So, What Have You Been Doing Since Your Layoff?

Well, it’s been a very busy time. Since my layoff, I have been throwing myself into all kinds of projects with the kids and around the house. I’m throwing myself into my cooking and baking. I try to keep the kids active. Esteban always has a project or two for me. And in the very little alone time I have, I try to find ways to stay productive and contribute to the household. Lastly, every once in a while I see a job that might have potential, but I find myself not having time for a real job hunt.

Cooking has always been a great distraction for me, but for a while there, I fell out of my groove in the kitchen. I enjoy my Everyday Food subscription (or is it Food Everyday). And I get a lot of inspiration for my meals from Paula, Ina, Giada, Rachel and most recently Sunny and the Neely’s. Being home everyday, it gets so tiring trying to decide what to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I try to keep it interesting for the family. So, I’m back to experimenting with recipes, which I’ve always enjoyed. Although for a while, I was in a recipe slump, finally I came across a winner last night, peanut butter banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips! OMG!

Then I try to keep the kids busy. I don’t want the days to seem monotonous to them. The kids don’t go to day care so it’s important for me to make sure they get plenty of social time. My sister is so busy with her restaurant, but as time permits we hang out with her and my nephews. We make play dates with our friends and we like to visit the library. Now that it’s hot, we’re fortunate when we get to participate in water activities. We don’t have a pool, so I jump at the chance to cool off. And luckily, we’ve been to the beach three times so far this year. Jayden is so ready for school and I’m ready for him to go to school too. He was accepted into the Head Start program. We feel very blessed.

Unfortunately, since Esteban’s mother died, it’s been a turbulent year for us all. When his kids suffer, he suffers and I suffer as a consequence. That’s what happens when a family loves each other. I try to be a good wife to him, help him and encourage him. But sometimes I don’t do as well as I hoped. He’s been wanting my help for months in getting a cell phone upgrade. Poor guy has been using the same phone for the past 5 years. Finally, we made it happen. I’m so happy and relieved. Now, I’m trying to find plane tickets for him to back to Honduras, since he’s going to have to rush back. When I’m not doing that, I’m working on filling out the latest slew of immigration forms, the visa packet. It’s all very overwhelming and emotional.

In order to have some me time, I’m staying up really late at night to get things done. My distractions are blogs, facebook, and Twitter. I’ve also been a couponer for about 2 years now so I devote a lot of time to reading up on deals, cutting out coupons and keeping my coupon book up to date. Coupon time is when I usually listen to the audio books I get from the library. It’s good to get away from my own life for a little while and escape into books. I also love movies so this is when I watch my Netflix movies. But what I spend the majority of my time on is looking for ways to earn an income from home and I have been pursuing surveys, focus groups, and mystery shopping.

So far, I have found that this is by no means going to make me rich, but atleast I keep money coming into my paypal and I feel like I am in some way working. The mystery shops are especially enjoyable for me since I get to go out, usually on my own for a little while. Every once in a blue moon, I see a job that I find interesting or that I think might work into our schedule, but I haven’t had much luck in actually getting an interview. To be fair, I’ve applied for four jobs since my layoff and had one interview. Oh well. And that, in all honesty is how I spend my days since losing my job two and a half months ago.