photo credit: Felipe Venâncio

Things are getting tight around my house, like many other houses in America. We’re cutting back a lot and not doing a lot of fun things “just in case”. It’s a bit of a drain on us, but that’s ok. Sacrifices are necessary and all that. But we recently spent $25 to enroll in our bank’s reward program (actually it was January, but that’s close enough to recently). When you get so many points you can cash them in for cash or a gift card or something more tangible (gift cards are the way to go, in my opinion).

So, every time we buy anything or pay bills online, we use our check card (like credit). And our points have added up tremendously. Yesterday we received our first rewards: One $25 gift card to T.G.I. Friday’s and two $10 gift cards to J.C. Penney. The T.G.I. Friday’s gift card actually paid back the fee for the reward program. So, $20 was free.

Now, you’re probably saying that it’s a scam because we have to enroll and spend money to get the rewards. But here’s the thing: We used the card to pay certain utilities, medical bills and for necessary home supplies. We were paying for this stuff anyway. It was awesome to finally get enough points to actually earn some money back.

I have a confession though. I was going to use those gift cards as gifts, but have decided to use them with my own family. I’ll buy gift cards (or prepaid credit cards) for the extended family later. Why not? Maybe I can use my debit card to pay for them and then get points that way. At any rate, I don’t buy myself nearly enough personal things and these cards can be those “splurge” items that we’ve been doing without for so long. Don’t you agree?

The biggest problem with self-employment and working at home is that there is no group health insurance. We work-from-home moms aren’t organized enough to get that for ourselves. Would we even qualify? I don’t know. Anyway, when things happen with our significant others and we lose our insurance through them, what then?

I’m looking at the possibility of losing my coverage through Grump. Which means that I’m going to have to try to find employment that offers it in some capacity. It’s all fine and dandy when the Powers That Be promise affordable or free health coverage to the masses, but it hasn’t happened yet and I’m still just a tad bit ill.

There is some good news though- through all the ups and downs (mostly downs) that I’ve experienced these last couple of months, one of my major symptoms has disappeared. I don’t really want to talk about that one, but I’m very happy that it’s been missing for the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing in the long run because I keep thinking that it’ll come back with a vengeance in a couple of weeks and BOOM! I’ll be suffering even more. That would probably be my luck anyway.

At any rate, I think that work-from-home moms should organize at least in such a way that we can afford group health insurance. I think we’d all benefit from that and what’s wrong with a little organization? Except that we would have a hard time agreeing on anything- but that’s not the point. Then we could contribute even more to our own households and be better business partners to our SOs. It would be nice if that happened eventually.

I’m babysitting again. Pee Wee is off to work (her infection taken care of) and she’s left me with KJ. Normally this would be ok (actually, for work it is ok) but yesterday she almost drove me over the edge. I took KJ with me in the morning for Mags’ dentist appointment. I knew that I wouldn’t be back in time for Pee Wee to go to work and thought that best. Then when she got home from work (around 5 pm) she pronounced herself ill and went to lie down. That’s fine. But then she asked me if I would watch KJ while she went to a friend’s birthday party. Honestly, I was seeing flames.

Um. No. I won’t do that. You’re sick remember? Yes, she did, so she went to lie down again. That was fine. So, I kept him with me all day yesterday. Today she wanted me to keep him in the morning after she got her medication. I explained to her that I had to work before she went to work, but apparently that didn’t register with her. She laid him in his bassinet beside me and went upstairs to do her hair. Lovely, huh? I would so love to walk away and teach her a very strong lesson, but then the only person who suffers there is KJ. Not fair to him. Now I’ve got to spend some time brainstorming and researching ways to make my darling daughter see the light. All the while fighting with Grump and giving Mags the attention she needs. Some days motherhood really sucks.

I’ve been considering trading my coffee fix for diet pills, because they apparently give you the energy boost that you may need and help you lose weight. I’ve gone back and forth about this for a while now, but now I’m thinking about it again. It looks like I’ll be getting up bright and early every morning at 6 am (I hate, hate, HATE getting up that early) to get my stuff done. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to accept the Honors College scholarship, because I’ll have to go to school full time to get it. It really doesn’t look like I’ll get much support in that area either. LOVELY! Makes my heart sing with joy.

It’ll be a good day when I lay down the law and two people in this house stop acting like I owe them something. Ya know?