Aaron's 8th Birthday

Now to go back a few months...welp...to May! We opted out of having a birthday party and had a split celebration with families. Aaron wanted to do an Escape Room and do go-kart racing. His birthday was on the same day as Mother's Day, so I had gone out the day before so he could do whatever he wanted on the day. Now some facts on this guy!

--Loves his art, loves his cars! He hasn't changed. 

--Loves learning! He'll complain about it sometimes, especially the school part, but then the next thing you know, he's rattling some facts off about Ancient Greece. I'm convinced he needs to be on Junior Jeopardy. He received a subscription service where he gets a box each month about a different country and he loves it. 

--Loves to be outside, playing soccer, riding bikes, in general just playing.

--I'm going to appreciate each year going forward that he likes to sporadically cuddle up to us :)

--Loves a good messy room. Definitely different than his siblings in that respect.

--He likes my Green Kid Crafts job :) He's a frequent model.

--Is still our emotional firecracker. Happy one minute, tears the next. He's our social butterfly.

It's always flabbergasting how fast these guys grow. 

More Work Updates...Part 2

Not so fast! How things change in a month. At the end of these long, Summer days of work and being with the kids...made me re-evaluate if everything going on in my life made me happy. At the end of a recent day, I decided something was not, despite all the money and effort I had put into it. 

I have now dropped my sleeping consultant job. Out of all my work, it was the least consistent in terms of making money. I have gone some months without a single client. If I'm going to take time away from my family, it has to be worth it. Of course while I don't have clients it means I'm not taking that time away, but after spending a lot of money on course work to get certified and insurance to cover me as a consultant, it made me disappointed it wasn't paying off the way I hoped it would once I became certified. I also have some personality differences with the owner of the company that made me feel inferior a lot of the time. Basically, there were just more non-fun parts than fun parts and I decided if it wasn't fulfilling, wasn't making me happy, it needed to go. Honestly, I hope in a way I was doing the owner a long term favor even though she is in the short term stress now of finding someone new. *deep breath* I've been pondering this decision for a while so while business has been slow, I'm glad I found the courage to do it. I wish them well but now I can put forth the effort into the things that are allowing me side income.

On that note, I'm increasing my ESL companies I work for. Lately I have not been fully booked as I would like with my original company, and if I am going to be up early anyway, I really would like to be. I've come to discover many teachers use multiple companies. I'm currently in the trial class period with my 3rd company. China is entering their Summer holiday, so I'm hoping to milk that up by teaching evening and morning classes for the duration of their break before it slows back down. This is one case where I am devoting more time, especially since it has been the greatest side income blessing, and one reason why it made it an easier decision to let go of one of my other jobs. For now I'm just trying to survive the busy season of really having to juggle when I'm able to work.