Keep On Keeping On

I've received some criticism for not updating for a while. 8 whole days! Sheesh.

For your information, I have been very busy lately!

I've been doing some wildlife observation

Baking this rockin' sandwich bread, recipe found here.

But, mostly, I've just been dealing with situations like this. Yes, that is dog food and, no, the dogs had nothing to do with it.

Natalie has been as whiny as ever in the last week- probably coming down off the high of visiting the cousins.  This weekend, we'll get to go be around more new people and places as we visit Chere's family to celebrate Tyler's graduation from high school. We're leaving Saturday and coming back Sunday, so it will be a short trip and I am anticipating lots of tears in the car. Natalie HATES car rides, so we may just have to turn her car seat forward-facing so that she can be somewhat occupied and entertained by the new view. It's legal after 1 year but not recommended until 2 years. 

I've been searching for and applying for jobs. It's hard because I don't have enough consecutive time to devote to the endeavor to make much progress. I search one day during Natalie's nap and then when I go the next day during her nap to apply, the posting is already removed. So far, I have only managed to apply to one position that I was interested in applying for because the others disappeared so quickly. I doubt I will end up with a job- after all, I'm competing for a very limited number of part-time teaching positions against people who have more recent experience and are searching for work full-time. Plus, I'd have to very carefully consider accepting any job I was offered because most part-time jobs would cost rather than earn us money, after the expense of childcare and gas and raising our total income enough to pay taxes, etc.

But even if nothing comes of it, when I asked a friend from church (primary president) if she would mind being a reference for my time in nursery (the ONLY relevant work I've done in the past 2 years), she said to let her know in the fall if I might be interested in a babysitting swap- her husband is a grad student and so they need a babysitter while he teaches. If nothing else, I could swap one day of babysitting per week and spend the time doing artwork, exercise, doing some volunteer work at the dog shelter- whatever. Anything but sitting around while Natalie cries and hangs on me for hours at a time.

Natalie is so bored with this place and so bored with me. She freaks out to watch TV, which I try to avoid having on during the day. We do a weekly play group and go swimming and try to get out, but we just don't have that much to do and it sucks.