Allow me to compose the top reasons you may or may not have confused me with your grandma or elderly neighbor yesterday:
1. I made peach jam.
2. Then I canned to preserve it for the winter.
3. I completed one crotchet project and started another with giddy determination. (My pride at the V-stitch is sinful and probably very alarming for my sub-30-year-old friends).
4. I spent the evening at church (even more so: at a MEETING, talking about “kids these days”)
5. I went to Meijer at 9am. Did you know that the average shoppers age in Meijer at 9am on a Thursday falls in the Golden Buckeye bracket?
6. I had coupons at the checkout. 
7. Thanks to this venture out, I felt that my day’s calendar was pretty much full. 
8. I spoke to a man about his hip replacement. And asked for details.
9. I plotted in my mind – multiple times – how to be “adopted” by a grandmother that can knit. I found some sweater patterns on Ravelry that I feel Miss M simply MUST have. 

After having completed my first week of staying home with the kids most days (thanks, mom for letting me work on Tuesdays), so far I’m not crazy. Well, any crazier.  I’ve quite enjoyed working on tasks that I’ve not had the opportunity in the past. I make myself keep up with the dishes (otherwise I would bake us into a fatty coma all the live long day), the laundry is… on par… and I’m 3 for 3 in the shower column.

Making this an even better situation: my friend KC called from work yesterday to tell me they’d like me to work on an admin project that is much more similar to my old work. Oh, heavenly day. I realized that putting in for evening hours and only at the front of the week would likely limit me to phone interviews, but after several hours of speaking with scientists and people with “director” in their title (that say phrases like “well, I’m at $240k base right now, but I’d be willing to talk if total comp was anticipated at over $300), I come home quite exhausted. I find it hard to be so nice to such rich and smart people. So this project is welcome news.

On top of that, I started in on some ad work again with a friend. He had me writing commercials a while back, but after I ramped up at the “real job” I couldn’t squeeze it in. But with the schedule as-is, I’m able to make contact with clients and write scripts during naptimes, which works great for him and me. It’s an hour here and there, but helps to fill in my gaps (and put a little fun money in my pocket).

To put the icing on the cake, I actually feel much freer to be able to contribute at church the way I’ve wished I could. I feel like I’d dropped the ball – so many good intentions, no follow through because I was scrounging for time to get things completed. But now I’m able to feel like my Sunday evenings can belong to the youth, being as I have so much other time during the week to spend with the fam.

However, let me not talk myself into misery. Next week I begin working in the evenings, so there could be a whole new loop thrown in. But there’s a bit of joy that I’m finding in not really knowing what the day will hold. First things first: I need to complete my only assignment of yesterday that I did not complete. Fantasy football – Girls club – here I come!