So, if you have been within about 10 feet of me in the past couple of weeks, I’m sure I’ve complained about my lack of employment.  It really drives me crazy, this not having a job – don’t get me wrong, I do see the irony in my complaints.  I see that I still have laundry and dishes and a house to clean and this unemployment in the summertime could really be a wonderful thing where I run around with children and laugh and play and find a whole new me who is happy to just sit at the park while they play, or one who drives them to friends houses and plays int he pool and comes up with neat games that we can all play together.

That’s not what I do though.  I take the time that I should be doing those things (including laundry and housework) and I sit in front of my computer scanning craigslist and the local classifieds and etsy and pinterest and all the other things that might give me a job lead.  I click refresh on my email maybe 100 times and wait for someone to write me back about a resume.  I ignore the kids who seem happier to make their own games than they are if I ever try to involve myself.  Do you have kids?  have you noticed (or maybe it’s just my kids) that every time a parent comes along and wants to take them somewhere fun like the park, or play an all inclusive game – they fight?  they cry about rules?  they cry that they “have to play” a game or “have to be at the park” which is apparently a hugely boring place once it’s Mom’s idea to go there instead of their own.  humph.

So today I limited myself – I have a couple of possible job leads and rather than stress over them, I watered the yard – I pulled all the dead nasturtiums out of the garden and planted cucumber and spinach seeds.  I hoed the soil along the chicken coop and planted pole beans.  I poured some concrete into some sign posts I’ve been meaning to finish and I washed and hung out on the clothesline two loads of laundry(I refuse to run the air-conditioner and the clothes dryer at the same time).  All the while the kids played happily with friends who are over to play today and I successfully made all 6 kids  lunch.  How did I limit myself?  I limited my own technology time instead of that of the kids – they’re only allowed to play their video games 30 minutes a day while I sit hypocritically pouring over the internet for hours on end – leading by example?  no.

That’s really all today – It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in which the car died, kids have swim lessons, and Scott and I run around just trying to hold all the pieces together while the temperature soared to over 110 and the AC compressor in our house started randomly shutting off at least 2 times a day -This we found is not totally random, it’s just when another large appliance is running that the AC turns off, like the oven or the dishwasher, or the clothes washer  – which makes doing anything productive as far as the house goes, a little difficult during the day and results in our spending hours at the pool instead of an un-insulated house in which the AC only works half the time.

For the rest of the afternoon, while the kids play – I’m going to knit.  I’m going to finish a market bag and then knit some mitered squares that will one day ( probably 10 years because it’s sock weight yarn) end up a blanket.  That is all.  Hope you’re all well and a little more organized in your summer routine than I have been able to be thus far.