Saturday, April 9, 2016

Some work bragging from Kate

As part of my updates, I wanted to do a little bragging about the work I've done in the last while. I'm rocking the work-from-home thing (okay, "rocking" is a bit strong; I'm accomplishing it with varying levels of success) and finally even have a babysitter three days a week to make it happen (thank you, Elyse!)

I've mentioned this before, but after my job with the scrapbooking/crafting magazines disappeared, I took some time off to have a baby and then started doing freelance and contract work. It was stressful to start working for myself that way, but the miracles flowed in (and then again) and it's been a great experience, even if the stress of working from home gets me down on a regular basis. 

Between my 3 1/2 years with the magazines and the 1 1/2 years of freelance work, I can say I've been writing and editing professionally for 5 years, which is awesome and sort of amazing to me still. This is what I wanted to do, career-wise, and I am making it work the way I wanted to do it - at home, part-time. English major victory!!!

At least half of my jobs have been to write content for various websites, so I actually get to see my name in (digital) print, which is really cool! (My next goal is getting published for something I wrote creatively for me and not for a job.)

First, my stint with writing for eHow last year, which did not pan out but I completed my 3 articles and got my $50 bonus so, sweet, right?

How to Make a T-shirt from Fabric
How to Make an Adult Tinkerbell Costume
How to Make Accordion-fold Books

Second, I spent last summer writing company reviews for thebestcompanys.com, though sadly, none of my reviews have my name attached. If you care to browse, I ended up writing about DNS providers and life insurance, business loan, personal loan, and payday loan companies (don't EVER use a payday loan company is the moral of that story).

And third, my current really awesome job is writing content for ASecureLife.com and I've had a couple of articles go live already. These have actually been really interesting to research, as I've covered a pretty wide range of topics in just the two months since I started working there. These are just the start of many articles to come:

Do Security Systems Really Work?
Funding Circle Reviews: An Exceptional Loan Experience?
Updated: Prosper Reviews: Our #2 Pick for Peer-to-Peer Lending
More updates:
Best Smart Locks: A Look at the Top Locks on the Market
Best Digital Door Locks: Security and Convenience
Best Wi-Fi Baby Monitors: Peace of Mind from Far Away
Lending Club Reviews: Our #1 Peer-to-Peer Lending Company

All this researching random topics makes me feel like a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none. Except, of course, for the researching and writing part. I've got that part down.

P.S. I should mention that the other half of my freelance work has been writing educational materials (another job where I got to research all kinds of random stuff in order to write reading passages for various grade levels) and editing all kinds of papers. I worked for an online editing/proofreading company (don't anymore, I just quit last month) that accepted almost anything, so I got to edit (mostly poorly written) essays about a huuuuge range of topics. I mean, everything from marine biology to emergency room procedures to the materials used to make dentures to Italian painters to health administration reports to literature reviews to the best bituminous mixtures to make asphalt, which, funny enough, I though was another paper about dentures for the first 2 pages. I don't miss that particular job but it definitely kept me on my toes!

Friday, April 8, 2016

Hello, Blog and Welcome Back

Hello again, little blog of mine. 

I am writing to you, little blog, because you are the receptacle for my memories and photos and bits of life that I want to share. (Sometimes other people read them too, but it's really just to you that I am writing.) I have sadly neglected to keep you in the loop over the last year, but I have some decent reasons.

Yesterday marked one year since Life Happened and things Changed, and now that we are a year down the road with some hindsight/perspective, I am finally feeling like I can start writing through it. Sometimes, when Life Happens, it feels impossible to put into words everything that is happening on the inside of you, and documenting only the things happening on the outside begins to feel inauthentic. And truthfully, I feel like I am still in a muddle a lot of the time, and sharing what I'm muddling through feels like Too Much. But. If there is one thing I've learned from Brene Brown over the last year (bless her), it's that vulnerability leads to connection, and that daring to show up as ourselves is one of the most courageous things we do. 

So. As a place for me to pour out all the inside things, here we go, little blog. 

Yesterday was one year since Tim was laid off from his intern position at Novell. It marked the beginning of a lot of uncertainty and fear and confusion and stress, as well as some miracles and learning and growth. When I mentioned the anniversary to Tim yesterday, I also added, "I don't miss that job." He very quickly and emphatically agreed. We are both much happier with his current position, in spite of the reduced income it provides us. But a year ago, it was terrifying and bewildering. It was an Ending with an unclear Next Step and marked the beginning of a hard 6+ months of "Now what???"

Additionally, the day before the layoffs was the funeral for my sweet Grandma Black (my mom's mom) and everything that went with that. The day of the layoffs was also the day my Grandpa Black had a stroke and was hospitalized just a few days before his 90th birthday. (He passed away a few short weeks later.) I mean, it was A LOT all at once. Plus we had a one-year-old Rosie just learning to walk and a 2 1/2 year old Georgie who suddenly became unreasonable, demanding, hysterical, and even sometimes mean overnight. Tim finished his last few weeks of a horrible semester that very nearly broke us, emotionally. And I started looking for more work, which was its own story and stress. 

But - or rather, "and yet" - the miracles came when we needed them, though they were often disguised as coincidences and timely responses. The parental learning curve began, steep though it was. We worked through a lot of frustration and anger and successfully made some hard decisions. And though in some ways it feels like we're in the very same place as we were a year ago, the process is ongoing as we continue to figure out what we're meant to be doing and where we're meant to be going. 

A healing step for me is reviving you, little blog, so I can feel a little more present in my own life again as I try to hold onto what is good about where we are while processing where we've come and figuring out where we want to be. I think I was a bit depressed for a while I don't want to disengage so badly again. So. You up for some confessions, ramblings, and super cute pictures of my kids? Oh good. I knew I could count on you, little blog.

Yours (quite literally), etc.Kate the Wife/Writer/Editor/YW leader/Reader/Player of Games/Organizer of All the Things/Mother of these two silly girls: