What Do I Do All Day?

  Posted on March 24, 2015 By

 28 Comments

This post is courtesy of my husband. He’s noticed that a lot of us in the blogging world have given up or are contemplating giving up there employment to focus on building our family and recovering from whatever we have been through (IF, RPL, miscarriages, adoption, etc.).

So, he suggested that I compile a list of all the things I do during the day to keep myself “busy” and engaged with the world now that I am not working in a professional capacity full time and we don’t have kids.

So here it is:

  1. I sleep until about 8am. I am pretty sure that I have never slept in before in my life. I have always been an early riser, at was always one of the first people to arrive at the office – usually I’d be there between 6:30 and 7:00, and if I had a busy day I’d go in even earlier. So, sleeping through the night and sleeping until 8am is a huge change for me.
  2. I read the news. I love internet news because I self-select the stories I want to read. I never read about things like car accidents – they do nothing for me but make me sad. I tend not to get too focused into bad news stories on a global scale either. I always read a bit about them just to be aware of the world situation, but I stay away from the gore because I believe in many ways the gore is sensationalizing the story and I fear that our modern western world perspective is starting to become distorted because we are so consumed with these messages, when we should be focusing on how to actually help. So, I focus on world news, technology news, and politics. I have an addiction to reading about politics on the municipal, provincial, national and international stage.
  3. I can usually spend a bit of time each week on grocery shopping and running errands. This could mean a trip to one grocery store or multiples depending on the day. This may also include a trip to my favourite store, Costco.
  4. I go for lunch with both friends and professional colleagues. While I like to joke that I am a now a lady of leisure and so I can just lunch, in all honestly, I do this for a few reasons.  One, I like my friends so it’s always nice to see them.  Two, it gets me out of the house and helps ensure I do not become a hermit.  Three, I will return to the professional world at some point and staying in touch with my professional network is critical.
  5. I help my husband with his work, when I can. He is self-employed, so anything I do to speed up his work, just means more money for us. Some weeks there will be virtually no work for me, but other weeks I can be quite busy helping him out. I should point out, none of the work I do with him is related to my professional field, and none of it can negatively impact his profession either. It is usually relatively simple and straightforward tasks that I help on. Some days, I think a trained monkey could do the work I help with.
  6. I read. I read other blogs and I read the odd book.I used to read books constantly, but I’m in a bit of dry spell right now and nothing seems to be captivating my attention.
  7. I blog. I read and comment on other stories and I actively keep up on comments on my own blog. It is rare that I am logged into my blog all day, actively reading posts as they go up, but someday, when I don’t have a lot to do, I read actively and comment frequently. Other days, I save reading and commenting until later in the day or even the next day. (I do this in an attempt to lead a balanced life, in which blogging isn’t the focus).
  8. I write. I hang out in my favorite chair in my little reading nook in our living room, with my computer on my lap and type away. Someday I do this virtually all day.
  9. I do work part-time. Last week I worked about 4 hours, the week before I worked 0, and before that I worked about 15. So, it’s minimal and sporadic. Given the unexpected increase in our adoption costs ideally, I would like to find a few more contacts so that I can make some more money while being able to decide when I will work during the day.
  10. I cook most of the meals during the week. More often than not I forget lunch, so my husband’s on his own for that meal. But, I try really hard to make our morning drinks (his preference is a coffee and mine is chai tea latte). And many days figure out super and spend time preparing it.
  11. I generally take care of the household stuff.  I wash our laundry, I eventually fold our clothes (I hate folding laundry so I put that off as long as possible), I generally keep things tidy.  Some days I’m even wash our cars.
  12. I walk the dog. In good weather, we go almost daily for at least 25 minutes. Sometimes our walks are upwards on an hour. It just depends on the weather and my mood.

One great bonus of me not working a regular 9-5 job is that by doing household stuff during the day (i.e. prepping for dinner, buying groceries, walking the dog) I free up our evening time. So in the evening Mr. MPB and I can enjoy working out together in our home gym and spend time relaxing. I would work out during the day, but we’ve found it really helps to motivate each other if we go at the same time. (And I cannot count reps or the life of me, so it’s an added bonus that Mr. MPB can count to 15 for me).  Having previously worked 60-70+ hours a week, I never had time to just enjoy an evening without being purely exhausted, so our weeknight evenings have become something both Mr. MPB and I love.

Selfishly, a large part of me really wants to find a job that will work with this new found flexibility.  I really do not want to go back to working like mad and not living outside of work.  The adoption costs have put a wrench in my ability to be picky about my next real job, yet I really feel the need to honour myself and not go back to my old, very unhealthy ways.

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28 Comments on “What Do I Do All Day?”

  1. I love this post! I think if we could afford it, I would have no problem filling my time up if I didn’t need to work. I’m hoping that someday in the next year or 2, my Young Living business will afford me that opportunity. I would love to get to a place where as daycare kids leave for whatever reason, I don’t have to replace them. 🙂

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    • Part of me wants to stay in this place, but another part of me really wants to get back to working (so long as I enjoy working). I want to find a balance that allows me the flexibility to continue living how I want to and making a bit of money.
      I so hope your Young Living business lets you get to your ideal place of balance. 🙂

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  2. I love this post! If I could I would quit today, but mortgage and family expenses scare me. So here I am 😦 I am however, moving towards being self employed so that I can contribute towards household expenses (or at least manage my personal expenses) and yet live a quality life. 9-9 in a cubicle is rather dreary for 30 years

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    • You are so right 9-9 in a cubicle is no fun! And I so don’t want to go back to that type of lifestyle. I need to find some way to balance the my current flexible lifestyle with a new career path.
      I hope you are able to do it too!! 🙂

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  3. I love this post.. Seriously, people wonder what I do all day and sometimes I just want to hand them a list! Maybe I’ll just print out this post! haha 🙂 Most days I actually get up between 4:45-5:45am (I’m such a morning person now) to either go to breakfast w/ T or go to the gym. It’s 9:30am here and so far, I went to breakfast with T, I cleaned up all the dog poop outside from winter, I raked the front yard where there was stone from T’s plowing snow, I weeded/cleaned the front flowerbed, I walked the dogs, and I’m just now starting to reading blogs. Seriously though, my days sound much like yours and I’m adjusting to the flexibility quite well.

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    • I’m glad you are adjusting to your new found flexibility too! It took me a long time to adjust to the flexibility and the lack of work, but I now love it! I want whatever I do next with my career to fit into my life style, not my life fitting into my job – I’m past that. This life lesson is probably one of the best things to come out of our RPL crap.

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  4. Your days sound lovely! The Army is moving us in the fall and I am hoping sooo hard that I’ll be pregnant so I don’t have to find a new job 🙂 I love being a nurse, but boy am I over it.

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    • Thanks Moira! I have learned to really appreciate my flexibility and am so over working a traditional 9-5 (or 9-9 job in my case).
      I so hope you are pregnant in time for the move so that you don’t have to find a new job!

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  5. A brilliant book recommendation – 11.22.63 by Stephen King. It’s about a man going back in time to stop the JFK assassination….it sounds very silly and a bit oddly sci-fi (which I hate) but it isn’t – it’s incredible! Chapter 1-2 had me muddled – then I read the entire book in 3 days. Impossible to put down. If you haven’t read it, go for it!

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  8. I love this post, and strangely, the more you post about yourself personally, the more I feel like we’re the same person lol!! We have so many similarities, I find it amusing.
    B and I had a long talk over the weekend about my returning to work after a baby. The cost of child care is SOOOO expensive here, that it would probably work out that my paycheck would simply pay for that. It just doesn’t seem worth it to me, I’d rather be taking care of my own kids than using my whole check to pay someone else to do it. So I hope to someday be able to be at home taking care of my loved ones, too!

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    • I so often feel the same way about you too!!
      It’s funny, years ago, before RPL, I always thought I’d be a full-time working mom. Now, if we ever actually get a kid, I want to raise it! I don’t feel like paying a daycare to raise my child, when I’m fully capable of it, and want to be able to experience it myself and for my child too! Now, hopefully we’ll be able to make that work financially.

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      • I feel the exact same way. I’ve always wanted to be able to raise my kids myself, but I just never thought I would ever be in a position to do such a thing. I’m beyond thankful that it’s a possibility now!

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  9. Awe I love my evenings as well! We try our best to eat dinner together and spend 2 hours each evening playing games or watching shows while cuddling! it doesn’t always happen but I have come to really love this time where we put aside all our stress and just do something fun together! I need to start doing more outside of the house because I am completely content being a hermit… not good…

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    • I love how you make a point to spend 2 hours each evening together! I think that’s a great idea!
      Also, I was recently told that couples who cuddle become addicted to cuddling with each other – I now like to tell Mr. MPB that he has to cuddle with me more because I’m addicted. 🙂

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      • Haha I joke with Red all the time that I’m addicted to him! That he’s my happy pill! lol Somedays it is impossible to get the time in and Red is falling asleep while watching a show but it’s still nice 🙂

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  11. I resigned from my job in December 2014 and for the most part it has been enjoyable being at home instead of going to work. I have started my own photography business, so most days, that keeps me busy.

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  12. Pingback: I’m Starting to Get Dizzy | My Perfect Breakdown

  13. I’m self employed and have some flexibility with my job. I think I forget how blessed I am with it because it is the only thing I’ve ever done. The upside is I can do things like take the dog for a hike on a Tuesday or sleep in if I don’t have an appointment. The downside is I’m never truly “off” and I have no guaranteed income or benefits.

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    • You are so right about the upside of working form home! As both Mr. MPB and I work from home (although I only work part-time), we really do love our flexibility. But you are right, the downfall is how hard it is to stop working when your office is literally 10 steps away.

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