Well, THAT was a short maternity leave

I just realized that if I had chosen to continue with my job, I would have had to go back to work today.

Wow.


Baby D has been around for six weeks now, the amount of time my former employer allowed for maternity leave, and, it seems after consulting my friend Google, an average time for maternity leave across the board. Geez Louise, where did the time go?? There is NO WAY I'd have been able to leave Baby D today! He is just finally starting to normalize in behavior and habits. I'm still healing up from that dang C-section. And the house is, of course, still a big mess.

How do working moms do it? Managing kids, household work, and a job? They could definitely teach me a thing or two about organization!

I've always known that when we had kids, I'd stay home and make them my job. And this has come with a price. I joke that when Baby D was born, we didn't go from two incomes to one-- it's more like we went from one income to half an income, lol! So we're pretty broke right now. But fortunately, I have a hubby who is of the same mind as I am, and is as committed to making that happen. And, of course, I'm brainstorming on ways to generate some income from the home!

We'll make it work, even though I foresee a hard road. But today, my hat is tipped to the working moms, who have to do something even harder: say goodbye to baby and walk out the door.

A Brief Life Update

I'm back! Wow, life has been crazy for the past few weeks, and I apologize for being such a blog slacker. So here's what's been going on in a nutshell:

~Adam got sick. And then I got sick. It was some sort of nasty respiratory sickness, which I'm still recovering from as far as sniffling and congestion. Since I'm exceptionally loathe to take medication, being pregnant and all, I tried a device called a Neti pot. It's like a small teapot that you fill with a saline solution and use to rinse your sinuses out. Go here if you'd like to see a weird lady demonstrate it on Youtube. I do not recommend those bending exercises, though, unless you want boogers all over your floor!!! Just sayin'. I'm not entirely sure how effective the Neti pot was for me, but it was nice to feel like I was doing something about my cold.

~My work replacement started with the company last week, so I've been training her. And by "training", I mean playing solitaire while she does my job. Ahhhh, these will be a glorious last few weeks at work.

~My sister's birthday was on Tuesday. Since our birthdays are so close together, she made the three-hour drive down here so we could celebrate it together! Our cake was INSANE. She wanted a raw cookie dough cake, and I wanted an ice cream cake. So we combined and made a ridiculous double-layer chocolate chip cookie dough cake with a full carton of ice cream spread over the top. Calories don't count on your birthday, right? Right?? Oh yeah, and since my sister was turning twenty, and I'm turning twenty-four, we put forty-four candles on the cake. I dare you to find a more ridiculous cake (and one that makes a bigger cloud of smoke).

~So what am I doing on my actual birthday, which happens to be tomorrow? Well, not much-- I'll be spending most of the day at work. I'll also be celebrating Arnold Schwartzenegger's birthday, as well as National Cheesecake Day!!! This is probably going to involve me bringing some sort of cheesecake dish to work tomorrow. Adam probably has some special plan up his sleeve because he's sweet like that, but otherwise, that's what my day looks like.

~Today, we went to the local water park for free, courtesy of Adam's workplace. Since I can't really go on any of the slides, and Adam's favorite ride was closed for maintenance, we hung out there for a couple hours, said, "Well, this is lame," and went home. I am SO glad that we got in for free, because they way overcharge for everything there!!! I highly encourage any readers in the area to find alternative means of entertainment, because you will be charged theme park prices for a less-than-memorable experience.

~We are watching a dog for some friends who are currently out of town. The household menagerie score: DOG +1, extremely happy and excited to see our cats. CATS -2, throwing literal hissy fits and spending the past approximate 36 hours under our bed. ADAM AND MARIA +5, extremely entertained by how much the dog still loves the cats anyway.

~My midwife appointment on Tuesday actually took place at our apartment, so that they could scope things out and not worry about finding the place when B-Day actually arrives. Luckily for me. they did not take one look at my apartment and shriek, "NO WAY are you having a baby in this MESS!!!!" which is probably because I spent the two days before doing some hard-core cleaning. Not surprisingly, my blood pressure was high. Of course I wasn't going to tell them, "Yeah, I was under stress to get the house clean!!!" so now I have to actually formally exercise and eat more protein. Oy veh. On a more positive note, tomorrow marks nine months!

So that's what's going on at the Downright Domicile. Hope you all are beating the heat just fine and enjoying the rest of your summer!

Why I love Tuesday

I *love* Tuesdays! Tuesday and Sunday are my two days off from work. Since Adam is home on Sunday, that day is kind of a "anything can happen" day, because it's all about us being together. But Tuesday, mmmm, delicious Tuesday, is a day that I can count on a few things happening:

*The floor gets picked up and vacuumed

*The house gets a good dusting

*The kitchen gets a little cleaner

*Some laundry gets done

In short, it's the day where I feel a little less like a housewife fail.

I know many women who derive a great deal of satisfaction from going to work. Getting out of the house, doing great things at the office, and earning a livelihood are what make life worth living for them. But for me, little makes me happier than the domestic life. For me, a job is just a way to stay in my castle for another month. :-P I find cooking relaxing, menu planning interesting, and cleaning therapeutic (even though it sometimes takes a lot for me to get off my duff and actually clean. I am human, after all). I hate leaving the house every day and leading a life fragmented between work and home. Perhaps it's because my parents have always worked at home that I love making home my work.

So this is why I love Tuesday, and why, come August, I will be leaving the working world entirely and doing the Stay-At-Home-Mom thing. Sure, finances will be very tight, and I know that I have some very frustrating SAHM days ahead.

But every day will be a Tuesday.

Works for Me Wednesday: Simplify Those Lunches!

This is geared more towards the working folk, but I’m sure it could apply to those who are also working very hard at home. :-)

One of the problems I encounter with lunch at work is not only shopping for food to bring for lunch, but also preparing and bringing something every. single. day. After doing that a few times, fast food starts looking mighty good!

So what I do is buy something in bulk that I can put together in the office break room. Lately, I’ve been having my own salad bar for lunch: a big bag of salad, cottage cheese, bacon bits, baby corn—you name it. It usually lasts me through an entire week, I don’t have to get up extra early to fix lunch, and I save a ton of money that would otherwise go to a fancy salad bar! Plus, after the salad is gone, I still have a whole bunch of toppings that only require another bag of salad in order to feed me for another week!

Next week, I plan on having Baked Potato Week. Simplifying work lunches Works for Me!



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This WFMW post is part of the carnival graciously hosted by We Are THAT Family.

Workplace Oddities

I usually work in the offices in the back of the store. So when I had to emerge today and do some business up at the front desk, I was surprised to see a businessman charging towards me with a packet in his hand.

"Excuse me," he said, "this may sound like something on TV, but I was at a party a few weeks ago, and I met a guy who owns a music store. I promised him I'd give him some pictures of the party when they got developed. So do you know THIS guy?"

And with that, he proceeded to pull out several pictures and show them to me: "That's him... and that's him... Oh! How did that blonde picture get in there?..."

There are so many wrong things with this scenario. Like, how did this businessman NOT manage to get the name of a person he's developing pictures for? And wouldn't you think there's a better way to find "the guy who owns a music store", other than driving all over town to every music store? There's this thing called the Yellow Pages, buddy. And maybe I'm a little overprotective of information, but isn't it sort of a faux pas to be flashing someone's photo all over town like that?

No, the man in the pictures was not a part of our store. So the Guitar manager gave the names and locations of about three more music stores in the immediate area and sent the silly businessman on his merry way. He may still be out there.

Movin' On Up!

I have a new job!

Or at least, for a trial period. But I'm pretty confident that they'll see what an awesome employee I am, and keep me on.

I'm excited because it's actually a job in my field. Not a glamorous job, mind you, or even my ultimate job goal, which is being a professional violinist/violin teacher. This is a secretarial job for a large musical instrument and supply store. But, it's a step closer to where I need to be, and for goodness' sake, I won't be slicing ham all day anymore. Hooray!

A Day for All Chores

I realized that I haven't really been talking much about what's actually going on in the Downright Domestic household, which is a shame, because that's definitely one big reason why I read other blogs! I enjoy witnessing the vicissitudes in other people's lives. It's kind of like a TV show in real life: Did So-and-So have a great vacation? Did XYZ ever solve that gardening problem? Tune in next time to find out!

Yeah, you can tell that I don't watch much TV. Am I the only one that feels this way about the bloggy world?

So the past few weeks, I've been working at a newly-opened grocery store. It seems that there's something wrong with an entity called The Economy, so people aren't as willing to hire new graduates. So I'm doing the whole minimum-wage job thing. However, there is a definite perk to this job.

My husband is also working there!

If I'm going to spend one third of my day not sitting in front of the TV eating bonbons, I might as well spend it with the one I love, right?

I like to imagine that it's similar to the Olden Days, when the wife would go out in the fields and work side-by-side with her husband. Only now we're shaving deli meat together, ha ha. Nothing says romance like making large vats of potato salad with your husband, right? But we seriously are enjoying working together, and I think it's doing our coworkers some good to see a healthy marriage lived out.

We got Sunday and Monday off this week, so now I'm gearing up to do all sorts of fun stuff like cleaning, banking, and... grocery shopping. At our place of employment, nonetheless! They just can't keep me away!

P.S. Does the font on my blog appear smaller than usual? I was playing around with the HTML earlier, but I can't tell if I messed up the blog itself or just our web browser.

Silly Things at Work

I'm still very much the new Kid on the Block at work, but I am getting the hang of things pretty well! This the second week that I've been waitressing all by my lonesome, instead of trailing other waitresses to learn all their secrets. :-P And this means... tips! Hooray! It's so nice to actually be making money! Of course, now all the cashiers at Wal-Mart hate me because I pay in one-dollar bills these days, but I am thankful for every one of those George Washingtons. So, on to the silly things:

- Suffering a momentary lapse of intelligence, I asked a customer if they wanted sauerkraut on their burrito (should have been sour cream)

- Still having someone nearly every day ask why I'm named Maria

-Making flower pens (I should do a post on that sometime) to use at work. They are a big hit, and last night, one of my female customers went crazy over them and asked me all sorts of questions on how to make one, where to get the materials, etc. Oh, the bliss when a crafting soul meets another!

- Watching the 8-year-old girl (I'm guessing) handle the BIG responsibility of giving the money to the waitress (me), running back with the change, and then running right back with the tip, saying "Mommy wants you to have this!" Too cute.

- Me intensely concentrating on balancing something + my manager being so hyper for some reason that he inadvertently sneaked up behind me and yelled something = me screaming and providing the kitchen staff with something to laugh about all night

Somehow, I had three days off this week. I'm still scratching my head over that one, but I'm not going to question it. :-D Seeing that today is one of those free days, I'm going to get off and try to battle the household Clutter Monster. Later!

Life as a Working Wife

So, I am now working at a restaurant in walking distance from my place. This is good news! Also good news is that hubby has the car working again! Evidently, all it needed was radiator fixer-stuff, coolant, and other such things that Adam and his manfriends figured out. We're not going to drive much anyways, as the equation seems to be driving=spending, but it's nice to have the option!

The restaurant I'm working at is an authentic Mexican restaurant, which is almost entirely run by, well, Mexicans. I made the presently unfortunate choice of taking French in high school and college, so I have no clue what anybody's saying half the time. Meeting other waitstaff for the first time has been hilarious because this is what invariably happens:

ME: Hi, I'm Maria!

MEXICAN: Maria, eh?.... (insert string of questions in Spanish, stopping when he notices the really confused look on my face)... Well, why did your parents call you Maria if you're not Mexican??

I am working with four other Marias. This is pretty historic, as I have found people named Maria to be few and far between! I'm really enjoying working there, as the camaraderie there is unlike anything I've ever seen in a workplace. Some people have been there for fourteen years! Another waitress, a funny, outgoing soul, has been working for this restaurant for twenty-three years! You can tell that they feel almost like family, even with the bosses. 

I'm adjusting pretty well, but there are still a few bumps along the way. I've been a little heartsick lately about never being at ORU and seeing my "family". My dear Adam has also had to put up with more, since I work exactly during lunch and dinner times. :-P The poor guy has had to try to fend for himself at lunch, and then when I get off at 2 P.M. and have a break till 5, I try to throw something together for us to eat. There isn't a whole lot of food in the house right now and we are... broke. My poor, hungry husband!

However crazy life is now, things could definitely be worse, and I am appreciating the blessings that we enjoy right now. I'm sure I will have some great stories from work to share! Stay tuned!

I have a job!

I was awakened today by my phone buzzing angrily at me. There is no church nearby, so there really was nothing for us unemployed, carless people to do but sleep in. ;-) It was the manager of a restaurant right behind our apartment, wanting to know if I could start work tomorrow! Praise God!

This has been a pretty dark week, with the car failure and financial worries. We had no idea where next month's rent would come from. but God didn't drop us. He never does! So be sure to tip your waitresses generously, because you never know when it could be me!