Tonight as we were driving home from swim practice, Gretchen and Marit asked me if I would buy a Christmas present for the dog that lives at the end of the street by the bus stop.

The owner of the dog is a super nice woman and she lets all the kids on the street play with the dog while they wait for the bus.

I know ’tis better to give than to receive, especially to the world’s nicest lady, but I’m not getting even getting my own dog a present.

So they started asking me what they could do to make some money so they could buy the dog a present.

We started talking about the different things they could do.

I told them I had some things they could help me out with.

Mom, that’s cheating, they said.

I told them if I paid them to do something for me it wouldn’t be a charity task.

I would only pay them for something I need to do and want to delegate to someone else.

Marit still wasn’t having it.

“I feel bad when I get paid for doing things like cutting the grass,” she said to me.

“Why?” I asked her.

“Because I like to do that,” she said.

YIKES.

“That’s the goal!!!” I told Marit. “To get paid to do stuff that you love doing! A job doesn’t have to be something you totally hate. In fact, it shouldn’t be,” I told her.

I reminded both of them of a conversation we had on Saturday.

I had some work to do, and I told them if they could occupy themselves and not interrupt me between 12 and 4 that I would stop working at 4 and we could play some Phase 10 and then watch a movie.

They asked if they could sit at the table in the office and play cards while I worked.

I let them.

As they got themselves set up at the table, Gretchen said to me,

“Mom, you are SO LUCKY. You get to hang out here in your office in your pajamas with Stormie and do whatever you want all day long.”

She’s right. I do.

I mean I can’t actually do whatever I want all day long, but I do get to call the shots.

I make my schedule and I get dressed when I want to and if I want to. I take a break when I want and I eat when I want to and I can drink as much water as I want because I can go to the bathroom whenever I want.

I decide what time I wake up and when I have meetings and if I take a day off the only person I have to run that by is…

myself.

This is my view from my desk at night.

I made this happen because I refuse to hate what I’m doing for the majority of my waking hours.

That’s no way to live.

When I first started writing this blog I told a friend of mine that it would eventually support my family.

Her reply was, “that’s cute.”

I have worked really hard for ten years to be in the position I’m in now.

And I still have a LOT of work to do if I want to be able to continue to do this.

My goal has always been to be in charge of my own schedule so I can be available for the kids.

I watched both of my parents go to jobs they hated going to for a long time.

There was a time when I loved being a teacher. I loved going to my job.

Then things changed, and I started to dread my job.

I loved working with the kids.

But I didn’t love the direction public education had taken and I didn’t love being disrespected by parents and I really didn’t love that opportunities for creativity in teaching were being squeezed out by standardized testing.

The not fun stuff seriously outweighed the fun stuff.

So I stopped teaching.

You aren’t supposed to hate your job.

You aren’t cheating anyone if you actually love what you do for work.

But if you don’t love what you do?

Or even worse, if you totally hate it?

Well, then the person you are really cheating is yourself.

And I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure all my kids understand this.