Making Do

I never thought I'd be a Stay at Home Mum. In fact, I never really even thought all that much about getting married and having children. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with myself, but it was probably geared towards finishing my degree and then either getting a job in advertising or owning my own business.

I've changed my mind since then and decided I'd quite like to be a librarian. I can't really think of any other job that I would enjoy and that would use my best skill, which is the ridicuous speed at which I read books. I pretty much love everything to do with books, I thought about working in publishing, in archives or as a copy editor and perhaps I'll still end up doing something like that too. Jobs that involve books also seem to be fairly transportable, which is important when you have to move around as much as you do in the military.

For now though I can't do any of that. I have no qualifications save my British A Levels in Psychology, English, Theatre Studies and Critical Thinking (which are apparently the equivalent of an associates degree in the States based on the level of the work, despite the fact that they are completed at age 18). I am not yet an American citizen, so I'm automatically disqualified from getting a job on post. Volunteer positions are awkward because I do not want to pay out to cover the cost of childcare while I work for free.

So for now I am making do, it is not something I feel as though I should let myself get frustrated about. I spend a lot of time doing independent research and learning about all sorts of things, I read non-fiction just about as much as I read fiction. I have started writing again, although not directly related to what I want to do it's something that I really enjoy doing and perhaps it will get me back in the swing of writing essays when the time comes to finish my degree.

I'm excited about writing, I've got a couple of articles in progress but the trouble comes with balancing everything. Being at home means that there's the endless amount of housework and of course my first priority being Mikey. I don't like to write while he is awake, I refuse to use the TV as a babysitter so that I can get some work done. I don't think it's fair. I do a bit of housework while he is around, he's getting to that age where he loves to "help" with a lot of things. It's slow moving, but he is learning and I am getting jobs done. We've also started doing a bit of homeschool preschool, not much at the moment though as I'm still researching it. At naptime I take time to relax, maybe write a blog post, do some yoga and just generally chill out for an hour or so. Then at night time I can finish up the housework and work on articles. It often feels as though there isn't enough time in the day to get everything done.

Anyway. Enough of that.

Yesterday I came across a wonderful website called IndieFixx who have started a Free Art Project. This is from their website -

News flash….the economy sucks. The stock market is up & down, people are losing their jobs and homes, all sorts of businesses are closing down & nobody seems to have any idea what the hell is going on. That’s the bad news…

Now for the good news. Even though the economy is tanking, it’s more important than ever to stay positive. We shouldn’t dwell on the negative news, it’s just not doing our souls any good. To that end, I came up Feed Your Soul: the free art project to hopefully bring a smile to your face and brighten your day.

There's some beautiful stuff on there, I've already downloaded a few for Mikey's bedroom and a couple to go in our hallway. Check it Out.