J-O-B-S, Part Deux

So, some of you may remember that I applied for a part-time accounting job up on the Rez at the beginning of the month. And, I got it! (Which definitely made me feel good and validated as someone who could still contribute to society!) But, the job they wanted me to take was a full-time position that they felt I "could fit into three 10-hour days plus a few extra hours at the end of each month". Yikes! 30+ hours a week is NOT my idea of part-time work! Particularly when those 10-hour days quickly morph into 12-hour days when you add 1 hour's worth of driving onto each end of the day!

But, rather than be hasty, Tom and I sat down to crunch numbers and look at the reality of me working outside the home. One of the big deciding factors was gas prices. Driving an extra 432 miles a week (me to work and then one of us home during our lunch each day to let the dogs out) resulted in not-much-of-a-financial-gain when weighed against the income I'd be making.

Add to that the fact that one of my two weekdays left to be at home is taken up by my "town day" (my egg-delivery day and a necessity if we want little things like groceries, as well). Considering that weekends are always spent doing projects that require the both of us, that left me one day each week to clean the house, do the bill-paying and budgeting, catch up on chicken chores, garden, blah, blah, blah, and a big, fat HA! Not possible!

Then . . . there's the fact that Tom and I are in the midst of starting up two online business (neither of which are quite ready for the big reveal yet, sorry). When would I ever get those up and running if I was gone all the time?! I was having a hard enough time finding time to work on them when I WAS home!

So, for many reasons, it simply didn't make sense for me to take the job. Instead, we agreed that the three days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) that they wanted me to work, I would, instead, work an 8-hour day on the businesses here at home. And, wow! Has that ever helped me make some progress on them! Trying to fit in a little time here and there was NOT working. So, I am "in the office" three days a week . . . but the office just happens to be here at home!

P.S. I do have another new job as well: washer-woman! Our massage therapist recently lost her laundress (as you can imagine, massage therapy creates a good deal of laundry with two sheets for every single client), and I volunteered for the job as a trade for our massages! And, the terrific thing is that we were almost out of our pre-paid massages, and with no extraneous dinero right now, we didn't know how we could continue them (which we both really benefit from)! So, by taking in her laundry, I "earn" us each 1 massage every other week! A good deal, no?