A Little on Working From Home

So...

You probably know about my little Etsy shop (link on the right side of my blog page).  I've had it up and going for a couple of years.  It's evolved a bit for sure.  Back before Jacko came along I was working full time while my husband was in grad school.  As a bit of a creative outlet I opened a little Etsy shop.  It had a few bags, zippered pouches...nothing crazy.  I would sell one every couple of months...at the most.  I was NOT invested in it at all.  Eventually I just did nothing with it.  It just....sat.  I mean, who really wants to work 40 hours a week...plus an almost 1.5-2 hour commute round trip on TOP of that...and then come come and do MORE work?  Um.  Nobody.

Then Jack came along and I dropped my work down to part time.  Then eventually I quit altogether to stay home with the little guy...and let the husband bring home the bacon instead.

We kept this up for a while.  Then Jack's birthday came along and I decorated his party with lots of felt items.  They were a hit.  Jason in particular loved them.  :)  Soon after that it seemed like a good idea to try to figure out a way to bring in a little income on my end.  We have Jason's grad school student loan and the university system pay is a little weird...slightly irregular.  It seemed like a good idea to find something that brought in a little income during the long stretches between Jason's pay checks.

I applied to a few work from home jobs.  One looked really promising...but I didn't get it.

Jason kept telling me to post my felt stuff to Etsy.  I kept putting it off.  Finally I did.  And it did well.

So that's where we are at.

And how is it going?!?

Good...?
I mean YES...good, great, I feel very blessed!

I think though that some how there is this glorified idea that all your problems will be solved by finding a job where you can work from home...not putting your babies in daycare or whatever.  You can sit back, do your work while your children play blissfully at your feet...ALL while making money. HAHAHAHA!

But you know?  It's not that fantastic always. (Surprise, surprise)
Sometimes I think that maybe Jack would be better off in daycare then at home with me while I try to work.  He'd definitely get more attention that's for sure!  I try to keep my work to his nap times and after he goes to bed but if I get too many orders stacked up then I'm forced to work during the day.  I make an extra effort to still leave the house and go to the park but yeah...he has to entertain himself at times...which means that a) my house falls victim to his boredom and b) there is usually a fair amount of whining because let's face it...15 month old's don't exactly entertain themselves well...at least MINE doesn't.  :)

I mean, don't get me wrong...I love that I can stay home with him and make some money.  I love that we can save money by not putting him in daycare.  But...it's not always a perfect situation.  Like everything.  I guess I just want to be real and honest about it.  I'm guessing I'm not the only one who thought that there was something altogether magical and beautiful about working from home?

In the end I feel very blessed and if I HAD to choose I would choose this situation over working outside of the home but it's still...work?!?  I will say it's very gratifying work.  It definitely feels special to receive so much praise from people after receiving their orders.  Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel and then I'll get an email that makes it all worth it.

So maybe the moral of all this is...nothing comes easy, but there is a lot of gratification in fighting through the hard stuff.  I feel proud that I'm helping to contribute to my family (mostly because I HAVE to ha!).  I also hope that Jack will one day understand that a little hard work is okay.  Sometimes you just have to put your nose down and grind it out.  And there is so much more joy in it when you do it with a glad heart and without complaining (still working on that one ahem).  And maybe I won't work one day?!?  Maybe I'll keep doing it?  Who knows.

For now though...
I just feel a little blessed that God chose to allow me to serve my family in this way.

NOTE:  If you ever do start a work from home gig I think it's REALLLLLLLY important that you sometimes get away from everything for a few hours and just...relax.  When I worked part time I didn't feel this need quite so much.  There was something about the fact that I was away from home and away from Jack that sorta made me able to cope better.  This probably sounds odd.  I think it was almost a bit of a "break" in it's own way (mostly because I worked very part time and my job wasn't stressful...and ended when I left the office).  The thing with working at home is you are doing TWO jobs at the same time (mothering and working).  Something about the constant, mixing of the two jobs is really exhausting.  I literally was at a breaking point last weekend and I just needed to LEAVE.  I needed to leave the house and do something completely and totally relaxing.  So I did.  I got a pedicure which I have done twice in my life.  But it's what I needed.  I literally sat there and just zoned...and read.  So yeah.  Taking a break is a valuable, necessary thing.  :)