I don’t want to assume everyone knows what SAHM actually means. It means Stay At Home Mom. Meaning I don’t go to work and earn an income.

As of this week, my husband will be out of work for 5 weeks. Our only income at this point is unemployment. And believe me when I tell you I’m not AT ALL confident that we’ll be getting those checks much longer. The California economy is in the toilet right now. Yesterday it was announced that because CA lawmakers couldn’t come to an agreement about the state budget, they will be laying off 20,000 state employees. How much longer before the state says, sorry, there’s just no money to give the tens of thousands of unemployed people in our state alone?

CNN reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued 10,000 layoff notices Tuesday, affecting a wide spectrum of

state agencies and employees, in an effort to deal with the budget crisis, a spokesman said.

Another 10,000 layoff notices might be sent Wednesday, the spokesman said. All the layoffs would take effect July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Anyhow, we’re a one income family. We’ve obviously cut out all unnecessary spending to try and make that final paycheck and unemployment money carry us through. A problem I’m starting to see is that Jason is now competing for the same jobs with ousted CEO’s and people that were much higher on the food chain than he’s ever had to compete with before. People who used to make six figure incomes are now having to settle for lesser jobs just to be employed. This means taking jobs that Jason, and others like him are well qualified for, but can’t get because someone who had once never dreamed of taking “that” job, are now forced to do so, just so they can stay afloat.

One of my biggest frustrations comes from the recruiters. Wait wait wait! I’m not going to slam recruiters here so if you’re a recruiter keep reading, please.

I’m glad that he gets calls and emails from recruiters telling him about job opportunities. While none of these opportunities have panned out, it’s nice to know people are looking at Jason’s resume and think he’d be a great candidate form Company X. Where I find myself the most frustrated is when they call, tell you about an “opportunity” and send you the job description, then ask you to let them know if you’re interested or not. So Jason does just that. He reads it over, sometimes sends it to me, and then replies back with yes, I’m interested. Over and over that’s it. There’s never any kind of follow up saying, thanks for the interest, the position has been filled. Thanks for the interest, but Company X doesn’t feel you’re qualified. Thanks for your interest, but we’ve just hired some other poor unemployed sap that’s getting paid $50k less than he’s really worth.

Jason even had a face to face interview with a recruiter who was acting as a screener for the company that was hiring. Jason left the preinterview feeling really good and hopeful. The recruiter flat out told him he was a shoo-in. Guess what? That was the end of it. Jason emailed the recruiter and I’m not really sure what came of that.

Look, if you’re a recruiter and you’ve stumbled upon this post, please take this to heart. Don’t tell someone they’re a shoo-in and NOT FOLLOW UP. Ok, so he didn’t get it, please send an email saying as much. There’s nothing harder for both of us than having my husband’s hopes lifted by a recruiter with yet another “opportunity” only to never ever hear back from that person again. Just send a simple, I’m sorry but you’re not the guy.

And if you are a recruiter that stumbled upon this blog post, thank you for what you do. Thank you for helping people find jobs they otherwise wouldn’t find without your help. All I’m asking is that you remember the people you’re trying to help are worried sick about their future and that of their families. Please, just send a follow up if they didn’t qualify. That’s all I’m asking for. That’s all anyone wants. They just want to know, and not wonder for days. Just write up a little script or something that kicks off a rejection email. We all just want to hear something, anything.

Pretty much every morning I come downstairs, have a look around, and feel completely overwhelmed by the “stuff” on the floor that shouldn’t be there. Everywhere I look I see little bits and pieces, shoes, toys, books and clothes all over the place.

This morning I gathered some of it together for show and tell. I’m willing to bet you’re giddy with anticipation! Well wait no more because here it is!

Items that weren’t picked up in the camera’s eye:

a broken piece of chalk, plastic lemon, 4 zip ties, caitlin’s shoes, (I forgot to lable) 1 of Jason’s shoes, plastic grapes, more trashy bits I don’t want to think about and so on and so forth.

This isn’t even all of it, but it’s a pretty good sampling. I see more shoes and more of Jessalyn’s clothes. There’s also a laundry basket with clean clothes waiting to be taken upstairs.

It’s a losing battle staying on top of everything here. But I’m not going to complain, not today anyhow. Instead, I’ll just get my daughter the juice and food she asked for, and then clean up the mess. Shouldn’t too hard since it’s all in one spot now.

Have a fantastic week everyone.

May your floors be floss free, just like mine will be in a few minutes!

This week we visit my nemesis, housework.

Unfortunately, being a stay at home mom, the brunt of the housework falls squarely on my shoulders.

1. What housekeeping chore(s) do you hate doing the most?
2. Are there any that you like or don’t mind doing?
3. Do you have a routine throughout the week or just clean as it’s needed?
4. Do you have any odd cleaning/housekeeping quirks or rules?
5. What was the last thing you cleaned?

1) What housekeeping chore(s) do you hate doing the most? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say  it again. Doing the dishes. Our apartment doesn’t have a dishwasher so everything has to be done by hand. Because of that, getting the motivation to keep up with it and make sure it’s done in a timely manner doesn’t always happen. I’d like to say they’re done every night and I wake up to a clean kitchen. That’s just not the reality though.

2) Are there any that you like or don’t mind doing? Hmmm. I can’t really think of any that I *like* doing. I like the results of every chore, but actually doing them? I don’t mind folding clothes. Oh, I guess I like cooking dinner. But that doesn’t seem like a “chore” to me.

3) Do you have a routine throughout the week, or just clean as it’s needed? I honestly wish I had a schedule. I’ve tried to impliment one, but it never worked out. I’ve tried the Flylady program, but I’ve never really stuck with it. I also wish I could say I clean as it’s needed, but sometimes it goes beyond that. Sometimes, I clean after it’s been needed for days and I can no longer stand it anymore.

4) Do you have any odd cleaning/housekeeping quirks or rules? I’m not even sure what this could mean. I suppose that would make my answer no.

5) What is the last thing you cleaned? I gave the coffee table a good scrub down.

That brings me to a question of my own. In your own household, how are the chores divided? Do you share the workload with your spouse/kids/whoever else lives there? Are they equally divided? If not, what’s the reason for that? Here’s what it’s like at our house:

Me:

• laundry
• dishes
• cooking
• straightening up
• vacuuming
• dusting
• cleaning bathrooms
• mopping
• grocery shopping
• gift buying
• schedule keeper
• taking out the trash

And pretty much anything else that doesn’t include the following

Jason:

• Earning an income
• Paying the bills
• Putting away his own clean clothes

Caitlin:

• Putting away her own clean clothes
• Keeping her room clean (hahahaha, yeah right)
• Keeping her bathroom items in check (again, hahaha)
• spending as much time on MySpace as possible, oh wait, that’s not a chore, but she works it like crazy. Trying to get that girl to do chores… Well I just don’t want to get into that conversation right now.

Jessalyn:

She’s actually a pretty good little helper. she wants to be involved in pretty much everything except the vacuuming. But she helps me put away her clean laundry, she’ll “help” wash dishes, she loves to “help” me cook. You name it, she’s willing to give a little hand whenever possible. Well most of the time anyway.

And Christian:

Well, since he doesn’t live here anymore, He really only needs to keep track of his stuff when he is here. He also helps me clean up the living room from time to time.

Well there you have it. A thrilling look into the inner workings of the Tucker Household. Thrilling isn’t it?

Now it’s your turn. Either comment here or copy the questions onto your blog, online journal, or create a facebook note and link back so I can read your responses.

I haven’t had much blogging inspiration lately. I guess that’s kind of a hard thing to come by when nothing changes. Every day is the same thing. There’s no kissing the husband goodbye in the morning as he’s off to work. There’s no anticipating his arrival after a long day. Every day it’s the same. Wake up. Take care of household chores. Go in the room and see Jason at his desk doing what he can to get a job. Feeling suffocated by the lack of space here a lot of the time. Trying to make Jess understand she can’t be in there bothering her daddy all the time. That’s a hard one that she doesn’t understand. He’s home so why can’t he play with her all day?

Well here’s what’s been on my mind lately. A big ol’ wish list.

I wish someone would hire my super amazing, talented and hardworking husband

I wish I didn’t have to wonder if we’ll be able to make rent next month

I wish I had more food in the house

More than that, I wish we could go to an actual sit down restaurant for dinner.

I wish someone would serve ME for once.

I wish I had a dishwasher.

I just wish things could go back to the way they’re supposed to be. I don’t want my days to be weighed down by worry anymore. Not this financial worry anyway. I’d rather worry about the little things that don’t matter so much. Things like, what should I make for dinner, not how the heck am I going to put something together with what we have because I’m not sure I can afford to get more groceries.

I wish I didn’t feel like I’m going to implode, or burst into tears all the time, or completely go off on my poor unsuspecting family for no reason.

So, here’s to hoping that something good comes along soon and I can go back to complaining about the small insignificant things like where I’m going to go for dinner or which craft items i’ll be buying simply because I can and I want to.

In the interest of “Full Disclosure” and all that, allow me to state for the record I’m not getting paid to do this “review.” I haven’t been approached by anyone asking me to review this product. I’m getting absolutely zip for doing it. I have, however, used the product so I thought I’d tell you how it went.

So the story begins with my mother. She had this thing and asked me if I had seen it or used it. She was surprised that it actually worked. I told her I had seen it but didn’t use it. She said she got hers at CVS. Honestly, I had no intention in purchasing this product, and I wasn’t even all that interested in trying it out.

What am I talking about? Smooth Away. Well according to the website: Each Smooth Away Pad Is Covered With Superfine Crystals That Buff Away Unwanted Hair Leaving Your Skin So Soft & Incredibly Smooth. (Personal aside, beware of the video that starts if you choose to go to the website)

Anyhow, I had gone over to my mother’s yesterday and she says, “That pile of stuff on the floor there is for you.” Included in said pile was the Smooth Away Hair Removal System.

Ok, I though, I’ll go ahead and try it out. There is a long list of do’s and don’ts. Do have clean skin. Don’t have wet skin or any kind of cream or lotion on your skin. Do rub in a circle. Don’t rub the pad up and down or side to side. Do apply gentle even pressure. Don’t press too hard.

So there ya have it. Seems easy enough. You just slap a pad on and start rubbing the hair off. This product actually does a pretty darn good job at removing the hair. (I only used it on my legs) When the instructions say don’t push too hard, listen! I was having trouble with the area over my shins. It didn’t seem to want to remove anything from the area at all. So of course I started rubbing it up and down too fast and too hard. At least it didn’t break the skin and cause bleeding or anything like that.

The other “problem” I encountered was that it made my legs crazy ashy. So once I was all done getting off as much unwanted hair as possible, I slapped on some scented lotion. That’s when I learned they mean it about the not pressing too hard and not going up and down too fast thing. Ladies, you know how when you shave and then shortly after go in the pool or the ocean and it feeels like your legs are burning off? Yeah, the scented lotion was doing the same thing to my legs, but only where I rubbed too vigorously. Lesson learned.

• So will I buy replacement pads when these are done? Probably. It’s easy enough to use the product.

• Would I recommend it to others, especially since I didn’t put up any of my own money to buy the thing? I guess that depends. How much do you hate shaving? Can you stand to have legs that aren’t perfectly smooth? Maybe I’m the only one with that issue. I’ll say yes, I’d recommend it.

• But would I spend MY money on it? I think I would since I know it actually does (mostly) what it says it does.

• Has this product revolutionized the way I think about hair removal? Uhhh, not really. It does work much better than I had expected it to. But I’m not going to tell everyone in the free world about Smooth Away. If the subject of shaving comes up with girlfriends, sure, I’ll talk about it. It’s a pretty good little product that I’ll be using for a while.

• On a scale of 1-5 (1 being don’t bother and 5 being OMG go get one NOW NOW NOW!) What would you rate your experience with the Smooth Away hair removal product? I’d give it a solid 3. I’d even go so far as to say it’s a 3.5. It’s easy to use, works pretty well, and isn’t all that expensive.

If you try it out and have a completely different experience, or have a question about it that I may not have answered, please leave a comment.