THE BEST PARTS OF WHAT I DO

I just looked back at the previous six posts I have written and realized that I hadn’t mentioned that I was participating in a 15 Day Blogging Challenge from Content Igniters. Well, today is the seventh task. I’ve been thinking all day about what it is I do.

The challenge? “Whatever your main work on a daily basis is, you’re going to tell your readers everything about why you love doing what you’re doing.”

For the past two years, I have been labeling myself as a retired teacher. Why?

After 34 years of teaching and not waking up to go to a school building and teach English (courses that mix reading and discussing literature, writing, and grammar), speech, theater courses, and creative writing; I still feel like I am floating around aimlessly.

Over the years I have considered myself a Jill-of-all-trades, working at several trades in one day. Not only did I function as a teacher, I was married with two sons. I was the chef, the laundress, the housekeeper, the nanny, the chauffeur, the coach, the private tutor, the story-reader, the counselor, the cheerleader, the student support system, just to name a few.

So now, with my children grown and retired from teaching, I find it difficult to put my finger on what I do on a daily basis.

I guess, besides working to develop a writing and speaking career, I work on a daily basis and a “home engineer” and I love it.

THE TOP FIVE REASONS

I LOVE BEING A “HOME ENGINEER”

1. I am the master of my own schedule. This is what I love the most. I don’t have to leave by a certain time to get to a place of employment. I don’t have to squeeze getting things done around the house between getting home after a full day as a teacher who had to plan and grade at home after work and leaving for work the next morning.
2. I delight at working to get organized. I still have numerous boxes in my garage, the guest room, and the closets that need to be gone through.
3. I love to bake and cook. Since I have retired from teaching, I have time to pour over the numerous recipe books and find new things to make.
4. I have time to explore things that have always interested me: playing in a local orchestra, crafts, gardening, working on the multi-family genealogy, reading.
5. I have time to send special cards and write letters to the important people in my life.

BONUS

I have time to spend with my husband without having to focus on numerous other things.