personal update and excuses for not blogging

I have spent the last several months stressing over my job. Taking care of kids is fun and easy, but inconsistent and not enough money. I've also been substitute teaching, but still not making enough. After Jonathan missed another round of layoffs at work but still had to take a (second) pay cut, things have gotten even tighter for us. You can only stress about it so much though so I am trying not to get all worried about it all. I know that God will take care of us.

We were able to get a business license to rent the condominiums that we own. That is indeed a blessing. We have been all working together on setting rates and getting the basic aspects of the business set up. We will have a calendar and webpage soon, but until then we are hoping to get started renting a few weeks here and there so that we can make the mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure. If you want a nice place to stay at North Myrtle Beach, then feel free to email me.

My parents were able to rent their house and get enough to barely make the mortgage payments. They had their house listed for sale for years and finally were able to make more progress by renting it. Therefore, they have moved into one of our extra rooms and while it has been an adjustment, I think it has certainly been a blessing as well. It gives them a way to avoid losing their house and it gives us help around our house. It is especially nice to have built-in babysitters and help making dinner at the end of the day. We are all very fortunate.

As the end of the school year quickly approaches, I have been a lot more active in searching for a teaching job for next year. Yesterday I spent the morning at the school system's job fair. I don't think much will come of it because there were thousands of people there and only a handful of positions available. It seems that since the economy is so bad that everyone thinks, "Oh I could teach. That would be easy." Besides, there's really only one computer teacher at each school so probably only one or two openings out of the whole system each year.

It only adds to the pressure that now my pregnancy is starting to show. I am 14 weeks along this week and I am only comfortable in maternity clothes. Yesterday at the job fair I just kept praying over and over again that it wouldn't be obvious that I was pregnant. I wore a suit that was slightly big and just buttoned the jacket. I don't really think that it was too apparent, but obviously as time progresses this problem is only going to get worse.

So about the blog. First it was not wanting to spill the beans about being pregnant and deal with the anxiety of another possible miscarriage that kept me from blogging. Then it changed. It is hard to go about working a full day and then come home to blog when really I am spending time worrying about our finances and what I can do to earn more money for my family or instead spending time doing everything I can to avoid worrying about our finances. I have really taken a lot of the personal stuff out of my blog and instead just made sure that I've been documenting Julianna's cute stories every once in a while. This is the most important to me although I realize that it is not necessarily the most interesting for everyone else. Plus, I feel like I always whine and I don't want this to turn into a place that is full of nothing but whining.

So please forgive me. I'll try to be if not a better blogger, then at least a more frequent one. :)

Also, if you will, please say a prayer for our financial situation - specifically that I am able to find a full-time job soon. I don't know what I'm going to do when school gets out and there are no sub jobs and certainly no full-time teaching jobs until the fall.