As I strolled through the streets of Elk Rapids Wednesday night I couldn’t stop thinking, “I love my job!”. Who else gets paid to take pictures of kids hula hooping while their parents eat sweet corn right off the grill? It doesn’t pay well (yet), but it sure is fun!

It’s also busy…very busy. Right now I do a lot of work for a little money, so I’ve been doing even more work to see if I can make even more money. While I’ve been doing that, certain things in my life have fallen into disrepair. I kept telling myself, “Don’t worry about the oil in the car. You’ll have time to change it next week,” but that was over a month ago. Since I don’t have the free time of this lucky lady in the hammock, I had to do something.
Enter Jason.
Jason is a friend of my hubby. He’s currently out of work (not an uncommon thing these days), but is looking. In the meantime, he needs to put gas in the tank. Because of that, he’s offered to help my hubby around the house for a fraction of what he would make as a contractor. Though the money isn’t great, he gets free food and we both get a little bit of help.
While Jason usually helps the hubs with “man chores” (installing a sump pump, water proofing the crawl space, cleaning the garage), I asked him if he’d be willing to give me a hand. The work wasn’t as challenging (lawn mowing, weeding/gardening, fixing a mirror), but I found enough to keep him busy for SEVEN hours…and I have more if he’s willing to come back!
It’s not that I like paying someone to do these things (because I’m fully capable of doing them myself), but I had to make a decision – is my time better spent doing yard work or writing articles? Will cleaning my car help me get a novel published? How does fixing the grill further my career? When I started seeing the situation that way, it was an easy call to make.
It’s easy for a woman to feel like she needs to do it all. The modern woman has a full-time career, cares for the house, shuttles the kids, cooks the meals…and goes stark raving mad! I’m not willing to sacrifice my sanity, or the minimal QT that I have with the hubs, over a dirty floor. This week, I didn’t.
Of course this has created it’s own problem…now I really want my own assistant 🙂