June 14, 2006--Our own business?

I am back to moderating again! Beware, all ye trolls!

Erick hasn't got a job yet, but we are considering self-employment instead. He used to run his own business before we moved to Missouri, and he did fairly well at it. He didn't charge enough, sometimes he made some business mistakes, and we weren't wise with our money, but hopefully we've learned something in the past few years and could make a better living at it now. We know he can get the jobs--last time he had to quit selling jobs six months before we left.

We aren't exactly sure what he wants to start his own business doing, though. He has thought about contract cleaning, and he's always been good at construction-type jobs (he doesn't really want to do roofing again, though, and probably his doctor would have a cow if he did) and he's also got a correspondence degree in small engine repair that he earned back in high school. So for now, we're calling it E. J. Enterprises until he knows for sure what he's doing.

I'm scheduled to work only 25 hours this week, so I'm happy. I'm just going to fill in any gaps in his income though the summer, and until we get a home loan, and he'll do the rest. We're going to try to get pre-approved within the next week for a loan.

So far (and we've only been talking about self-employment for about a week) he's got a small roof lined up, and a kitchen remodel, and a siding job. This last week he made $125 fixing a lawn mower and a weedeater. If he can keep jobs and stay busy, we should be able to make a decent living. I'm also going to be switching to evenings 3 out of 5 days a week so he can have the days to do jobs. I need to work days Wednesdays and Thursdays, though, so I can to church and choir practice.

The biggest reason we are leaning towards self-employment is so he will have the flexibility to help out at the church more. It will be hard to get any ministry experience if he's working all the time. Right now he's enjoying getting some rest from the last four years and catching up on his relationship with God.

We were supposed to have gotten the carpet installed yesterday, but the installers went to pick it up at Home Depot and it was in the back under a pile of stuff, and not cut and ready for them, and they didn't have time to wait around so they called and said it would be Thursday before they could get to it. They told us it would be 72 hours from the time I paid for it, which was last Thursday afternoon. Tuesday was longer than 72 hours anyway, and now it's going to be whole week. Kind of irritating.