Well, unemployed.

Sort of.

I left my full-time position working at the rehab hospital in March. There were a lot of reasons I left, but after a year and a half the bottom line was that although I loved what I did at work, the company was unorganized and unprofessional. And sometimes, I felt, unethical.

The plan was to pick up more hours at my second job, where they pay me 30%+ more per hour. According to my math, I would need to work 25-27 hrs a week to bring home the same amount of money. They reason they pay me more is because it's a PRN or "as needed" position. This means no benefits and no guaranteed hours. While paid time off and money for continuing education was great, I didn't need health insurance through work so no benefits? No problem.

The kicker has been the no guaranteed hours. When I was working full time somewhere else, my second job was constantly contacting me and asking me to work because they were SO busy. Fast forward until I quit my full time job -- now they have a super low census and don't need me. Going on 4 weeks.

Ideally I didn't want to juggle multiple jobs, but I need to work! I am waiting to hear back on two other job opportunities that seem to offer good pay and flexible hours.

So here's a little smattering of what I have been up to:

1. The house is clean. Obviously something is up, because the folded laundry is put away, and the bed is made. I rediscovered my obsession with my cleaning list, and have been trying out some new cleaning supplies from The Honest Company (referral link). So far I am impressed. With strategy and coupon codes, they are reasonably priced and clean well without the heavy chemical smell creating an acid rain cloud in my bathroom. Also, no vinegar. Winning. 


2. I bought a bird feeder. This was at the beginning of my quitting days. Jon was all against this idea, stating "we're not old enough to start buying bird feeders" and arguing vehemently that this would cause birds to poop on his truck. I, however, am on a mission to bring our backyard up from its current level of lifelessness. It's somewhere around "surface of the moon" inching up towards "clay basketball court growing some weeds". I hung the bird feeder on our fence because sadly, we have no trees large enough to hold it up.

3. Watering straw bales. We're adding two straw bale gardens to the backyard this summer. I read about this in Fine Gardening. They have a twofold benefit of hopefully providing enough garden space to grow pumpkins AND satisfying my compulsion to create 2000 pounds of compost to spread on our clay basketball court lawn.


4. Painted the bathroom vanity. Hate. I am so disappointed with how this color turned out. I was going for something like this:

via

but ended up with something more like this:


Except without all the marble and fresh flowers. I haven't even taken a picture because I am that underwhelmed. To make this even more frustrating, we made the mistake of venturing into the counter top section and discovering how much some fool paid for our current counter top -- a brown speckled plastic/resin with integrated sinks. Quartz. Was cheaper. WHO BUILT THIS HOUSE.

5. A year's worth of mending. Enough that by the end, I threw some things away instead of attempting to mend them. At least I rediscovered five pairs of leggings that had been languishing in the mending basket/pile long enough to be forgotten.

6. Which turned into an "I want to sew again" obsession. Something fun! aka not the busted out seams on 5 pairs of leggings. If you have access to an appropriate size child, I found this free dress pattern today at The Cottage Mama. You have to sign up for her email newsletter, and the pattern gets emailed to you.

7. Thinking about these muffins. From The Law Student's Wife. (not me). Chocolate chunk coffee muffins? Yes.

So! Hoping PRAYING work picks up. $oon.

Any inspiration of the sewing/eating/cleaning variety that you'd like to share?