Scheduling

Ug trying to get things done just isn't working well and I seem to be getting crabby.

Quick back ground: I haven't worked full time since March of 2008. (unless you count the in home child care that I did the summer of 2008) H started swimming in the fall of 2008. Since March of 2008 my kids and husband have had a lot of me to rely on for getting things like food shopping and Laundry and forms done.

So lets see what has happened with trying to get used to new schedules this past month. May 23rd Holly's Swimming rec team started up. so we needed to plan what team what night. At the same time with her other team there was a coaching change. We just get used to that and school ends on June 10th. Our first of the every Saturday swim meets starts on the 11th followed by a trip to the American Player's Theater that night.  The next week brings time changes for H's swimming practices and the kids home for the week. I interview and accept my current job on Wednesday June 15th, I start work on Friday. We have a swim meet as per the new usual on Saturday and on Sunday with our usual game group we plan on changes to accommodate my schedule. Monday starts with an 8 hour day at work for me, the kids start Day camp and Both of H's Swim teams change schedules.

My schedule is not flexible and is not set in stone. But camp it and the Swim teams are Bill has a little flexibility.

Week one had lots to be desired getting people to the right places at the right time (at least I did for work and the kids made the bus to camp). H had a teenage melt down on Friday.  G had his Sunday morning and I had mine some where in the wee hours of Saturday Morning and it continued after everyone else left for the swim meet.

I have been waiting for B to have one because even the house seems to be having one. Both the Dish washer and the clothes washer broke Sunday/Monday. These are two appliances it is hard to live with out. So tonight I had to go to the laundromat.  Not a huge fan, One cannot tuck a 6 year old in to bed while one is at the laundromat (he was with me and no one was home) One can't wash dishes, pick up toys, mop and if you forget your computer...Blog. Well the dryer is working at home so I have the wet to damp stuff drying. I think I'll have to check on it and get to bed soon.

Saturday

Wow that week just flew by.

Wednesday particularly flew as I worked 10-6 and then took H to swim at different pool (a 50m pool downtown at the universtiy) B and G cam to drop her off before going to Baseball.
We left the pool at 9 but had to walk to parking then it was a 30 minute drive home with a stop for frosties and fries from Wendy's

This meant we got home close to midnight.

I was off Thursday and Friday. They were mad run around days doing all that I did in a full week in two days plus the normal things and I helped a friend out with watching her youngest while she is recovered from major surgery.

Normally I would be watching H swim right now. but I am a little stressed about working the weekend and this disrupted my sleep at 3AM so I though t that it was better to nap at home before I worked 2-10 than try to survive a 15 hour day. I upsets me that I have in this case chosen work over my kids. I am trying to fly it through my brain at choosing health but that isn't working I took this job knowing I would be working a ton of weekends.

Beside skipping the swimming this morning I am missing out on a birthday gathering that H is included in and possibly a Brunch tomorrow and then the usual Sunday game night is tweaked an possibly rearranged because of me, and I really doubt I will feel like playing after that. I am Mad about all of this and I don't know how to direct the anger. I knew what I was doing agreeing to this avaibility, B knew too. But I am worried that there will be damage to the fabric of the family that won't iron out easily.

Tuesday Morning

I have 15 minutes before I have to go 15 minutes to get shoes and socks on. 15 minutes of quite except for the swish like roar of the dish washer, 15 minutes to assess my hair, 15 minutes to decide if the shirt is too tight. I have done dishes, laundry and made banana muffins this morning. I took the kids to their bus for camp (day camp). G was clingy and sad, claimed he was tired. Then I had a full hour at home alone before now (if the bus was on time it would have been longer).
 I put 2 of H's swim bags together ready if she needs to go to swim practice fast (4:15 instead of 8:30)

Well I now have 10 minutes I think I'll use that time on my appearance.

Tired

I left before Bill and the kids. I had to be at work at 8:55 and their bus was not due until 9:00 and I knew it would be late it was the first day. More than half way there (I needed to experiment on a route because of the dreaded road construction). I realized I hadn't really said good-bye to any of my family.

I shelved some books, ran the register, stickered some cd's, ran the register, sleeved some cd's, ran the register, filed some cd's, and got to know some of my co-workers. I did this all standing (with occasional bouts of kneeling for shelving and filing. My Boss spent a great deal of time with me today. At one point he mentioned about at Christmas what we get from the company. I am not supposed to be with them that long. But maybe he was hinting. He did complement me twice today.

I got home after G left for baseball. I had a nice chat with H and read about the camp day. On request of a friend and my cousin i am putting a daily book recommendation on face book today's is "The History of Farting". It's the book that has been on the counter as a impulse buy I have sold a few. always with a chuckle from the buyer.

H is swimming tonight (and every night) and I get the joy of putting G to bed I hope I don't fall asleep on him. I'd like to chat with B before I fall asleep since he and Holly won't be back until about 10:30 that may not happen.

Back to work

I wasn't completely prepared on Friday.
Oh don't get me wrong I brought my 'A' game I absorbed a lot. I learned a lot. It isn't rocket science and I will have no problem getting things done fast. I just wasn't sure that I was going to work all day and I did the first half was just paper work and general policy stuff. The last four hours or so was working the register and I was on my feet the whole time. At a few minutes before 5 I squatted down and discovered How sore my legs were and how much it felt good to make that movement.

Tomorrow Monday is my first full day on the register. Only 7 hours with a one hour lunch, Did I mention that it is a paid lunch on top of the "bad bed" (only 4 more nights til new bed) I figure that I may be even more tired than I was when I got home on Friday.

On top of that all sorts of new things start for the family tomorrow. The kids start summer day camps and G starts baseball. It will make for a crazy week and in a way I am dreading it I am not sure I will make it through. I guess we will make it work it is what B keeps saying but more and more has fallen to me in the last 3 years since I last worked full time and since then H has started swimming and G started school and has gotten to have some harder behavior problems.

It will be a tough 16 weeks. Well In order to get it going I better get to bed but Laundry need to get done and I need to make sure the kids get in bed. I hope to be able to write more of this  this week but I feel that it may fall by the way side.

Just a couple thoughts for today..

Firstly:- I looked at my email this morning. I have been getting all sorts of emails of job listings. In today's email was an auto-search for Dane County and Part-time it lists a Communications Manager. It's been there for several days. I'm not a marketing professional nor do I have experience in communications field so I hadn't really looked at it. Well it is for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. This is a position with a quasi public authority that is supposed to help the business development in Wisconsin and replace the Department of commerce. This was signed in February just before the protest started. No I don't mean to say that it caused the protests that was something else. But Gov Walker did sign into existence a new independent agency to help with economic development in Wisconsin. OK since most jobs last about 1-2 days on this list before they are gone and this was posted on June 8th that maybe they are not getting a good response. I wouldn't want to try and make such a new agency look good while living in the Madison area right now.


Secondly:- I really need to resort my email box to put the job serch stuff in deep storage/delete after 2 months old or such.


Thirdly:- I will need to re-apply to the DWD for unemployment after I am done with the book store. Gosh I didn't like the process last time. But let us hope that I won't have to.


I will leave you with this:Gov. walker has proposed and possibly passed huge cuts in the carefully crafted W-2 program that Tommy Thompson put together. Among the losses is huge amounts to the child care subsidy program. This will force some women out of the workforce. I can't imagine paying for child care in a single parent home with out help, Unless you make a ton of money.


Well off to spend the full unemployed day with the kids.

Finally!

At 2:30 today I met with G and J at the used book store chain of good reputation. I like these two a lot. we talked for 15 minutes a lot of simple questions would you be OK with that? Is this a problem? Have done this before.  And my favorite alphabetize this stack of paper backs.

They said they would let me know on Friday. At 4:20 my phone Rang G called em to tell me that "we have entered a time machine and it was now Friday and they were calling to offer me the job!

Its been six months since I had a job. This is only a sixteen week position but it is money coming in and a books store, I mean I am working in a book store it will feel like home. I hope to learn a lot.

Now this will mean big schedule changes for the family. We will need to work out carpools for time to time for H and swimming. Especially on the days G plays baseball. I will be working weekends so we will have tight weekends around the other activities. This will be a big change. I am hoping that it will work but I am a little scared.

So in the end for the next 16 weeks I am done job hunting. That in itself is a great feeling. I am going to more than double my weekly income. That will be a nice jump. I need to call the Department of Workforce to see what happens when my time is up at the bookstore about getting all set up again, but then there was a rumor from R that some one may be leaving the bookstore in October that is about 16 weeks from now.

3 days in to summer

Yesterday, I got a lot of cleaning done and lots of crabbiness form the kids. The little one and I have both been having some sleep problem mine is bed related. His is "first week of summer related".  We may have solved the bed problem we plunked down about $800 for a new bed. Well there goes some savings but a rested Mom and make a better employee and mother than one who is in pain. I slept in the little one's bed with him I think we both slept better last night. 8 days til the new bed arrives.

Today I have started by taking the 13-year-old key board away. Hidden until she finished the little projects I have been asking her to do for the past two days.  I now mean Mom but hey it is working.

Yesterday's plan for job hunting was to find a way to do some assessments that require me to be on a window box with specific needs Why they can't find a way to have one log into a virtual machine (which should be easy to do) or have me come into the office is beyond me. But as they did contact me having seen my resume I want to get this done. I have a plan should have set it up for today but Looks like it will wait for tomorrow.

Today is a job interview at Half Price books it is only a temp job but it is something. It is in two and half hours.  Since I have been gardening doing laundry and such I need to shower and primp. But first some facebook and a lunch plan of sorts. Oh and I have some knitting to do........

Monday First Day of Summer

It was a long busy weekend. As good as it was I was happy to see the end of it.
I had planned to sleep in I guess 7:45 may be sleeping in since I was up before 7 all weekend.

I am sitting and waiting for the phone to ring. I know it will, I have a phone interview scheduled shortly. It's for a receptionist position. So I need my best phone voice on. I have been thinking about how to answer my own phone to make a good receptionist impression.

Mean while School is over for the kids I have been making them work hard today the kitchen is cleaner and all of G's socks are matched. I have done a lot of laundry and the Dryer is buzzing in the background (better turn that off before the phone rings in 3 minutes.) The kids start day camp next week. I can't wait but I will miss them. H's summer swim season has started and we decided to have her swim two teams this year which will mean some interesting time crunches G will have baseball start next week.

There goes the Phone........

That was a very pleasant interview/phone screening. It's for a reception potions with Hospice care. ever other weekend Both Saturday and Sunday 8-5:30. So 8 hours a week I need to consider this more. Now to decide if I will go to the civil service exam I signed up for tonight. I am not feeling my best and I am afraid I don't know enough.

I didn't get as much done today as I wanted to. I did do some cleaning I did make the kids do some cleaning. I did get food bought for Dinner tonight and tomorrow through lunch. The kids wrote a nice menu for the week.

I am off to finish some things up and yeah go to the exam. So that is what I have done on the job front well that and clicked on a busy link several times today for Spherion. Yep they emailed me back and asked me to fill out another form on line but it isn't working right now....>sigh<.... more from files of the frustrations of job hunting that is not directly connected to not getting the job...Oh wait now it's working and it seems to be what I already did....

Cumplusive Procrasinator

Some of it may come from a fear of rejection or possibly just exhaustion. I spent an hour and a half this morning (which is short for me) just reading through post on Facebook. Not that much had changed since I last looked around midnight last night.

But finally I went and filled out a couple of applications on line.

My biggest problem with online applications and job sites is that some are bogus. Some are there to take advantage of the desperate job seeker who want something better or new or any something. So they have you click through pages and pages of offers. If you fill out you information just once you will be called and emailed by online "universities" and places that make you pay to registrar for possible job referrals. I know because I have clicked through and through and through twice just twice.  What I get at the end is a search engine listing from all the legit job sites I am already on and many of the listing are expired.

Speaking of expired I have notice that many of the job sites I use actually list the posting date or the refresh date or even the date applications are due but not on snagajob. Drives me nuts because there have been several times I have clicked through to the website and the job is gone.

I don't want to apply for a job that has been posted for over a month without a deadline. If the job has a deadline then I will apply up to the last minute. It drives me a bit nutty.

But today I have some house cleaning to do. I have a full day field trip tomorrow one of the best perks about not working I can volunteer for field trips.

So today on the Job from I have filled out a registration for Spherion staffing (I have little hop there since they have nothing listed for the Madison area) and completed an application for ShopKo online I hope it worked as I started it last night and their served quit on me.

Well I better put My procrastination to better use and clean, or do laundry or something. Oooo I could eat.....

Many Changes

When I last wrote here I was working full time had a child in full time child care and another in School and after school care.

Well much has changed. I went from full time to unemployed to a short series of temp jobs to a great part time job with great people in a toy store.

The toy store gig ended at the end of November when the store sadly closed.

So now 6 months later I am still unemployed. I am looking and at time thinking there is some thing wrong with me.

Well what I think is wrong with me is that I value my children too much to be seen as a potential good worker.

Wow how did it come to this that a mother is a bad investment in a companies time? OK this is really only a suspicion.

So after years of helping other people see that their children were properly cared for so they could work I am running into the road block of being a mother and not who people think they want.

This at times is causing some crushing depressing moods. It has some weeks made the day to day hard and other weeks I crank out more resumes and applications that one should be able to do while the kids are in school and you are talking Mt. Washmore.

So today I thought it was time to talk about it all.  Some may be nice prose, some will be what is happening today and some will be my thoughts and dreams.

But this is it for today. Off to clean the living room, get showered and dressed, and work on Mt. Washmore, and try and remember to eat some lunch.
But before I leave for the day this is what I have done on the job front today (I'll make this an every post day):

I managed to make an account on USAJOBs.com at the recommendation of a friend of my Husband who having done it and looked at the jobs I thik he either 1) doesn't know me at all or 2) has not looked at this site since he got his current job several years ago. because I am 1) not x-military and 2) I am not that interested in gettting over involved in the military. Will I apply for a job there maybe tester for the army.
I also looked at drygoodsus.com since they are opening a store in the local. Ug must have evening and weekend availability.  I probably not have enough for them.