Wish my first job was this cool

I think my first paying job was riding an ice cream bike around my hometown. My dad owned an ice cream truck and made deliveries to local stores. Somewhere he picked up an ice cream bike complete with an umbrella stand and twinkling bells. The large, square ice box sat on what essentially looked like a large backward tricycle. My older sister and brother where the first to experience the joys of self-employment and the freedom to ride a bike all day. I couldn't wait till it was my turn and at the tender age of 12 my legs had finally achieved the necessary length to reach the pedals. With the hot summer days and long hours, the job wasn't quite as glamorous as I had imagined and I was ready to explore other opportunities for the following summer. The part of the job I did enjoy was earning money and all the ice cream I could eat.

As my kids get older, they'll be looking for opportunities too. The bike is gone and well, I don't think I want them off by themselves at 12 years old. We have started an allowance system of earning money for jobs completed and putting half in their wallet and the other half into a savings account. Hopefully, by the time they are old enough for a job paying more than $2 a week, they'll have the discipline to save some of their earnings instead of eating it.

One day I came across a tweet. Verity Credit Union was looking for a mom with kids to appear in a commercial. That was a year ago and my daughter still brags about appearing in a commercial. To her, watching herself over and over and over again on TV superseded any amount of money earned. Though, she did like making money and her $100 portion seemed like a huge amount. So we talked about how many boxes of crayons and Barbies it could buy. But in the end, we decided to open a savings account until she could decide what to do with it. Going to the bank was another big adventure and I'm happy she wants to earn and save her money.

I want to be Verity Mom

I did it, I came out. . . . . I'm a tea drinker. No that's not it. I applied for Verity Credit Union's wonderful opportunity for all "wildly creative, funny, talented" moms. I'm talking about their search for a mommy blogger. As if that's not incentive enough, they attached a nifty little cash prize. All I needed to do was create a video and a blog posting and here they are.





After a busy week, I look forward to the early Sunday mornings, sneaking out in my PJs to grab the paper and sitting down with my tea (gasp! I drink coffee with my milk too.) Under the guise of ‘weekly planning’ where I look busy by clipping coupons and coordinating the weekly schedule I also jump on the computer for ideas and entertainment. After an especially hard week with no thanks and little appreciation my mind wanders to “what they would do without me” and for a second I’m ready to declare “you couldn’t pay me enough.” So to prove my point, I hop over to salary.com to see what I’m worth, though mostly it’s for my own ego boost. I figure out the hours spent doing the top 10 jobs I do the most, like housekeeper, teacher, and cook. For the more commonly picked occupations, hours spent on the chore are already suggested. I try to be conservative my first time, I mean do I really spend 16.5 hours on housework not including laundry? And I cook, but not every night because I rely on leftovers. The result for a total of 84 hours worked is $110,899. That’s not a salary I can really complain about, but I feel I’m worth more. Time to go back to the program to really examine my options and decide about my occupations. A facilities manager makes three times the salary of housekeeper and essentially does housekeeping and more. I allocated only 5 hours to the job of psychologist, but my daughter is seven and already showing her sassy side and my son is only a few years off from puberty, somaybe I should cushion that field a bit. I like the salary of event planner and really, maintaining a calendar for a family of five is an event between birthdays, weekly activities and planning weekend family fun time. I also think there is a future for me in the nursing profession as my toddler proved with a recent trip to the emergency room to get stitches. The wonderful staff instructed me on caring for the wound and provided extra ointment. If only real degrees could be so easy. After working 100 hours I am now worth $139,698. But honestly, who wants to work 100 hrs a week. I’m ready to advance myself to CEO, hire the necessary help and call it a day. I’ll take my paycheck in hugs, kisses and tickle fights and join the rest of the family relaxing on a Sunday morning and think about clipping more coupons. It might only yield $30 in savings at my next shopping trip but at least that is real cash and that’s money I can put in the bank.

Grandma's pearls

My grandma is 93 years old and still going strong. I don’t visit nearly often enough but she has never made me feel guilty, just excited to sit with me and catch up. Recently she suffered a fall and is rehabilitating at a care center. Though slow going, she has every intention of getting back on her feet and back in her apartment. I love her determination. During this visit, she had some pearls of wisdom to share with me and I wanted to write them down to look on them whenever I’m feeling low.

"Enjoy life now. I have had a long and happy life so far and wants to keep enjoying it. Life is too short to hold onto grudges or dislike others because of some fault. Nobody is perfect, least of all me. I'm sure that along the way of bringing up my daughter and son, I've embarrassed them both but they are adults now and have to navigate their own paths. So love the family around you and enjoy the time left with friends."

Better than any real pearls, these are pearls I will dearly hold onto. I love my grandma and look forward to more years of her stories, her wisdom and warmth.