The Personal Situation

Anyone who doesn't want to read me whining, just ignore this post. You've been warned.

The situation is pretty simple really, taken as a whole. We have barely made it through the last school year, and we're struggling mightily to get through the summer. We've scraped and pulled and gathered and I think we are going to make it to August, after which life will get very difficult again.

Ideally, Eric will find a full-time teaching job here in Churchville. There is one position open at the high school, but at least three people we know for sure are vying for it. If he gets a position at the high school *and* I can get my business up and running, we'll be doing great except that little bump of no money in September. But a job here in Churchville would mean that we could sell one of the cars and I could turn half the garage into a computer workshop. In addition, the tech guys at the Churchville school district were impressed with me when I interviewed, so maybe I can get a part-time or full-time position with the school district as well. That's the ideal. If you have any prayers for us, pray for that.

Less ideally, Eric will find a position in one of the neighboring districts. Commutes are kind of bad, but maybe not too bad. One of the nearby larger towns has shown interest in Eric before, and they also have a math position open. He's applied already. He's also applying steadily at every local math position that opens. That's his full-time job this summer. We wouldn't be able to get rid of a car, and I'd have less room to make a computer workshop, but it would still be doable.

Also less ideally, but not bad at all is if I get a full-time tech job in the school district. That would allow Eric to keep looking while I bring in a little money to keep us afloat. I might even be able to make a living wage, as we really don't need all that much to survive.

Not ideal at all, Eric may find a position over on the wet-side, where we may have a place to stay. We could possibly have Eric commute... Go out to teach Sunday night, come home to Churchville Friday night. Very hard on him. Or we could both move out, and attempt to rent or sell the house, both unlikely in the current market. Plus, I'm just beginning to really like it out here. So I'm not keen on that choice.

The worst possibility is that Eric or I can't find a job at all. I don't want to think about that one, but it's possible some of the choices from the wet-side will come into play there. Financially, that will be very hard on us. I don't know if we can muddle through or not. We can live on a teacher's salary, but a substitute teacher's salary is just not enough.