These days

What is life like for a SAHM with a 2-year-old? In other words, the answer to the dreaded question: What do you DO all day? Well, I'm going to tell you.

Anytime between 7 and 9 a.m.: I hear a little voice yelling, "MAMA! Get up!" I comply and get the little dude up too, changing him out of his (often soaked) jammies and his diaper.

Ditto on the time: Make bed with Boo handing me the pillows. Go downstairs and make coffee and breakfast. Start watching the PBS Kids lineup while we eat.

Around 10: Give the boy his bath, lotioning and get him dressed. Put him in crib with toys so I can take shower. Amuse boy, whom I've taken out of the crib after my shower, while I get dressed.

Around 11: Throw a load of wash in with my little helper and then nudge him out the door for the day's activity/errands. The former includes trips to museums, story time at the library, a trip to the mall playground, running around in the yard. The latter includes trips to Walmart, Target, Lowe's, Old Navy, etc.

Between 12:30 and 1: Lunch, which for me is a turkey sandwich or leftovers or for Boo is usually one of the holy trinity: chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, mac and cheese or grilled cheese. (Today we had veggie baked beans.)

1-2 p.m.: Sesame Street on Sprout.

2-5 p.m.: Nap for Boo, while Mommy catches up on chores, looks for a job, does work for M and VERY OCCASIONALLY takes a nap too.

5-6 p.m.: Mommy starts dinner while Boo plays.

6 p.m. (or so): DADDY IS HOME.

My aughties in review

The first 10 years of the '00s were a busy time for me. A lot of stuff went down. I:

• Left four jobs (2000 [layoff], 2001, 2004 and 2009 [layoff]);
• Filed for unemployment (2001, 2009)
• Moved twice (in with M in 2000; 2002)
• Got married (2002)
• Bought a house (2002)
• Turned 30 (2003)
• Saw M's grandmother, grandfather and uncle die (2000, 2001), as well as my uncle (2009) and other loved ones.
• Went to Italy (2004)
• Found out M has lupus and went through chemo with him (2005; worst year of my life)
• Won a large amount of money on a scratch ticket (2006)
• Cruised to Bermuda (2006, 2009)
• Hit 1,000 posts on this here blog (2007)
• Had a baby (2008)
• Became a working mom (2008)
• Lost power for four days in the ice storm (2008)
• Became a SAHM (2009)

Busy, busy. It's a new dawn, a new decade, and I'm feeling good. I just wish it would stop snowing before I pull a Jack from the Shining. I haven't left the house (except to pull the Boo around on his sled for 10 minutes) since New Year's Eve. Which was also pretty much spent in the house.

My year in review

At the beginning of 2009, I had a just-1-year-old son and a job. I was looking forward to a Bermuda cruise in May and a new year filled with promise.

I got to go on my cruise, and we had a great time. But two months later, in July, I no longer had a job -- a casulty of a mass layoff. While I was traumatized at first, I've now come to see that it was a blessing. Because I end 2009 as a stay-at-home mom (known by the cool kids as a SAHM) who is enjoying her son and her newly slowed-down life.

Things aren't perfect, as they never are. I get bored. My brain occasionally feels like it's turning to mush. Adult conversations are few and far between. And there really aren't many decent-paying, part-time, work at home jobs for a writer/editor/journalist.

Still, if I could sum up 2009 in three words, it would be these: Work doesn't matter. Being unemployed gave me the freedom to travel to Florida when my uncle died suddenly and be there for my aunt and cousins. When my dad had a stroke right before Thanksgiving, I was able to drop everything and head to the hospital to be with my mom and brother. (My dad will make a full recovery.) And on a more frivolous note, shopping, Christmas or otherwise, was a helluva lot easier when you can go in the middle of the day with all your other laid-off comrades. My days are mine and Boo's. My work benefits the people who really matter: My family. Someday I will go back to work, of course. But for now, I'm mostly digging on the time off, which, when you have an almost-2-year-old (gasp!) and a house, isn't a whole lot of sitting around. But I'll take it. And Boo is loving it too.

Happy new year, and may 2010 bring you nothing but good things.

A different kind of NaNo

It's been four months since I got laid off, and I still don't have a job. But yet I do. Taking care of my son and house is keeping me busier than a full-time job, and the hours are a little crazier. Since I'm technically not working (although I am; just not for a paycheck) I decided to try to do NaNoWriMo this year. I'm steaming along and where I should be, although I seriously have to kick myself in the ass several times to write every day. So yes, I am writing. Just lately, not in this blog, as many of my bloggie friends are for NaBloPoMo.

In other news, I have actually gotten a few bites on jobs. One was pretty serious. It just wasn't anything I wanted to do, as I turned out, and the pay wouldn't have covered the cost of childcare, so I bowed out of the chance to have a second interview. I did feel bad walking away when it was one of the few bites I've gotten, but honestly, I'm enjoying being home with the Boo so much, it would have to be an incredible opportunity for me to step back into the professional working world. So the search goes on.

All I need is a miracle

As of Tuesday, I will have been out of work for three months. I have submitted probably a hundred resumes, made calls, etc. And mostly, I've been met by dead silence -- the black hole. The only responses I've gotten have been a request for an interview -- which I went on, it went well, and I was summarily rejected via letter -- and an interested email about another job. When I followed up, the position had been filled, but I was told I was on the "short list" for future opportunities.

All of this makes me feel bad for my fellow job seekers, but it also makes me pissed at them for being the competition. There are very few jobs out there, and too many people looking. It's very ugly. Part of me wants to retreat from job searching altogether and just embrace my life as a SAHM. But I don't want to give up. My next opportunity is around the corner, I keep thinking. All I need is the stars to align properly. And perhaps a minor miracle.