So here I am, having been working for a few solid months. I just looked back at my first journal entry, and I feel like I have accomplished what I've set out to do with this job, although I had no idea when I started that the acclimation process was going to be quite so stressful. It had been a long time since I'd done anything outside of caring for the kids and the house - a fulltime job in itself - and I think I didn't really remember how the mundane things can make job - even a flexible, part-time job - kind of stressful and wearing.

Now that I'm settled in, though, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love that I can work and still see my kids as much as I want, and I'm so grateful that Jake became accustomed to his new morning schedule as well as he did. I know I'm lucky in that regard, but I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was able to work my work around the morning things that he enjoys by himself anyway.

I can definitely see myself keeping this job for the long-term, and enjoying the ways that it grows and changes. I've even talked to Landers about taking an online course on using Facebook and Facebook advertising to drum up business, and we are also going to start working on the webpage a little more aggressively to make it more user-friendly. The referral program is up and running at this point, and a lot of our "fans" on Facebook actually have posted how excited they were to get good deals on work so we've gotten a lot of attention from local customers that way as well.

Elena and I have encountered a few difficulties since she used to write the checks and now I do, but we were able to work that out. Mainly, because she still has access to the bank account and was accustomed to helping pad their joint, personal account if she had to at the end of the month out of that account by writing an extra check, we had some small issues because I was losing track of money toward the end of each month! However, we were able to resolve them and I think they are on a more effective budget now that they do not feel like they can just "dip in" for extra whenever they need it.