Friday, January 6, 2012

A Much Less Depressing Update

I'm at a crossroads. 

I'm pregnant again; Holden is a year old, and Burgundy's almost done with high school and suddenly in love with all her opportunities. Yesterday she got herself appointed to the prom committee; today she picked up an application to join student council. Her Gold Award project is gathering its own momentum with one of the Assistant Principals now advocating with the district to allow her to use its facilities and advertise district-wide free of charge. She's spearheading an effort to get an elected student advisory committee for the Class of 2013 booster club, and she joined the district's robotics team, the Robonauts.

Meanwhile, we're trying to decide where to allocate our meager funds for traveling to potential universities over spring break. Rice remains her first choice university; she plans to apply there for early admission. Her second choice is Harvard, and Stanford and University of Chicago are tied for her third choice. After that she's lumped Princeton, University of Colorado, University of California, Abilene Christian University, University of Houston, Southern Methodist, Vanderbilt, and God Knows Where Else into her pile of, "Sure, we can try that," options. Since we live next door to Rice and they're already involved in her Gold Award project, we can tour there anytime. Her remaining, "OMG MOM I HAFTA TOUR THERE," options are in Massachusetts, Illinois, and California. We do NOT have that kind of money, so we have some tough choices. Harvard also is involved in her Gold Award project, so it seems prudent to tour there, and we can hit Princeton while we're at it.

I didn't mean for this entry to ramble on about Burgundy's school stuff, but I suppose that's the brain dump I needed.

How does all this put me at a crossroads? I guess because I don't know what to do with myself (other than survive). I would really like to bring in $500 a month regularly in home-based income by the end of the year. There are so many ways for me to make this happen that I feel like I can't possibly make any of them happen.

My options: Let me enumerate them for you:

  1. Pampered Chef. I've done it before; I like their merchandise, and I like doing the parties. It feels crazy, but the tools sell themselves, and I really love cooking and teaching others how. 
  2. Continue selling my bread. I have a couple of customers who would buy regularly if I baked regularly. So far, I haven't been able to make myself churn out a batch a week, much less the batch a day I would need to sell $500 in bread every month. It's do-able, though.
  3. Tutor high school and early college students in English and writing.
  4. Teach a class on finding and cooking local, sustainable foods.
  5. Freelance writing and editing.
  6. Prostitution. Ha ha, just checking to see who's reading.
  7. No really, prostitution. Without a pimp, I could make a killing.
  8. Okay, that took up three numbered options; any respectable list should have 10; surely I can come up with two more.
  9. Home inventory: basically, I would help people inventory and document their homes' contents for use in the event they need to file with their insurance for hurricane, flood, or fire damage.
  10. Life coach (because mine is going so brilliantly well). I seriously think the world could do with an attitude adjustment about fat people, and it needs to start with us fatties. Fat is not the problem; self-image, love of others, and poor nutrition and health are the problem.
Things I WON'T do:
  1. Prostitution. Jeez, people. Give me a break. Nobody's going to pay a fatty for sex. I mean, I have WAY too much self-respect for that.
  2. Knit for money. Just to make minimum wage, I'd have to charge something like $250 for a pair of socks. Too much work, not enough dollars.
  3. Substitute teach. I am not a fan of other people's children at large. I love lots of individual offspring of other people. I do not want to endure abuse from the population of children at large in return for bureaucratic nonsense and $8/hour. Christ, I could do better with less abuse at Starbucks.
  4. Work outside the home. I am qualified to make pretty decent dough working in the professional world, and I voluntarily gave that up to stay home with my children.
  5. Ghost write someone else's blog for $.01 a word. Seriously? I can't even keep up with my own damn blog.
I have some pretty consistent problems (personal problems) that get in the way of making any of the money-making ideas work.
  1. Follow-through. I no can haz. Really. My last order for bread (pizza crust, actually) was in October. I still haven't delivered. She's being very patient.
  2. Enthusiasm. I get really sold on an idea really fast, and then I realize that in the grand scheme of things, I don't actually give a flying fart. See also #1.
  3. Everything Else Life Demands. I usually don't have the energy to wash diapers and cook dinner in the same day. Running a business, even at 10 hours a week, seems a foolish idea if I can't keep the basics taken care of.
The foregoing lead me to a second conclusion: I have to do something about my energy and fitness levels. Please don't mistake this for, "I have to go on a diet and start exercising all the time because I'm FAT OMGWTFBBQ!" However, regular exercise contributes to better sleep and better energy levels, and I know it will make my next labor and delivery less agonizing. Better eating also contributes to better energy levels and improved overall health, and given my near brush with gestational diabetes during my pregnancy with Holden, it's imperative for health reasons to eat well right now. 

I hesitate to say, "From now on, I will take a 30 minute walk every day and eat only wholesome, local foods." I won't do either religiously; however, I've cooked every night this week, and tonight I made a delicious quiche with homemade crust and mustards harvested from my backyard five minutes before they were needed. 

Thus my crossroads. It isn't as easy as, "just commit." Even with healthful eating and daily exercise, sometimes I just don't give a rip. However, I only have two real resolutions this year, and both of them require me to be better organized, to increase my energy, and to put some routine and self-love into my day to day life. We'll see how it goes.

5 comments:

  1. I pretty much died laughing all the way through this...

    Pregnant again is awesome, but you cannot get top dollar with option number 6 in your condition, so that is out. There is a program through AFPA on nutritional counseling. It takes six months and cost about $400...you could find a job in the area or work from home with the babes AND it might get you back on track where you want to be with that "other" thing that you were a little concerned about =D.

    Just a thought! Congratulations again on the pregnancy, but remember not to run faster that you are able...

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  2. I love how you slipped the NEW BABY in there with all those other things. NEW BABY!!!

    So, now I have to share this with you, if you have not already seen it: http://ibreakplates.com/2008/10/im-so-crafty-i-make-people-covergirl/

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  3. Awww congrats!!! :-D

    And the prostitution bit made me laugh... as did ACU actually, all those good schools and then ACU? :-D Sorry it was our rival (or one of the major ones) lol. Everything sounds exciting though... and tiring w/ all the pg hormones. Good luck!

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  4. Congratulations! When is the due date?

    I loled at the prostitution comments. Hopefully you don't have to resort to that ;)

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  5. Hope she considers University of Arkansas, the Houston Arkansas Alumni Association has an excellent scholarship and she can easily get in-state tuition. Stack the offers and she can go for cheap. Plus I'll tutor her on calling the Hogs. Good luck with everything else.

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