Talk to me & great money-making schemes

So my boss and I decided that selling lotion to people on the street would be an excellent money-making business. Seriously.

Last week some day, my hands were so dry that my knuckles started to bleed. Yes, bleeding knuckles! Anyway, I knew that my boss had 2 bottles of lotion on his desk, so I headed over there to “borrow” some. Only, he thought that I should tip him instead. So, I said, “hey, maybe other people would want to buy lotion too!”, so we quickly hashed out a plan. The set up was that I would go out into the street and solicit people to come up into the office and pay him for some lotion.

It all falls apart though, because our office is 14 floors from the ground, and I am only there 3 days a week. Clearly we would never make enough money for this to be a viable business! And I don’t know that it’s really fair because I feel like I would be doing a lot of the work, while all he did was buy the lotion.

This kinda reminds me of a time back when I was in high school, in Trinidad – my friend and I decided that selling mango chow was a good way to earn enough money to purchase a car! Yeah, that didn’t really work out either, sadly.

What crazy money-making plans have you hatched over the years?

Talk to me & the pink hijab

So, umm, hi! Happy Friday! Is it just me or is everyone really distracted? Who can think of something other than the next American president? And while we’re on the subject, who thinks that everyone in the rest of the world should also get to vote in the American elections??

Anyway, I usually wear grey, brown, blue or black – I don’t know why because I am totally attracted to color – but I loved this pink hijab, bought it about 2 years ago and never wore it even once! One day I decided to wear it to work, and I asked my fashion consultant, aka my 6 year old, for his thoughts on how it looked. Now, my 6 year old has a keen interest in fashion… he will straight up tell me when I look totally absurd, and he has particular items of clothing that he likes and don’t like – on me!

My 6 year old said that he liked the pink hijab, but he didn’t think that I should wear it to work, maybe it would be better if I had to go to “somebody’s house” or something like that! What do you think?

Adjusting to full-time, working outside of the home life

It’s not easy!

When I accepted a job in May, it meant that I would no longer be the work-at-home mom, it meant that, in addition to the things that I already had to do at home, I had to also schedule in 9 – 10 hours away from the house and my kids. I applied for only one job, a job that I knew would be very little stress, that is with a not-for-profit, where the timing is very flexible, where my boss is very understanding, and while I do enjoy the work and workplace, it pays me less than half of my normal hourly rate.

I really needed to work away from my home back then, for many reasons, and it was a blessing to get the exact conditions that I was looking for, and so I do not regret the decision. However, it is not ideal, and though “ideal” is probably never really attainable, I would have to say that I much prefer being a work-at-home mom.

I miss being with my kids every morning, I miss having time to spend with them, even if it was a bit stressful trying to manage my work efficiently while simultaneously trying to entertain 3 little boys. It seems like laundry is a never-ending battle, my room looks like it just heaved every single item of clothing from the house onto the floor, and the rest of the house is a complete disaster – although, this may or may not have been the situation even when I was working from home!

Scheduling has turned out to be a bit of a crisis, somehow it seems that “the man” always has the more important meetings, more important activities, more important engagements – well, you get the idea, but it makes me want to cry sometimes, just the shear insanity almost of trying to get everyone where the need to be, on time, happy, and still manage to not lose my own mind!

It’s a bit overwhelming, I am discovering, to try to manage everything. If you’re working outside the home and caring for a bunch of kids – how do you manage? Or even if you don’t – I need some help people – talk to me!

please

Talk to me… let’s unwind together

To say that I am not a creature of habit would be a gross understatement. If you ask mousehunter, he’d probably say that he hates my erratic, taking-spontaneous-a-little-too-far ways, and if you ask my mother, she’d probably lament about how I am so unpredictable that she wonders how I even manage to live life… with 3 kids no less!

Anyway, along with my inability to commit to almost anything, I also have daily battles with my impatience, which, it would seem, makes it difficult for me to “unwind”, or relax, or read a book, which I hear is a great way to do both!

My sister demanded, forced, insisted, lovingly suggested that I read a book, and I managed to finish it in a matter of days, but it’s not really because I enjoyed it necessarily, I was slightly annoyed by it and impatient, so I just read and read until I finished it, and then realized that I was so.not.unwound!! I won’t tell you what the book was because it’s sort of embarrassing, ok, if you insist, it was this book, but I swear it was not for the graphic sex parts!

I did however find myself looking for another book to read, but since I haven’t read in about 10 years, I have no idea what’s good! I like lighthearted stuff… any recommendations?

My life in points

1) Getting ready for Blogher – slightly nervous – please send me some good vibes so I do not totally suck!!

2) I read a novel for the first time in about 10 years! Like an actual novel with no pictures and hundreds of pages… I was shocked that I actually managed to finish it in 3 days, as opposed to the last book that I attempted to read, which has pictures, and I still haven’t even gotten half way, even though it’s been about 6 months!

3) I have tremendously ugly feet! Seriously. I feel you should know that. They are so ugly that my sister “lovingly” refer to them as shrek feet! BUT, let me say, that regardless of the appalling nature of my feet, my 4 year old remains unphased (is this a word??) by them, and still prefers to forsake the “prettier” feet of my mom or sister to stroke and caress mine! I love that he plays with my feet – it feels awesome – however, yes, it is slightly disturbing that my 4 year old has a foot fetish!

4) Kickboxing totally rocks!! I am really loving it. Although, my knees feel like they are slowly dying, and I look quite uncoordinated and awkward when I’m in a class with a lot of seasoned (and slimmer) kickboxing gals, but you know, it’s all good! It still rocks! Thanks iMuslim!!

5) I feel like I need a new bag – any ideas? I don’t really buy bags all that often, but it may be the one thing that I buy the most, and every time that I buy a new bag my 5 year old always asks me why I needed a new one and then tells me that I should not buy so many bags – he’s probably right!

What’s going on in your life these days?