A Wall of Music

I think I’ve come up with a pretty good solution to my issue regarding interruptions when I’m working. I’ve been browsing MP3 players and think one of these might be perfect for me¹.

I realize that work-from-home parents are supposed to be available at the beck and call of their children and significant others, but there are other times when you just have to get things done. Many parents are lucky in that they have an office with walls and a door that locks (should that need arise). I’m not. My office is in a main area of the house and the family has no qualms about coming to me for everything. When I’ve got to get an article out this week as well as finish a school project I may need uninterrupted work time. That means, sadly, I have to block them out.

My problem is that when I’m writing and get in my groove my work flows and is practically readable. When I’m working and have been interrupted 5 times my work is negatively affected. It’s obvious. You can go through either of my blogs and read through them to be able to tell when I’ve been interrupted.

Steve just interrupted me, for example. Right in the middle of that last sentence. The flow got jammed. He’s home from work for the day and really doesn’t think that anything I could be doing online is profitable². It’s getting to be old hat telling him to leave me alone, feeling guilty, and letting my work suffer. Pee Wee likes to have mother/daughter chats when I’m in the middle of an article. This, of course, makes me grouchy. Her feelings get hurt. I feel guilty. I’m off the computer. She gets to check her MySpace³. Today should be tons of fun because they’re both home. *chuckle*

Can’t have a physical wall, but the music would make for a perfect invisible one. I’ll try it out and let you know how I fare. Or, rather, how they fare without me for a few minutes.

1. I did have a MP3 player previously, but Pee Wee commandeered it and, well, it didn’t end pretty [↩]
2. But he likes that money. [↩]
3. Aha! The game is up, my dear! [↩]

Parenting Teen Parents

I was looking around for some forums for parent’s parenting teen parents (say that 5 times fast) and ended up with… zilch. There are a few places for parents of teens, parents of tweens and teens and parents wanting to pull their hair out because of teen issues (ZITS????). Where is the support for parents parenting teen parents? It’s a little frustrating for me because my issues is a tad bit different from what else I’ve seen online and I really feel the need to scream about it¹.

So, I was searching. Silly me decided to open every link on the search page in a different tab. Of course, that sucked up the ram and my browser shut down. When I reopened said browser I was asked if I wanted to restore the last session or start a new one. Without thinking I chose to restore. Boom! Same thing happed again. I had to give up. Which meant that I had to give up on my search.

I did find an interesting site called The Mom Bloggers Club. I signed up and maybe I’ll run into someone there with my same issue re: Pee Wee. We’ll see. I can’t be the only one struggling with this particular issue. Can I?

As it is, we’re coming into the home stretch with Pee Wee’s baby. He’ll be here soon. But I know she’s not mentally or emotionally ready for this. I know that she’s just not “getting” it. That scares me to death. I’ve already had a couple of nightmares about it. We have one year to shape her up and help her learn how to parent. One year. And then she’s on her own. What then? Good grief, I’m up to my eyeballs with worry. I’d like to think that she’s learning something from me by watching me with Mags. But she’s been arguing about my parenting technique a lot this past week or so. I should be doing this and not doing this and why aren’t I teaching her this…ARGH! She’s got a lot of opinions now- and she’s not afraid to shove them down my throat. Yeah, it’s a struggle. I remind her that I’ve got years of parenting experience on her and just because she’s growing a baby now doesn’t give her leave to preach to me. It’s a little bit of a fight. Just a tad. Enough, though, that I’ve been heard to say (a little loudly) “Calgon, take me away!”.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she stops with the parenting advice soon. If she doesn’t, well, I can’t make promises…:)

I love my child so much. But sometimes the struggles of helping her get ready to be a parent (I wasn’t ready for that, you know) get to be a little too much. Sometimes I just need to scream/holler/cry/curse and have someone not point at me and say something like “Well, her mom was young- what did you expect?” or “Why would you allow her to make that kind of decision? You should put that baby up for adoption” Those aren’t helpful and really make we want to lash out. That’s why I’d love to be around other moms who are going through this same thing with their child- even though they thought they raised their child to understand the dangers/pitfalls/disappointments of teenage parenthood.

If you know of any forums for this, please send me a link. I’d be terribly grateful.

1. That just means I’m stressing, by the way [↩]

Getting Through My List

Last weekend I made a list of things that I need to get accomplished this week. On the top of that list was “Spring cleaning”. Other things on the list were “Send out Resumés”, “Write two articles”, “Study for exams”, etc. Can you believe I got two of those done? Ha!

Spring cleaning was the worst. I thought I was going to have to rent a couple of steam cleaners.Seriously, this place was musty. Down came all the curtains, out came the cleaning supplies and I got busy. All weekend. Windows, floors, ceilings, everything. It’s like new in this joint right now. It won’t last long, of course, because my home is occupied by a toddler, a dog and two slobs, but for now it looks really good.

I sent out three resumés today. Two of them were for writing gigs and one of them was for a gig that pays hourly (still working from home, of course). My poor resumeé looks like crap. And bare! Holy smokes, it’s pitiful. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m going to go back over it again tomorrow and see if there’s anyway to make it better. I thought about doing an article on that, but I really don’t have the time for researching it. Isn’t that sad?

Two weeks from tonight is my last night of class for this semester. I’d love to spend this time studying for that, but next week is a section exam. Studying for the final will have to wait until after that’s done. I’m not pleased. This class is not easy for me and I need to get a grip on the material. Since it’s comprehensive I may end up bald and in tears before it’s all over. Luckily my other class doesn’t have a final and I’ve gotten good marks on all of the projects so far. At least I don’t have to worry about that. I’ve decided to take algebra and English next semester. My coding classes will have to take a backseat to this other stuff for now¹.

I’m also considering moving this blog off the main index of Chipped Polish and making a portal instead. I was thinking, if I get more gigs, that I could make some kind of portfolio page and link from there. I don’t know though. It’s probably an idea that won’t see fruition for quite some time. Honestly, I can’t see myself doing anything extra until after July. By then I’ll be so sick of the warm weather I’ll be hiding inside through the day. The sun isn’t good with me. He likes to make me have episodes and I really don’t need anymore of those.

Tomorrow, I write my articles. I’ll link to them when I’ve got a few more up. Right now my page is bare and I don’t like the way it looks. I have to rearrange some categories, spruce up the forums, etc. I’ll be out of training soon, so I’ve really got to get on the ball. I can’t wait to start raking in some dough².

1. I’m hoping that my tech professor is replaced before I start taking his classes again. [↩]
2. Not much, of course. But I’ve got a plan. [↩]

It’s Time

Tonight I was helping a friend upgrade her WP installation. I actually should have done it a while ago, but she never specifically gave me the go-ahead. Unfortunately for her, I saw a warning about a new threat for the old WP, so I just went ahead and switched it for her¹. Now she’s got to find a new theme. Oops.

Still it was a huge headache. I forgot all about deleting the cache and couldn’t figure out why her dashboard didn’t change. I’m pretty sure this was also the reason why her theme kept switching to default on her. Another oops on my part. I hope that it’s working better for her now. Personally, I love the new WP. Some people don’t. She might very well be one of those people.

Right about now I’m wishing I had a basement lined with wine racks so I could help myself to some headache remedy. Of course, if I did have something like that, it probably would have toys and magazines instead of fermented grapes. Why is it these projects always make my head hurt, but I always feel such a sense of accomplishment when I solve the puzzle? Still, I want that wine.

1. I’m hosting her and it was just too risky [↩]

Speaking of…

Yesterday when I mentioned that my husband wanted to give up this job for his dream, I had yet to get my mail. It seems that our insurance deductible was raised another $1000 since Pee Wee started seeing our OB/Gyn. It’s up to $2000 per person and $4000 for the family. We were hoping that her stay in the hospital was going to pay for the deductible so we wouldn’t have to pay $2,400 to the OB. We were wrong in a big way. To put things in perspective, our insurance deductible was $350 per person/$750 for family in January 2006. In June they raised it $1000 per person/$3000 for the family. And now it’s gone up again.

I imagine I’ll soon have to buy a bulk load of exam gloves and start treating my families ills with herbal medicine and homeopathic remedies. Strawberries, by the way, are good for bruising (smashed and applied as a compress) unless your child is allergic. Then they suck too.

Looks like we’re going to have to dump the insurance after all. I’m glad that everyone else will be covered by something (though Steve still has to pay a small co-pay for the VA doctor). As long as I stay poor and don’t find my footing in my “career” the medical for the kids will be taken care of, albeit by doctor’s that are overloaded, mean, and really don’t care too much for medicaid kids. That sucks too.

I think I might need a nap already.

I Get A Little Sidetracked

I have been having some real issues at home and at school lately. Most of those issues are time-related and it’s pretty much all my fault. I was spending way too much time on Twitter, reading forums, watching videos… It’s pretty easy to be unproductive while working online, that’s for sure.

Of course, I’ve been doing a lot of work outside. I probably shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. It’s gorgeous out there right now. Winter is finally over, the flowers are finally up and things have got to get done. Steve and I are working on some motion-activated lighting because the other night someone came through to our back yard and left our gate open. The neighbor’s car was broken into, so we think they were probably checking our house too. Warm weather brings more than beautiful flowers, I’m afraid. At any rate, my flower beds are shamefully neglected. Last summer I was sick and when I had energy it was spent tending to Steve’s vegetable patch. Not this year. This year is all about my posies. He’ll have to tend to his own tomatoes.

Speaking of tending things, my husband has decided it is his dream to be a cattle hand. He wants to work at a local dairy farm instead of where he’s currently employed. He wants me to apply for the medical card for Mags so he can get rid of the insurance. Of course, while Mags and Pee Wee will be covered by the medical card, he’ll get VA benefits and I’ll get…zilch. Because we work I can’t get the medical card and the VA doesn’t offer benefits for spouses. Isn’t that lovely? He says we’ll put back money for my medical expenses. Except that his pay will be cut directly in half, he won’t get overtime (farmers are exempt from paying it) and we won’t have enough to pay our regular bills. He’ll be living his “Farmer Brown” dream, though. Yippee!!¹ He also closed out our IRA fund. Isn’t that lovely? Who needs a retirement fund when there are (someone else’s) cows to be milked? Feh.

Someone in the BellaOnline forums mentioned to me that I look young (in a conversation on why I probably convinced my daughter to go out and get pregnant² because I was a young mother and…). I’m thinking I won’t look so young much longer. I’ll be turning 35 pretty soon and I’ll start looking 66 soon after. There’s no doubt in my mind.

So, what am I doing to insure our family doesn’t go belly up? Sadly, not a whole lot right now. Hopefully things will pick up for me and I’ll be able to report something other than just family news. I have something in the fire right now, but it’s taking a while to pan out. It’s got something to do with pre-screening and getting the ok from publicists. That’s all I’m saying. I keep trudging along, taking the good opportunities as they come. I think if I keep taking risks, putting my neck out, and facing rejection head on I may just find that golden egg.

1. This is the part where I refuse to be the supportive wife. My husband has gone insane. [↩]
2. Which is a story not for this blog, I think. [↩]