Noet to slef:

In future, please refrain from answering work emails while turning buttermilk pancakes and packing school lunches. Replying to a question about parking & text updates on MASP is not good for raising the confidence of a client.

Plus, you'll probably burn the pancakes.

Where's the AT-HOME in Stay-At-Home-Mom?

I'm going through a bit of a transition right now... becoming the SAHM I've never been, aside from time right around the births of the children. The current state of the economy has many of my clients deciding to make-do with older maps or more generic versions they can get on line. This made the last six months very good for scaling back as the contract income dwindled.

I started to worry a bit during the last couple of projects about what I'd do with myself when I didn't have to answer to clients or meet deadlines. Figured once the house was clean, I'd have big chunks of time each day for running, riding or studying. (My version of bon-bons & soaps.) Also figured it would be a great time to start figuring out what would be next. (Enrolling in school - either for personal growth or future dream career?)

Oops.

Turns out keeping myself busy shouldn't have been on the list at all. I don't think I've had a full day at home since the beginning of the school year.

First there's the move, and some changes in the family dynamics causing good deal of upheaval. (Some of this should be dying down soon, once the boxes are unpacked, the rain stops long enough to seal crack in basement floor, and the teen is enrolled in the HS down the street.)

Second, third & fourth, there's the three children in two different schools. (Next year, it will be three - ES/MS/HS.) Charter schools, which require volunteer time. One hour at one school, three hours at the other may sound like only four hours, but it's really a full day commitment, by the time you figure in travel time between, along with being in the right place at the right time for regular school pickup. Then there's the volunteer opportunities which pop-up unexpectedly. Once you volunteer last minute for a couple of different things, then you're known as being "flexible" about hours. Being "flexible" puts you on email lists.

Maybe all this running about is a good thing for making the transition. When things finally calm down enough that there are stay-at-home days, it'll feel more like a blissful mini-vacation, and less like a time to panic about losing a sense of purpose. Contemplating the future in a relaxed state of mind ought to make coming up with ideas more a creative process of figuring "want to do" without as much worry about what I "need to do." (MizFit's posts so far this week have me thinking about making those future plans with the What would you do if you couldn't fail? question in mind.)

That's the future. For today, I'm getting the fans and wet/dry vac ready for the next 24 hours of heavy rain. Tomorrow's cross training workout will be bailing out the basement and pulling carpet... should that count as cardio, or weights?

Settling into Summer

Who knew finding our happy place for the daily lazy summer vacation "schedule" would take so much work?

It's taken a week for the kids to get past thinking they have to try to stay up past midnight each night. The Exercise + Reading +Chores = Video Games is not something new, as it's in place each weekend throughout the school year, but it took few days of reminders that it still applies. The battles over helping with housework are coming to a middle.

The kids are getting adjusted, so now it's my turn. Been exercising, cooking, biking the grocery shopping and errands like normal, but computer time has been limited. There are a couple of maps to wrap up before my summer officially begins, so the available time has been for work, not reading and blogging.

Without the camp weeks which have helped keep mom sane in the past, I'm going to rely on a schedule. Nothing too strict, as long as general goals are met. These things, along with a good try at dinner, make evening movies, deserts, and video games possible.

• Up, done with breakfast, dressed, and beds made before cartoons or video games. This is when I run/ride.
• [Roughly] Two hours of reading and play - board/card games, legos, barbies, etc. This is computer time - work or otherwise - for mom.
• Music practice & housework help
• Exercise! Can be taking a packed lunch with us for an afternoon of swimming, hiking or general running about at the park. Yardwork, gardening and washing car and/or dog get to count for exercise, too. (If you've seen three children try to get an 85-lb dog into the outdoor tub when he'd rather be rolling in the veggie patch, and they're chasing each other with water guns, you'd see the exercise value.)

All bets are off in a couple of weeks, when the cross-country trek begins.

Grocery Challenge & Supper Wars - Week 20

Good week for the shopping by bike, with the exception of the frozen rear wheel and the call to my knight in shining armor for a rescue, right at the beginning of the week. Freewheel cleaned and oiled, so rest of the trips went smoothly. Again, loving the added cargo space having the panniers provides. And the stability of having all the weight on the rear rack.

Week 20 Shopping:
Whole Foods (Bike) - $62.14
Kroger - $6.17
Trader Joes (Bike) - $25.14
Euro. Bakery (Bike) - $4.75
Farmstand (Bike) - $9.25
Total - $107.40
Year to Date - $2,857.86
Average weekly spending - $142.89

There's around $80 not included with this week's shopping. Made the decision to pull all of the food for school parties and cooking for the international festival out of the regular shopping. I have a monthly item on the budget tagged "Misc-School" which covers things like yearbooks, field day t-shirts, teacher gifts. I felt the foods for the Swedish and Australian tables fell squarely in that category.

Week 21 is the final week of school, so there are a few more party items to purchase. Nothing like this week's shopping though. I'm looking forward to seeing what Week 22 does for the shopping budget, with lunches at home and juice by the half gallon, instead of 10pk drink packets.

Supper Wars -

Butter Chicken, Basmati Rice, Green Peas
First time with no complaints, even though it was the official tangy version. Used greek yogurt, rather than coconut milk. For the kids, chose breast meat, instead of thighs. Kept the biggest critic of the dish involved in the cooking process. B2 & I decided to use sweet vidalia onions, instead of the usual yellow or white, and that I should keep scoop some of the curry paste to the side. That way, I could make the servings as spicy as my evil tastebuds desired.

Cheese Flatbread Pizza, Salad

Baked Pasta (w/Bison), Salad
The kids who make faces about meat if they know it's not coming from the big three of farm animals are continuing their exploration of other protein sources, such as bison and lamb. And by exploration, I mean being kept in the dark by mom until after they've eaten a meal and pronounced it a winner. (Yes, the same strategy used for sneaking in veggies.) Had leftover pasta, salad and fruit a couple nights later.

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Pears and Root Vegetables
Brussels sprouts, carrots, sweet potato, red and vidalia onion, pears and garlic; tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme, sea salt and red pepper. The kids tried the sweet potato and carrot, but weren't at all impressed. Was okay, as this was completely expected, and already planned as the night of the leftover pasta. One of my favorite dishes, but not one I'm going to force on the kids. My memory of childhood brussels sprout traumas are still too vivid.

Baked Ginger Sesame Tofu, Sticky Rice
Stir Fried Veggies
Kids ate green beans and carrots from the stir fry, but left all the squash, onions, peppers, etc., untouched. Sigh.

Cornmeal Waffles, Bacon, Fruit & Yogurt
Brinner!

Playing catchup... again

Another crazy week here. I'm running behind on everything that's not school or work. I'm out running and pedaling, but it's more for keeping sane than fit this week. Have first map of a threesome ready for press, and am hoping to wrap up the other two before we head off for vacation in a couple weeks. Pretty excited about getting these done, as I'm taking the summer off.

Grocery Challenge & Supper Wars coming soon, along with nifty data from the USDA about family food budgets.

I'd also like to take a minute to mention one of the audiobooks I've been listening to while working. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I downloaded it from Audible after hearing a friend mention it in a discussion where old odd medicinal cures brought up Mellified Man. Wasn't sure about it, but it turned out to be a fascinating - and fun - read. (To be more accurate, it was a listen, not a read.) From the forensic body farm in TN, to the early history of body collecting for anatomy classes, to crash tests, to how a body is embalmed, to organ and even the potential of whole body transplants, to the evolution in thought as to where the soul resides in the body... it was never dull. Though I'd not recommend listening while doing your grocery shopping, unless you're trying to work toward vegetarianism.

Almost out of the weeds

I'm a bit overwhelmed this last week and a half. No bad stuff, just lots of regular stuff. Between having to completely redo everything about the medical and HSA account on the taxes at the last minute, two family birthdays, emissions testing & registration on vehicles, and volunteer time at both schools, there has been almost no time left after normal work and family activities. When I did manage an hour or so of me time, I chose to use it for exercise. Running/cycling out the crazy, I suppose.

I'm almost afraid to say this... but I think things will start to calm down over the next day or two. But for today, I've already used up 10-15 minutes of the one hour I've carved out of today's schedule. This afternoon, it's off to clean and pack books at the school media center, for next week's big move.

If I hurry, there's still time for about four miles of sanity.

Ironing out the wrinkles

A little steam and starch makes everything better. Sunday, the kids were in bed at normal time for a school night, after much complaining and backpack prep. The kitchen and house had been put back in order from the big Easter dinner with company. I spent a couple of hours with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on HBO while ironing. (Can't tell you how much I enjoy that show. It's rare to see a show that is uplifting.) By the time I'd pressed the kids' uniform slacks, shirts and skirts and starched the shirts Dad would need to take for the week, my sense of peace and calm had returned.

Spring break was fun, but I am so glad it's over. I know that makes me sound like an awful mom, who doesn't want to spend time with her children. That not it. Summer will be much longer, and yet is always so much smoother than short school breaks. We need fresh air and exercise. Lots of it. The weather was actually worse for outdoor play much of last week than during the Winter holidays, which made for more bickering than usual. The age differences which don't matter during a hike, or a day at the neighborhood pool, or on a family bike ride become big problems when trying to get everyone to agree on a board game. Or a video game. Or a movie. Or which child(ren) should be responsible for washing out a big bin of Legos after "somebody" spilled hot cocoa in it.

At any rate, this morning is wonderfully quiet. I'm on my third cup of coffee, and have almost caught up with the email and blog reading from last week. And, after a couple hours on a map project, I'll be off for a run. It'll probably be raining, but I don't mind a bit. I won't have to worry about what's being broken while I'm out... and I rather enjoy splashing through puddles.

Guess you could say my Spring Break starts today.

Sometimes a shrug is just a shrug

I've been reading a lot about "going Galt" lately. I was catching up on some reading while waiting through a couple of dentist and orthodontist appointments on Monday, and hit three pieces in one sitting. Plus comments. Lots of discussion board topics popping up out there, too.

• An editorial by Stephen Moore, on WSJ online, Atlas Shrugged - from fiction to fact in 52 years.
• Over at Angry Bear, a historical look at "going Galt", with a comparison of GDP growth under the last dozen or so presidents.
• Articles about conservatives making plans to drop out, to cut the amount of taxes they'll pay, as a way of battling the policies being passed by the democrat run congress and signed by President Obama.

”Do you ever wonder,” wrote Dr. Helen Smith, “after dealing with all that is going on with the economy and the upcoming election, if it’s getting to be time to ‘go John Galt?’”
...

The themes had stuck with her readers, too. Within days, Smith had collected nearly 200 comments and a steady stream of e-mails from readers who were responding to the possibility of a Democratic victory by brainstorming ways to pull out of the economy. Four months later, Smith — a host of “Ask Dr. Helen” on the right-leaning web site PajamasTV — is collecting stories and suggestions from readers scattered across the country, all of them using the “Atlas Shrugged” analogy as a rallying cry against President Barack Obama’s economic policies.

Smith was a little ahead of the curve of what has become an incredibly popular meme. Across the broad conservative movement, from members of Congress to activists to economists, Rand’s final, allegorical novel is being looked at with fresh eyes. According to the Atlas Society, a think tank that promotes and analyzes Rand’s work, sales of “Atlas Shrugged” have tripled since the presidential election. One congressman says that Rand wrote a “rulebook” that can guide conservatives through the age of Obama; another calls Obama’s policies something right out of the mind of Rand. One economist says that Rand’s fantasies have become reality. Smith is one of many activists citing Rand to explain their decisions to sell their stocks, or to explain why the president’s “demonization” of run-amok CEOs is aggravating the economic slowdown. The popular meme is giving critics of the president’s policies a way to explain why, they believe, it’s doomed to fail — because Rand predicted all of this.

“Just this weekend,” said Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) on Wednesday in an interview with TWI, “I had a guy come up to me in my district and tell me that he was losing his interest in the business he’d run for years because the president wanted to punish him for his success. I think people are reading ‘Atlas Shrugged’ again because they’re trying to understand what happens to people of accomplishment, and people of talent and energy, when a government turns against them. That’s what appears to be happening right now.”

The plot of Rand’s novel is simple, despite its length — 1,088 pages in the current paperback edition. The United States is governed by bureaucrats, “looters” and “moochers,” who penalize and demonize creative people. The country is in decline because creative people are disappearing — they have followed the innovative John Galt to a mountain enclave, “Galt’s Gulch,” where they watch society crumble. Creativity has gone on strike (the working title of the novel was “The Strike”), and the engine of capitalism cannot run without it.

...

For Dr. Smith’s readers, like their counterparts writing in to libertarian blogs and protesting Obama at “tea parties, ” the novel is most useful for the concept of “going Galt.” “I do some consulting on the side and the taxation on that income is unbelievable,”wrote one reader to Michelle Malkin. “So, to heck with this. I’m ‘going Galt’ on my consulting.” “I’m considering moving to a small family farm in a foreign country,” wrote a reader to Smith, “and looking into the practical side of the issue right now. It will take a year or two of preparation, but might be feasible and even comfortable.”

Smith, who’s still mulling over ways that she can “go Galt,” sees a possibility for a moral stand. During the Iraq War, she read about a painter who’d painted less, reducing his income, in order to dodge taxes and thereby make sure he didn’t fund the war. “I’d go John Galt just to not pay for programs I don’t believe in,” said Smith. “If we’re opposed to socialistic concepts — if we know they don’t work — why should we pay to support them?”

That's just what I read in one morning, but there's a whole lot more. I know it isn't something new. Radio talk show hosts have been talking about it for years. It's not always about quitting and walking away, either. Back in December, Neal Boortz proposed the top income earners cut spending to the level of the middle class, to show the impact of their money in our system. (I remember this, because I thought this made more sense than the threat to sit at home & do nothing - which was too much like the far left democrats who annouce plans to leave the country if republicans are elected.)

Why does shrugging have to be a battle strategy? I'm thinking about it, and not as part of lodging a protest.

It's tax season, and I'm looking at the numbers for my work as a freelancer. My total invoices have gone up, but the money we get to keep has dropped. I figured it was a good time to sit down with all the tools available online to help answer "Should I keep working?" for the modern working mom. They weren't that helpful for my situation, so I ended up using the tax calculators from the IRS and TurboTax websites.

Just for fun, I put myself in the mindset of being stuck in a conversation between my ultra right mother and far left brother-in-law or uncle. (Okay, so it wasn't just for fun. I know I'll have to tell my mom this has nothing to do with any protest/movement, as well as being on the spot for my "real" reasons.)

Whether or not I bill another hour this year, our tax rate does not change. As long as that is the case, a liberal does not see it as an increase in taxes. It does not matter that the additional income wipes out eligibility for deductions and tax credits, the underlying tax bracket remains unchanged.

Our federal income tax bill for 2009 goes up by a little over $5,000 with my income. Less than $3,000 of that is the income tax. The remainder of the increase comes from the phase out of the tax credits for dependents, along with a reduction in the allowable deductions for a few other items. But, to the folks in charge, that's not a tax increase. Technically, they're correct.

The folks "fighting for the middle class" are doing exactly what they've said. They're keeping us in the same tax bracket. They may raise the cap on social security, meaning there's more deducted from the paycheck over the year. But, social security is not income tax. The income phase out for child credits, or the amount eligible for the IRA, childcare and mortgage deductions may be lowered, but it's not a tax increase, it's closing a deduction / loop hole.

Add to the $5,000 in increased federal taxes:
Self employment taxes - $2,000 (Which I wouldn't have if not working.)
State taxes - $1,200 (Over the amount due without me)

There are extra expenses which go into me working, beyond the deductible business expenses. There's afterschool childcare, at about $4,000 per year. Summer/Day camp, $3,600 per year. And the weekly maid, another $4,000 per year. If I wasn't working, there'd still be summer enrichment activities; but it would be a few weeks of half day tennis, swimming or art, at about half the cost. And, I might still keep maid service, but it would be every other week. (Note that I'd be cutting my housekeeper's income by $2-4,000, and reducing payments to afterschool programs and camps by at least as much. That's a different rant though)

There's also the extra time and effort. I juggle schedules and care for five people - work, school, meals, laundry, music lessons, sports/activities, doctors, dentists, etc.... it would be much simpler if not bound to print deadlines.

I work part time. I do it because I enjoy it. Finishing a project gives me a sense of satisfaction. That is the second part of the argument made by those who poo-poo the idea of middle class workers giving extra effort the shrug. Yes, there is more than just the monetary reward for working. But the money does make a difference. When me having a job nets a profit, even after all those things mentioned above, it adds to my incentive to work.

For me, the decision whether or not to "go Galt" is not part of a battle plan. I'm just looking for the answer to a simple question. As the "not-an-income-tax-increase" reduces the amount of money I get to keep at the end of the day, the number of times I ask myself the question goes up.

"Is it worth it?"

It's only a matter of time before the answer becomes no.

Charting a new map for my life

Tackling the utter lack of athleticism which plagued me up to the ripe old age of 35 has made me braver. I'm starting to branch out in other areas. Looking for ways to challenge myself mentally, in addition to the physical challenges.

I have a few very big decisions to make. Some of them are easy. Beginning to market my skills (maps, informational graphics) and expand my client base is one of those. For the last eight years, since I officially stopped being a full-time employee, my business plan has been more of a non-plan. My old clients (former employers) stuck with me, and when some of the people with whom I worked switched firms, I had a new client.

It’s really been a pretty cozy system. I get to keep doing work I love, and make enough money to fund things like housekeepers, the birthday mini-trips, and gear for running and riding. I get to converse with other adults about things which have no relation to my children, and a sense of accomplishment when I receive the printed sample from the press.

I work ten hours many weeks, and am rarely over twenty. The occasional flurry at the end of a full street map or an offering book might require a full forty hours one week. I follow those weeks with a week to clean house, do some extra volunteering at the schools, and go for long rides on my bicycle.

Lately, I’ve gone beyond the idea of doing this Someday. I have the gut feeling it’s become Someday. It’s not the money. It’s me. I want a challenge. The projects requiring my full mental attention these days are rare. I can crank out maps in my sleep. (When home with a sick child means switching to evening work hours, I’m pretty sure I have sleepmapped.) Even though this decision is not based on any economic worries, the extra income will be nice.

There will also be a sense of freedom to accompany the increase in projects. If I have other things waiting in the queue, I will have the peace of mind to set the timelines. I’ll do everything I can to meet my client’s expectations, but won’t have to bend over backwards and stay up until 2:00 a.m., just because I’m worried they’ll find someone else next time.

It’s a big step. Tough, but not as hard as I’d built it up to be in my mind. Get a domain and webhost, put together samples of work online, along with basic writeup of what services I’ll offer. A few emails around town, a bribe for google, so I come up higher on the search list.

Thanks to my current office setup, cell phones and eFax, I’m not going to have all that many expenses. I know who to call for my domain registration and hosting. Friend of a friend, won’t be pricey. I have over a decade of digital samples - more, if I resort to scanning in pieces from the early days. Sweat equity is the big requirement.

Thanks to the last year or so, I'm not timid about the sweat anymore.