Well, I am officially working halftime now. I had some trouble deciding if it was the right thing to do, but Landers offered me a raise if I'd take on the extra five hours and promised to be flexible with me with the kids this summer when Addie is out of school. I am not completely sure I want to work this much, still, but it seems like I am looking a gift horse in the mouth not to keep the job when so many people are out of work.

One thing I've already come away with from this experience is that in a lot of ways, it's actually easier to prove that you are indispensable and make the job what you want it to be when you are working at home - maybe because they don't see you every day and so are more impressed by reliability? I don't know. I do know, however, that my taking the initiative with the social networking has really helped me develop a strong reputation with Landers and Elena; they feel like they have gotten way more than they expected from hiring me. Also, interestingly enough, the simple act of making sure that the bills get paid on time and that Landers has a daily schedule has earned me the reputation of being a seriously organized, in-control person that they don't want to lose. I am really proud of myself for this, but I also feel kind of "lucky" because I really just felt like I was doing my job.

Starting next week, I'll be working a solid 4 hours every day: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. I'll still get done at 2:30 though to meet Addie at the bus stop and hear about school with her, but I'll revisit the messages once more around 4. Other than that, if it's not office hours I don't have to answer the phone unless I want to, though interestingly it's turned out that I really do prefer to just take the messages in person unless I'm in the middle of something. Once I got a system down for that it really wasn't that bad.

Also, and I know this is silly, but the extra 5 hours a week is really making me feel like I'm contributing to the budget. We're putting the extra money toward a credit card that is almost paid off, and Tom has promised that once that debt is gone, I can add the extra onto the car or the house or we can start having a dinner-out date night once every other week with the difference. I know it's not much no matter where we put it, but it's nice to know that I'm putting into the "pot" as well as he is.