What would you do if you were not in your current life?

Everyone I know has wondered once or twice, what would my life be like if I didn't get married, have kids, etc. It does not do much good to wonder, but I can't help but do it. I would not change my life now, but what if I took that other path, where would I be?

Well, if I did not have a child, I would probably still be an archaeologist. It was raising my son that stopped me from continuing my career, I decided to stay home when he was young, and to get a job which works around school hours as he got older. Even though we moved around a bit when we were first married, I was able to keep finding archaeology jobs, so I have confidence that I would be doing that if I did not have a child. It never paid much, but I know how to live frugally. Plus, my last archaeology gig was with the government, which would be a guaranteed salary, unlike some of my other archaeology jobs which relied on grant money.

If I had not gotten married and if my parents had steered me in my education choices instead of letting me randomly pick what I wanted to do, I believe I would be working for Doctor's Without Borders. I truly love the medical field (it was my alternate choice when deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up) and I would be "making a difference" which matters to me. Without having to worry about spouse or child I would be willing to place myself in more dangerous situations. I still contemplate this idea, or course there are few barriers, not the least being that I do not have a medical degree. I am contemplating correcting this, weighing my options, debating my fears, we'll see.

What would you do if you did not have children? If you were not married?

2010 - tough year so far

Sheesh, I was optimistic for this year to begin, but it has been a rough one. One friend had his son die over the holidays due to icy roads, another just lost the baby she was carrying (5mth along), hubby is possibly switching into a more dangerous job, sister has major surgery scheduled, and I have my abnormal test results to deal with...
What happened to 2010 being a good year,the start of the upturn? I can try to be positive, both hubby and son have their health, Jman has actually had his artwork submitted for competition again and has moved up a level in gymnastics, and I am still employed. I can appreciate the little things, like how listening to Blue October puts me in a peaceful mood, the weather is turning so that I can start walking to work again, and I am loved and supported by family and friends. Positive thinking, I have to maintain it, otherwise life will get the best of me, and I am not going to allow that.

Shark floor steamer and cleaner

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I received a Shark floor steamer/cleaner for Christmas, about which I was very excited. This little machine claims to steam sterilize your floor as cleans, absorbing all dirt into terry cloths pads on its head, which can then be laundered in the washing machine. It is for use on all solid sealed surfaces. No cleaning fluids are needed, it is just hot water dissolving the dirt.
This is a very light machine, easy to use, and fun to use (at least for me). It took a moment to warm up, but once it got going it was great. I could see it cleaning my floor by looking at the dirt on the cleaning head. The floor itself, didn't get wet like it does when you mop, just damp (this is a positive, I have tile floors and it is very slippery when wet). I had just mopped three days ago, using a traditional mop. When I finished with the Shark, the cleaning pad was very dirty, so it is picking up dirt that I had not known I was missing.
I was having so much fun that I decided to steam clean some, shall we say areas that it was not necessarily originally designed to clean. With a fresh pad, a cleaned my counter tops. What better area to have sterilized than the counters on which we prepare food? I had just Fantastik them less than a half hour ago and you would not have guessed that by looking at the cleaning pad, they were that dirty. So, since the Shark comes with 5 pads (2 rectangular, 2 triangle for hard to reach corners, and one terry-loop one), I decided to delegate one of them as my counter top cleaner by marking it with a permanent marker (Can you imagine mixing them up and using the bathroom one on your counters? Eww).
It is so easy to use, that I am going to let my child use it. I'm not worried about the steam burning him, since I'll change the head for him if need be (when you change the heads, the steam releases from that opening). It actually make floor cleaning fun, and I wanted to mop every other day, something that I would never want to do with a regular mop.

New Year's Resolutions

A new year has come and with it so many folks have created resolutions. Now, as loyal readers know, when I make a new year's resolution, I truly strive all year (if not permanently) to achieve it, so this year's resolution is...nothing. My hubby jokingly said "you don't need resolutions because you're perfect so you don't have to change anything".
That's not quite it. I have a feeling that this year will be better for many, but that there will be challenges that may prevent me from doing any of the normal resolutions, so I will not make them just to break them. I'm already on a fitness plan, so I don't have "work out" as an available resolution; we don't eat junk at my house, so "eating healthy" is already in place, and "spend more time with the family" was something I strived for and achieved this year. No, I really do not have any resolutions that I can think to do this year. Well there is one - I could go with a simple one, the one my hubby chose, which is to floss more often, but you know what? I probably would not keep that one either.