THE MASTER SCHEDULE & EHOW EARNINGS

I need to keep track of all the balls in the air, so here's a peek into our schedule:

Monday:
Putter around the house.
Exercise in the am while the babeola watches Sesame St.
Write for pay during naptime.
Tutor in the evening.
Husband on grill duty for dinner.

Tuesday:
Music Class.
Write for pay during naptime.
Cook dinner and solo parent most of the day into the night as husband has school.
Exercise after the babeola goes to bed.

Wednesday:
Putter around the house.
Exercise in the am while the babeola watches Sesame St.
Write for pay during naptime.
Cook dinner and tutor in the evening.

Thursday: 
Nature Preschool.
Write for pay during naptime.
Tutor at night.
Husband on grill duty for dinner.

Friday: 
Putter around the house.
Exercise in the am while the babeola watches Sesame St.
Write for pay during naptime.
Grocery shopping in the afternoon.

Saturday:
Writing, writing writing while the husband takes the babeola to grandparent funded Gymboree classes.
Cooking, cooking, cooking for the day and week ahead.
Cleaning if I can muster the interest/energy.
Take babeola so husband can work on home projects.

Sunday:
Take babeola so husband can work on home projects.
More cooking.

It looks kind of idyllic on paper, but the reality is I have ZERO downtime. I am running out the door once the husband gets home and praying I'll be on time for my students. Puttering doesn't mean I get to clean the house, it means I do whatever the babeola will let me. If I want to do dishes, I have to skip breakfast and load the dishwasher while the babeola is eating instead of eating myself. Exercise is often interrupted to deal with demands for hugs that devolve into tantrums if I don't behave like a good little hostage.

I did take on some freelance writing just because money is tight. The money is nice, but I take a big hit on time. I'm hoping I can confine the work to just nap time, but I may be working some nights after I'm done tutoring. I have no idea when I'll work on my own web content projects and may have to let them lapse a bit because I DO NOT want to be working all night every night. That leads to pain from typing all the time and exhaustion from never having downtime.

I thought staying home would yield a better work life balance. In reality, I am working harder than I was before and making less money. Huh.

I also want to touch on the home project stuff. The husband is building the babeola an adorable play kitchen. I'm SO excited for her. She is going to LOVE it.

Plus we've decided to completely rearrange our house (with ALL that free time we have *snort*) and how we live in it. This will involve multiple minor construction projects. I expect it will take a year or more to get it all done, but once completed we will have a dining room--finally a place to eat together as a family!-- a small TV room, and a tiny playroom. Sure, we'll be sleeping in the hallway upstairs, yielding the rest of the dormer to the babeola, but we'll have adequate living space for once! My books have been packed up for 2.5 years now which is UNACCEPTABLE.

Lastly, I am doing well on ehow. I strongly encourage anyone struggling to make ends meet to check into writing for them. I have made over a $100 a month now with 5 months of hard work behind me. Today I made $8 and haven't written anything for ehow in weeks, which is what makes residual income sites like ehow so nice, you keep making money long after the work is done.

It is not difficult to make money on ehow, but it is hard work. This is the best ehow tutorial I've ever seen and it's free. In this economy, I know so many people are struggling and barely making it, ehow can ease the financial burden.