One of the pleasures of life is packing it full of things to do, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t painful. In the month of October I held 4 jobs. That’s right, four. During the day on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday I worked at Rosie’s Gardens. The evenings on Monday and Wednesday were spent teaching environmental science at Kaplan College. The days the rest of the week were either private homeschooling kids or working on Insanitek, while the rest of my evenings were spent tutoring other kids or bending to family demands. Three weekends out of the month I was travelling for family demands, birthdays, weddings, and shopping trips.

I can honestly say, I don’t remember much of October.

I had a birthday, and I did my normal yearly post. I made plans for the year and goals. Then, I held on for dear life as I got pulled in every direction but the one I wanted to go. There was the Ohio Renfestival the second weekend of the month, then the Indy 1500 the next weekend, and a wedding on the last weekend. There were all kinds of shopping trips between where we bought dresses, tuxes, clothes to replace our field gear…. It was a mess where we seemed to have lost more money than we made.

Between these expensive outings I worked. I worked a lot trying to not slide too far in debt. (It didn’t work.) I worked to keep our heads above water while also helping Ali, Insanitek’s CIO, out of a financial problem in Canada where the bank lost his checks and pay a little down on student loans. Needless to say, all the loftier dreams of getting things done were put off to the side for mere survival.

But that was October.

It’s now the end of October, and my day job at Rosie’s has ended for the season. My term for Kaplan ends soon, and then I have 22 weeks off. I have a whole month laid out in front of me with new financial obstacles, goals to meet, projects to build, and lots of milestones to pass in the next month.