Summer Life Begins & Balancing Life and Work Takes Time

Well...the life of a blogger is crazy. There are little windows of time that I can get things done and now that the kids are home...well..you know how that goes.

As a people pleaser type, I find it difficult to find time for myself because I am busy working. While I don't work outside the house, well I do but not in a standard office. My jobs are in the social media realm which include my blog, my website, Twitter, Facebook and creating advertisement for online ads. My day consists of editing photos for online posting, writing for Maria's Space or the community site I run after a nearby town lost its newspaper, being a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter, granddaughter, sister, taking care of the house, taking care of my social media clients, following up on giveaways and reviews which means, email, email, email, reading books for review and everything else that comes along with life while maintaining my first priority as a MOM! It is the job I find most important. It is the job that gives me the most joy and stress. It is also the job, I wish I was better at. We all do our best and there are times we are the best parent possible and times that we could use a little help but you never have time to ask for it.

While most of my jobs are not something I NEED to do but choose to do, it is something I find myself wondering if I should be stressed by it. At anytime I could give it all up and just be busy with life but keeping my sites going gives me joy and currently one is allowing me to earn a tiny income. Tiny means under $150.00 a month but it is something and I couldn't have done it if not for Maria's Space.

Back to life and the kids:

School ended last Wednesday and I gave the kids the rest of the week off. This week, summer officially begins and that means, fun, good times but also learning.  They both start swimming class today at a nearby high schools pool. They can't wait! They will also have to start writing in their journals today and the workbook session will begin on July 1st!

We also have plans for some summer school, Handsome is taking a social skills class starting July 10th and Goddess is expect to have a summer reading course which was offered by the school. Hopefully I hear more about it soon.

Last week I took photos at a Senior Center and met a member of the International Lions Club. The Lions had donated a pool table to the center and I wanted to take photos for the paper. The Lion member who attended was a past president of the club and invited me to the Lions Inductee Dinner where I took more photos to post on their local newspaper. When I was leaving the former President came over to thank me for coming and wanted to know what my "wish list" was. Apparently he is my fairy Godfather because I mentioned to him that I would love some of the merchants who I cover online to advertise on the website that I spend 12 hours a day working on. This weekend, I received 3 new ad requests.  One is paying for the whole year. Very excited to work on the last ad and send it over for approval so I can invoice out! Not a fortune but really does add to the month intake of the website and justifies all of the time I spend working on it and attending everything I am invited to by the town. It also justifies the negativity that comes with being an Editor. I have had some personal attacks because of the website's comment capabilities. People who can write anonymously can be unkind. While I know you can't make everyone happy, and I can shake it off. It makes it harder to attend some of the social gatherings I am invited to. You never know who was the person being nasty to you. They could be smiling right in your face and you wouldn't know it although they know who you are. Oh well...

As for Teach, he started a job about 3 months ago. Completely different from what he has done in the past. My blue collar guy is now white collar and drives a company car, wears dress shoes instead of work boots and slacks and dress shirt instead of a polyester uniform.  He is also in the best shape ever. After starting work and realizing we had no money to buy him clothes he needed to drop a few pounds so he could fit comfortably in the few dress clothes he had. He dropped 30 in 3 months and looks incredible. Not easy either, he works out at least 2 hours 5 days a week and only eats chicken, turkey, salad, protein shakes, Belvita cookies, and Wheaties! The man is dedicated.

Will have to snap a picture of him soon because once football season starts the eating resumes but right now...he looks amazing.

Going to get the kids ready for swim class. Have a great day everyone!