was fun and informative. We got a chance to check out some colleges that the kids are interested in. We stayed with my brother and his wife in Chicago and my mom in St. Louis, so the trip only cost us for three meals out.

An excellent week!

One Step Closer to That Elusive Work/Life Balance

It’s official!!! I’m going part-time (four 8-10 hour days/week) May 1st.

Oh, happy dance!!!

I have worked these hours before and the difference between working 32-40 hours/week and working 40-55 hours/week is the difference between calm, creative, content and exhausted, irritable, resentful.

Come June, you all will not recognize me.

A Perfect Day

I woke about 3am and just could not get back to sleep, which I credit to the menopause hormones. But since I was awake, might as well be productive. So I drank a pot of coffee, paid some on-line bills, checked to see if anyone had read my blog since I last posted and made up a menu for the week. So when 8am rolled around, I was ready to go shopping. But middle son’s track schedule said the time of the meet was TBA, and I had not gotten word of the departure time, so I woke him and found out the bus was leaving from the school at 12:45pm.

Back to sleep, dear son. I was off to Target and Shop N Save for stuff on The List. Then home again to pick up youngest son for his photo shoot for his free 8 x 10, courtesy of the orthodontist. And true to form for my kids….he was clean, but his shirt was a wrinkled mess. Picture taken, I dropped him at home and went on to the main grocery shop at Aldi, spent $80 and got groceries for the week.

Beloved daughter was awake by this point and we conferred about her plans for the day. She is off to assist a friend with a photo shoot for photography class, home for a couple hours and then off to Film Club this evening.

Middle son, also awake, had lunch with us: fresh sweet corn and grilled cheese sandwiches. Then to school for his bus trip to an indoor track meet. Here he is at state last year:

That's him in the red and black

Youngest son and I went shopping: tennis shoes, white dress shirt for musical performances, shorts, drum sticks. And one last grocery store on the way back to home. I got some gas for the lawn mower, and gave him a lesson in how it functions. Then he mowed and raked the yard

back yard

while I weeded the onion grass out of the phlox

front yard

I started a pot of vegetable and beef soup and while it simmered, beloved daughter and I started work on her Duck Tape Prom dress. I do not have photos today, but will when it is done. She was off to film club while youngest son and I ate soup for dinner. Then I drove him to a party at the Black Sheep Cafe (a non-alcoholic serving band venue) and I type this up for you all as I wait for beloved daughter to return, beloved middle son to call wanting a ride home from the track meet and beloved youngest son needing a ride between the party and going to see The Hunger Games with some other friends.

It will be a late night and I do not mind. One of the best lessons my beloved first son taught me is that this crazy-busy time is all too brief. In a couple of years, I will have plenty of time to myself: to nap, to pursue hobbies, to work ovetime if I like.

They will be grown and gone…and damn, they are a lot of fun while they are here.

Light in the Tunnel

This weekend, I have been putting together the College Tour for beloved daughter. This involves mostly logging onto various college websites and scheduling a campus visit. While I am at the website, I poke around a bit, see what tuition is this year and if they have a financial aid calculator. If they do, I plug-in our money numbers. I can not put the ACT and SAT test scores in yet, but those can affect the amount of money awarded also. Anyhoo, I have been very pleased to see what kind of financial aid beloved daughter might be able to pull off, and I am feeling a little less panicked about the year of austerity.

Which is a good thing because the washing machine just broke this morning.

Current Bucket List

I spend my work days with folks that have a terminal illness, some of these people are younger than me. Over the years, this has given me the idea that it’s not a good thing to put off until tomorrow what can joyfully be done today. Consequently, my bucket list tends to be short. If I want to do it, I find a way to may it happen.

Since taking my daughter to Paris a couple of years ago, I been working really hard at the paying job and raising-teenagers job and haven’t given the bucket list much thought.  After a conversation with a patient last week about his bucket lists I thought about what might be on mine, and what I might do to make them happen sooner, rather than later.

Current Bucket List (things I want to do before I die)

1) Go to High Tea

2) Do a 5-day silent retreat

3) Be in the path of a total solar eclipse of the sun

And here is my plan for making them happen:

1) I will be in St Louis and Chicago next month while taking beloved daughter on a college tour. I will do some research to find out where in those cities High Tea is served and work it into the itinerary.

2) The kids will be traveling with their dad three weeks this summer. I will take off work one of those weeks and have my silent retreat here at home. No money need be spent. Sure it would be cool to travel to another part of the country, stay at some fancy retreat center with beautiful views and prepared meals, but I’m pretty sure that the benefits of a silent retreat come from within. Isn’t that the whole point?

3) I remembered that the next total solar eclipse in North America was sometime this decade and I went to do a little research to find out where and when it will be, preparing myself mentally that I might have to travel across the length of the country to position myself in its path. Imagine my giddy excitement when I discovered that it is coming practically to my back yard.

So, for the cost of a tank of gas I can drive to southern Illinois to see it, and still be home for dinner. Cool.

What is on your Bucket List?

 

Austerity Measures

I have been playing with the budget for after I go part-time and it’s going to be tight, very tight. Here’s the numbers I have now:

Income for 80 hours work:                                                                        $2,430.32

Minus Medicare/SS/federal and state taxes                                          $  681.69

Minus medical/life insurances                                                                  $  117.39

Minus 401K                                                                                                    $ 75.00

Minus credit union (for irregular large expenses like house & car insurance, house taxes and replenishment of the emergency fund                    $  300.00

College savings                                                                                           $  400.00

This leaves $856.24 per pay, times 26 pays per year $22,262.24 divided by 12 months $1,855.19 plus $500 per month in child support and approximately $280 per month in mileage reimbursement from my employer. So $2,635.19 to spend per month.

Looking back at past expenses, I have cobbled together a budget, but it’s still $216.71 over income. Here’s what it looks like:

Mortgage (9 years left on 15 year loan at 4%)                                    $627.32

Auto loan (21 months left at 1.25%)                                                     $386.97

Home repair and decorating                                                                  $100.00

Utilities (water, sewer, gas, electric, trash, internet)                         $280.00

Cell phones (four, family plan)                                                               $117.00

Gas for automobile (most of these miles are for work)                     $161.00

Car maintenance                                                                                       $ 33.62

MD/Rx/DDS                                                                                              $60.00

Groceries                                                                                                  $300.00

Fawn expenses (clothes, wine, entertainment)                                $ 50.00

School and activities fees                                                                      $140.00

Chores (what I pay the kids to work around the house)                 $100.00

Kid’s clothing                                                                                           $100.00

Cats                                                                                                             $ 15.00

Christmas                                                                                                  $40.00

Music lessons                                                                                         $250.00

Household (TP, printer ink, shampoo, etc)                                    $ 70.00

Gifts                                                                                                         $ 20.00

Vacation (really just driving to see the big kid and DIL)             $ 30.00

Gym membership (ends 8/12)                                                          $33.99

Things improve greatly when the car is paid off. It is going to be hard work, but it’s for a good cause.