Working From Home & Being Not Martha

Being Not Martha

January 11th, 2007 by Not Martha

Life isn’t perfect, and neither am I. That’s just how it is.

I’m what current society views as one of those freakish people that has always wanted and enjoyed having more than the average 1.5 children. It was something that my husband, Brian, and I decided very early on. Of course I started off at wanting six and we decided that four was a nice, even, manageable number and we stuck with it. Here we are in our tenth year of marriage and that is probably the only part of our life plan that we managed to firmly stick with! Four kids, ages 9, 8, 7 and 6 at the present moment as I type this “about me” page. Just for fun we had to go and add some furry critters into the mix as well and despite my ever changing and growing allergies I love them and all their snuggliness.

I grew up in a small town not far from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Goal number one was always to leave that small town and find something, something better, something else! Three years ago I got that wish and we moved to Virginia. Now, here I am in the middle of a city and hating it. Talk about irony, right? We’re looking to find a nice suburb with decent sized yards and big oak trees, and quiet streets! Took me awhile to realize it, but we are looking for exactly what we moved away from. Have to love how life throws punches at you sometimes.

I am what you might call a college drop out. I went, I got bored, I left. It was taking too much time away from being with my family and honestly it felt like being in high school all over again, only there was a smoking lounge. So here I am with half a college education and four kids, whatever shall I do with myself. Over the past 10 years we’ve tried quite a few arrangements. We started both working days, that didn’t work for obvious reasons. Then we tried him working day, me working night (and vice versa.) That worked for awhile, but it grew tiresome after a a few years. I’ve had a variety of jobs. I worked at an assembly company and we made all kinds of crazy things from computer parts, to those nifty bottle caps belts and license plate purses that you see all over ebay and funky fashion stores. Admittedly, that was a fun job to have and I liked the people I worked with, but I was technically a “temp” and when it came time to lay off employees temps were cut first. Then I worked in a telemarketing office for a few years, and I was the night shift manager up until the moment I said, “I’ve had enough. I quit.” and picked up my stuff off my desk and walked out. I have worked from home ever since and it’s been one of the best choices I ever made. My life was crazy and being in an office setting with manipulative people that were willing to lie, cheat, and steal just to make an extra dollar or two was not what I wanted to do with my life. It was time to move on and working from home made life feel more peaceful.

My life is currently at a crossroad. We are in the process of buying a house, moving, changing of employment, and all sorts of chaos going on. I can’t tell you what to expect here, because I’m truly unsure of what will happen next.