Car woes:

I've been carless since February. That's right folks, a long...very long...six months without a car. I've been very lucky in that when I've absolutely needed a car for things like doctors appointments and, oh, I don't know...having a baby...Drake's coworker has been very generous and let us use his car.

So anyways, we decided we need a new car. We got the all clear from the credit union to go and buy a new car. Up to $40,000 WOOHOOO!!!! Of course, there's no way we could afford the payments on a $40,000 car, so we're looking more around the $25,000 range, leaving us a nice chunk of a payment, but nothing that will leave us hungry or homeless. I found THE car I wanted. Then everything fell apart!!!! Ugh, we were SO close. So, we're still carless. :( Hopefully not for too much longer though. I haven't given up hope!

Work woes:

Work? What's that? Well, I work...a lot. I just don't have a job. Yes, I realize that being a mom is a ton of work and all you other stay at home moms don't go jumping down my throat now saying I'm doing a disservice to stay at home moms everywhere by saying it's not a job and that we'll always be undervalued and underappreciated and never get recognized for all of the hard work we put into raising our children if even other stay at home moms devalue their job...Blah Blah Blah. LOL I consider it work...damn hard work. It's not a job. Get over it. Show me my biweekly paycheck and I'll consider it a job. Being a mom is my life. It's not my job. It's a part of who I am. I don't consider moms who work outside of the home as having two jobs. Ooh, I'm getting sidetracked...I'll go into this more later.

This isn't even about my work woes. Well, it's my work woes, but not my work. Clear as mud? Anyways, Drake found out today...well, technically yesterday since it's one in the morning...that he leaves for New York in the morning. Granted, we knew it was going to happen eventually, but it would have been nice to have a little more notice. Oh, let's just say at least 24 hours or so! We're right in the middle of trying to buy a car gosh darn it! I can't do anything without him here and we're on a hugely tight schedule. We need to have a car by the end of the month and he won't be home until the night of the 26th! Argh, sometimes I hate his work. I love the income, of course LOL I just hate that it takes him away from the family so often and that he gets such little notice before they fly him across the country! I mean, he has five kids, don't they care? Well, obviously not. They were nice though and his boss went to New York instead of sending Drake when the baby was due to be born. Gee, thanks, so kind.

I really shouldn't complain. Drake is very lucky to have this job. He absolutely loves it. I don't know many people who love their jobs. Drake looks forward to going to work in the morning. He really loves what he does and it pays the bills and supports my fabric habit. (Well, not anymore after we buy the car. I'm going to have to drastically cut back on my shopping *sob*) He enjoys traveling. He misses the family a ton, but enjoys it. I enjoy getting a break from him for a little bit. How horrible does that sound? LOL I miss him terribly when he's gone, but a little time apart usually does us some good. I just wish he could pick and choose when he has to travel. Gee, is that too much to ask for? (Yes, I realize it is!) He's going to miss Emma's first day of Kindergarten :( That really sucks and he feels terrible about it.

Food woes:

I'm running out of things to do with pork loin. Yeah, I know, not really high on the "woes" list, but it's bugging me. I bought this huge pork loin thing and can't think of what else to do with the meat that is left. I think my kids are getting sick of pork. I need to disguise it so they don't say, "Pork, again!?!?!?!?!" lol Gotta love Costco and buying in bulk!

Well, that's all for now. I have to go take Drake's clothes out of the dryer and fold them so he can pack for his trip in the morning.

Okay, back to the whole stay at home mom vs. work out of the home mom thing and is "Stay at home mom" a "job." Being a mom is part of who I am. It's what happened when I first got pregnant with Caitlin. I just "became" a mom. Just because I stay at home while I'm a mom doesn't make being a mom my "job." I just happen to be able to stay home...period. I'm a mom that stays at home. It's not a job. It's my life. I'm a mom. I don't have a job. Therefore, I'm a stay at home mom. Makes perfect sense to me LOL

A while back I came across this article:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The old adage that "a mother's work is never done" remains as true now as ever. Today's stay-at-home Moms are learning what their predecessors always knew -- they'd be making a lot of money doing their job outside the home.

Just in time for Mother's Day, an informal study conducted by Web site Salary.com shows that stay-at-home moms would earn an average of $131,471 annually, including overtime, if they received a paycheck.

A sampling of the 5.4 million stay-at-home mothers were asked to come up with job titles that fit a general description of their daily routines.

The titles -- which reflected the most time-consuming parts of their day -- include day-care center teacher, van driver, housekeeper, cook, chief executive officer, nurse and general maintenance worker, the survey showed.

Of course, a stay-at-home parent does not work typical office hours. The hypothetical median salary is based on a 100-hour work week and assumes caring for at least two children of school age.

"The importance of this calculation or this estimate is just calling attention to the fact that being a stay-at-home mom is not a cop out, it's not the woman's way out of the workforce and it's not a job of no value," said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. "There is a lot of value there, and some would say it's even priceless."

Salary.com, which tracks what jobs pay, suggested that the annual base pay for a 40-hour stay-at-home mom's workweek would be $43,461. Mothers would earn an additional $88,009 a year for 60 hours of overtime each week.

"I think I should definitely make that much," said Joanna Butti, who stays at home to care for her twin boys. "It's a hard job."

Coleman said feedback on the figure was mixed. Some felt mothers deserved more, some less. In general, though, many were pleased to see a figure above $100,000.

"Stay-at-home moms are enthusiastic and upbeat about their jobs, they didn't seem to need external validation," Coleman told Reuters. "They were also happy that they were getting attention, and that somebody was out there telling the world that what they do is valuable, and perhaps more valuable than one would expect."

Mothers said you cannot attach a figure to the time spent with their kids. "I'm giving 150 percent of myself to them many hours a day," said Debra Miley, who stays home with two-year old daughter Olivia and four-month old son Gregory. "You cannot attach a dollar value to the time that you spend nurturing your child if you're lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom."

I agree that SAHM's would be worth a whole lot of money if they actually got paid for what they do. However, WAHM's do the same thing SAHM's do as soon as they get home from work, so it's not like they aren't worth equally as much. In fact, they have their job outside of the home, and while there, they are still personally responsible for the actions, activities, and daily goings on of their children even though they aren't physically with them. If there is a problem with their child at school, it is still their responsibility to take care of it. A WOHM is still the "CEO" of her family "company." Just because her hands aren't directly in it at every moment, she is still responsible for what happens. So, you could say a WOHM works two jobs at once, then adds to the responsibility of her second job as soon as she gets home from her first.

I enjoy being a stay at home mom, for the most part. There are times that I wish I had more adult interaction and that my days consisted of more than housework and childcare. I actually think I might be a better mom if I wasn't a stay at home mom. Who really knows. It's not like I could go and test that theory. A high school diploma doesn't exactly bring the type of job that can pay for daycare for five!

So anyways, being a stay at home mom is work...a lot of work...a lot of difficult, underaprreciated, undervalued...at times, work. It's still not a job.