These past few weeks with my husband laid off from his job have been interesting and stressful. Having him right here all the time completely throws off my routine, but he’s definitely getting a better view of why it’s often hard for me to accomplish much during the day.

Even with him here, the kids would far rather bother me than him. Habits, you know.

He’s had some good job interviews. One we’re hoping to hear back from could see us moving about an hour and a half north of where we are now, or out to Phoenix. We’ll just have to see how that one goes. The job sounds really good in a lot of ways. 3-12 hour shifts or 4-10 hour shifts per week. My husband actually likes the idea of longer shifts with more time off, although the 12 hour days are a bit longer than his ideal. But the pay is good.

Normally he complains if I stay up later than he does when I want to get more work done. But right now he has a fair understanding of why I do that. Doesn’t exactly delight him, but we both know the need is there for now.

Having him here has forced me to really work on some of my working habits. Some of my work time is now dedicated to assisting in his job hunt, but when I am working, there’s a lot more motivation. Someone has to bring in what money can be brought in, after all.

I am getting a tiny bit better about working with him next to me. It’s still rough… just knowing that he can read what I type as I go makes me more self conscious. Which is why I’m typing this while he’s at our son’s speech assessment.

We’ve also discussed how to handle things if he ends up with a job where he would work at home. He had been considering one, but it was commission only and no paid training, and we decided we weren’t up for the risk just now. If we had more money saved up, gladly. But now we know what we’ll do with the office to make working easier for both of us should another such job come along.

The kids are getting used to having him around too. As I said above, they’d still rather ask me for things. But they’re getting more fun time with Daddy, and he’s helping out more. Gage started out pretty stressed about the changes, but he’s accepting it all as routine now. No doubt that means I’ll be coping with a stressed kid again when my husband goes back to work.