782- All most thwarted!

Whew, that was a close one, I got sick yesterday and wasn't able to post.

Because all I was able to do was lay on the couch under a down comforter, with two dogs piled around me, a glass of water just out of reach, the remote, and a pile of phones. I only surfaced to greet Alex at the door after school, and to shovel some of Casey's cooking in my stomach, and then I passed out again.

I had to work today, like REAL work, as in I needed to get fully dressed and presentable because it wasn't virtual work. Of course the first time I have to do this in 6 months I am dog ass sick.

Enter the love of my cracked out existence, Dayquil tabs. I am so wired on DQ right now that if I stop and look at something with a pattern, my vision gets all sketchy. No joke.

Casey asked me if I am at the heart palpitation part yet. Said like a true veteran of must work a contract while deathly sick days. I am not that bad yet, but I could be if I dose myself one more time. So I won't. Instead I am going to go sit in a hot tub, rub Vicks on my chest, drink a gallon of water, and crawl into bed. Before 9pm.

I have 5 minutes to enact my plan!

I made myself get off the fence!

My last post had me on a fence between two possibilities, waiting for an outcome. Well I decided to be proactive and change things up for myself. Which means...

Still going to school, but I now have 3 web classes and 2 evening classes on Monday/Wednesday.

Which means...

I can work days, which is especially important because I just gave a head hunter a go ahead to book me as much as possible for virtual gigs. She is as of right now booking my calendar up! Which is fabulous for the budget.

Which means...

We can breathe a little easier since it has been a very light year for Casey work.

It also means...

I need to create a strict daily schedule because I will be spending so much time virtually teaching and learning that I need to make myself exercise and get outside.

I am crazy... excited, giddy, hopeful, and must admit nervous that I am overwhelming myself.

Mid week and still more to go.

This week has been busy from sun up to sun down and past that. I have been working alot, which is great, but it gets tiring when you juggle work and home and outside commitments.

Casey has been an awesome support at home this week, we exchange Honey-do lists every day. Well, let me rephraze that and say I email him a honey-do list and he does what a honey does and does it. But this week, it has been incrediabley helpful, especially on the Alex front. It has been great to get home, late for me, and have laundry, homework, reading, and chores all completed by bugman. And (AND!) Casey even had dinner ready and HOT (so yummy) waiting to put on the table when I got home last night. I totally and completely appreciated that because my day was long and the night before was short.

Tomorrow night will finish my crazy week of obligations and open up 3 days of no outside work, just house work. Which I am looking forward too. Working at home, maybe warming the couch or cooking up a storm. Love our work. Love the body draining fatigue that comes from working hard and getting things done.

Day two of P & C on Self Employment

Working for yourself is hard work, constant work, busy work, with lots of paperwork. Here are the Cons that we have discovered.

The Cons of Self Employment

1. Must manage your own taxes. Which can eat up a bunch of your income if you don't get creative with deductions.
2. Must be meticulous about paper trails and records.
3. There is A LOT of paperwork.
4. There are lulls in the industry which can lead to months of no income.
5. Computer training can be expensive to stay on top of. The cost of computers, software, manuals can be extraordinary.
6. We work every day all hours. We can be a juggler and work at night, but the point is that you don't get to just clock out and walk away from your desk at 5pm.
7. Lots of travel can mean lots of time away from family and home.
8. Insurance, if you don't buy private insurance then you have none. Private insurance is horribly expensive, so it is always a gamble.
9. Distractions can take away from activities that actually pay the bills. This is one of my down falls.
10. You ARE your company, so the way you look, talk, dress, what you drive, all effect the industry's view on your business.

That is all I can think of right now, which just goes to show that working for ourselves has way more benefits in our eyes.

Two days of P&C on Self Employment

When asked what we do I usually get some sort of reply along the lines of, "Wow, I have always wanted to start my own business." To which I usually reply, "It is A LOT of work." Not that I do all that work, it is spread across the two of us, both the good and the bad. For today, here are some benefits of being self employed.

The Pro's of Self Employment:

• Morning routines to start my work day include playing fetch with the dogs and lots of nice coffee enjoyed on the deck.
• Work attire is made up of jeans, tees, and a lot of the time PJ's.
• Errands can be done at any point in my work day.
• School field trips are not a problem, I just work it into my daily schedule.
• When we need it, days off are taken and enjoyed, with out a care in the world to vacation time.
• Sick days don't have that early morning stressful phone call to a boss saying we won't be coming in.
• Business lunches can be anywhere, as long as we want, and written off. Go PF Chang's to discuss scheduling!
• We can say what we are willing and unwilling to do, because we can!
• Alex knows the in's and out's of basic business.
• Alex gets to have a mom at home most of the time. He only goes to after school care when I work certain gigs. Which means after school care is still a novelty.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers can be played as loud as we want to get the morning started.
• Blogging is considered a valid to-do on my daily list. *grin*
• Lots of fun office supplies and calendars to use. Love that.
• Awesome paychecks.
• Scheduling Casey's travel to have three weeks off in a row multiple times a year.
• My desk is from Ikea and is covered with fun fanciful stuff including but not limited too my iPod, Webkinzs, yarn, tons of family pictures, more music then you can shake a stick at, my current embroidery project, digi cams, and so much more that can distract me. In fact there isn't much work on my desk right now.
• Which brings me to the fact that my desk can be anywhere. It has been known to migrate to the deck, my bed, the living room, Alex's playroom, and the local WiFi Starbucks!
• My office mates are covered in fur and always want to play.
• I can work at night if the day is too pretty to ignore.
• We get to write off portions of our mortgages, utilities, cars, and insurance since we work from home.
• Casey racks up some great frequent flyer miles to be used for family fun.
• Most days I only have about 2 hours of work to do, unless I am teaching.
• Family Business is just as important and Work Business, which means if there are things to get done for the house or doctor's appointments we don't push them off to weekends.
• With enough work done during the week, weekends can be all about fun events and mellow family time.
• My laptop is my best friend during the day.

More to come later today, when I think of more. And of course the Con's come tomorrow because you have to explore the Yang of the Yin as well.