APPRECIATING SUMMER

As Summer 2018 starts winding down, I am grateful to be able to spend days like this enjoying sunny South Florida. As a work at home mom with a side hustle, I have enjoyed that privilege for quite some time.

It has been 5 years since I left my last job in the "corporate world."  Honestly, I have not missed it one little bit! I have though, learned during this "time off," how to really appreciate my health, my days of leisure, my family and the privileges in my life, oh, and how to go after a "side hustle!"  It has also been five years since my brain surgery and I feel much more confident now. It was a very slow process of getting back to some sense of "normal" and having to deal with more migraines than before. However, I am now headed back to the "real" working-world again in August! New job, new industry, new goals!

Sometimes, life steers you in directions that you have to go in, to get you to where you ultimately want to be. So I am at the head of the wheel and setting my sail.

I will keep you posted on that new adventure but for now, I am blessed to spend my last days of summer and probably days off, in general, poolside chilling with my kid, surrounded by beautiful landscape.

"Those who are grateful have more blessings and fulfillment in life than those who are not...True gratitude is a quiet state of poise and inner calm where you're truly thankful, where you sense the divine order and wouldn't want anything to change." 

-Dr. John F. Demartini

A LITTLE HIPPIE A LITTLE HOOD T-Shirt

by LissetteRo

ALMOST TIME TO GO BACK TO "WORK."

So my time is getting closer - closer to going back to the "real world" that is.  The world of working 9-5p.m, which I absolutely dread! It's been a wonderful year and half on hiatus (actually, closer to two years!)  I never went back to work after my brain surgery (craniotomy)  in November 2013.  I mean, I still write/blog and do some social media work from home on the side, but I have not been back in the "real" (corporate) world for a while, and I have to tell you, I do not miss it one little bit!  But times are tough, the economy is rough, and "you gotta do what you gotta do."



I will tell you though, if I could just stay home writing and taking care of my family, I'd be a very happy camper!  During my hiatus, I have written tons of blog entries, designed many items on my MiaMoon Designs website, done social media work for a few companies and I have even created a new blog/website in the hopes of it developing into a book some day.  (A girl can dream, right?)

But with all that being said, sitting at home is still not cutting it in the middle class suburbs in today's economic turmoil.  It is a luxury to stay home with the kids, one that I am infinitely grateful for but I know the time has come to do more on my part to help the family financially.  So until, I get that big book deal or write a ground-breaking blog entry, or sell thousands of my adorable designed t-shirts or mugs, the reality is that I must get ready to go back to "work."  It's not going to be easy!

I had an initial phone interview today for a marketing job with the possibility of a face-to-face interview next week, so it is beginning to look a lot more realistic now.  I have been holding out for that "perfect job" with great hours, maybe even a part-time but, now-a-days, getting any job is a blessing!  I have to appreciate the good offers that come my way and stop passing them up.

As I write this blog entry I realize, once I get a job out in the real world, I will not have the luxury of writing at 11 o' clock in the morning in my pajamas or picking up my little guy in the school car line at 2:00p.m., or running to the grocery store on a whim or driving my daughter to theater camp during the summer.  Those are the "little things," that I will truly miss, that I do not take for granted!  It will be back to fighting early morning traffic, listening to the morning radio shows and watching the clock tick down to 5:29p.m.

Hmm, I know more and more now this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life!  The finding a job, just to make ends meet.  No!  I want to write and blog and do social media and spend time with my kids and drive them to hockey and theater camp and be active in their daily lives, not just after 6p.m. during homework and bath time.  I know it won't kill them if I go off to work again, but it might kill me, from unhappiness. A little dramatic, I know but the last time I spent 4 years at a job I did not like, I ended up with a brain tumor!  (Yikes!)  Related or not, I do not know.  What I have learned from my experiences is that life is too short to be unhappy.

How does one find the balance between doing what you really love to do in your career, make money and balance your life as a mom?  I guess I will continue my search for something I will really enjoy doing for a living! If you have any great suggestions, please share!

For now, I am off to take my rink-rat to hockey practice!

I know in the end, everything is going to be alright. It might not be the same, but it will be alright!

AFRAID TO OPEN THE DOOR

So I put myself "out there again," I update my resumé, I update my social networks with my job skills, I announce that I am ready to get back to the real world and then when opportunity knocks, I am afraid to open the door!  Aaghhh!

How do I give up the perks of picking up my kids in school or taking my son to his hockey practice three times a week, or helping them with homework?  I claim I want to have my freedom back and make money but how am I suppose to do that sitting from behind this desk?

If only, I could get that "big wig" Social Media job right here from my home, then it would be just right!

I promise to do a great job?  Anyone?