Friday, September 17, 2010

What I would love to do

I was reading The Pioneer Woman and she was saying that one should blog and blog often...so I opened up a new post and a topic immediately came to me. No pictures, but my thoughts anyways!

As I have been staying home I have been looking for something to supplement Matt's income. I would like something flexible and preferably stay at home, but if the right position came along that could be altered. In thinking and looking for something along these lines I have thought a lot about what I would love to be paid to do...

1. Take care of my family (obviously), but that is a given...and if Matt ends up getting a different job at some point in the future that is exactly what I will do...for a bit (as in a period of time, not a bit as in two bits the payment)!

2. Write curriculum, specifically for the Holocaust Museum, but general curriculum writing would be fun. I would love to just sit down and write out books worth of lesson plans that people could take from and modify as they wished.

3. Be a food critic. Best. Job. Ever. You get paid to go out to eat and then you get paid to write about it. People would choose to savor every detail with you...wow...I am speechless!

4. Be an advocate for Pregnant/New moms in the workplace (especially in schools). I found that so much about teaching (a predominately female work place) was not as friendly to pregnant and working moms as it could be. The simple fact that I had to lock myself in a small room to the side of the nurses office (and sometimes had to use their storage closet) so that I could pump was not ok with me. And while I was at it, I would fight to let Mommy's pay to have their children at the day-care that is already provided at some schools for the students kids.

5. Research. No specifics about that. I like collecting data, especially in the classroom, but data in general makes me happy. One of my happiest moments in life was making my data graph work correctly for my Master's program project.

6. I had this idea to start an online bulletin board for our church. Sort of a craigslist, but more localized. If someone needed to sell their couch, maybe someone in the church could buy it. In my vision it would also help people get more plugged in and thus more accountable. I also had the great idea of people "trading services"...for example...Man #1 could change Man #2's oil and in exchange Man #2 could fix Man #1's garbage disposal. We all have gifts that we could share.

7. Have babies. I have seriously considered being a surrogate mother. I know you already get paid for that, but I think it would be strange to carry for a stranger. For someone that I already knew...I would definitely consider it...and might not charge too much either!

8. Spread mulch. I really love spreading and lugging mulch from the front yard to the back yard. I love seeing a huge pile of...mulch and watching it slowly disappear into nothingness as the day goes on. There is little that is more satisfying than manual labor. This is not a child friendly job however. Nor is it a pregnant friendly job...

If anyone can find a way for me to get paid for any of these (except #8...I know how to get paid for that, but it doesn't work with our needs) then let me know.

In the meantime, I appreciate you all just for reading and letting me know you are out there!!!

4 comments:

Margaret said...

The mulch one made me laugh.

LeeAnn said...

i do not currently have any suggestions for you but will let you know if I think of any. I love how you are brain storming and am wondering why I stopped... someday I hope to figure out how to contribute monetarily while staying at home with Madeline and whoever else comes along :)

McKay said...

You could also teach some kind of fitness classes - mommy and me yoga would be huge in Houston! Plus, you could take your kids to work with you...

Or kickboxing for moms - take out aggression at ADHD spawn in a losing weight kind of way...

Volunteering has resulted in job offers more often than not for me - just pick where you'd like to contribute and when they see that you're totally awesome, they'll offer you a job that will totally work with your schedule because they want to keep you so much... it could happen.

I've been "paid" some (in goods) for decorating bachelor guys' homes and personal shopping to make people look awesome...

You're really amazing at cooking - maybe you could design weekly meal menus for moms that are time and budget conscious - I know it takes me a lot of time and effort to design meals that re-use ingredients and result in little to no leftovers... it's tough! And you're good at it.

Ashley Howard said...

McKay- I was hoping something would pan out with the Holocaust Museum and they would love for it to pan out, but they are seriously limited on their funding right now. There are a few things in the works that we are waiting to see what happens with, we trust it will work out the way it is supposed to!