Living the Unemployed Life

So, it’s been a while since I’ve written. I’m not even looking to see when I last wrote, because I don’t want to know. I was trying to write more often, but then unemployment happened. In case you haven’t heard, at the end of April, Judah was laid off from his job. You’d think that since he was home, I’d have more time to write. I suppose I had more time, but unemployment does strange things to you, and I just wasn’t motivated to write. But now it’s over, and I finally feel motivated again, so I figured I’d reflect on the past few months a bit.

To start, here’s my adorable baby, snuggling her daddy the day he got laid off, even while he was job hunting. Pumpkin loved having Judah home all the time.

That was one of the benefits of having Judah home all the time. We were all able to play together, go for walks (when it wasn’t too hot), go on extended weekend trips to see family, and catch up with friends. Pumpkin saw the ocean for the first time. We visited grandparents and great-grandparents. We got a lot done around the house, including some small home improvement projects. Having Judah home gave me a bit of a break from constantly having to take care of Pumpkin. Honestly, I’ve kind of been living the life of a queen. A mildly panicked, penny-pinching queen. But pampered, nonetheless.

But as anyone who has lost a job will tell you, there’s a darker side to unemployment. There was a lot of pressure on Judah to find a job quickly, since neither of us were working. That kind of stress really weighs down on you after a while. And since neither of us had jobs, we had almost no schedule. Each day, we’d wake up thinking, “What does is today? It’s Saturday, right? No? It’s Tuesday?” It was confusing, and after a while, we started to feel very bored and unmotivated. There’s a word in French called “ennui,” which basically means “a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.” This feeling perfectly sums up our experience during Judah’s period of unemployment. And of course, it brought out some of our nastier traits that had been lurking beneath the surface. Judah started to get lazy and depressed. I started to get (more than) a bit snappish. We eventually hit a point where we decided that we could let this time of unemployment drive a wedge in our relationship, or we could choose to grow from it. I’m happy to report that it has been a challenging, but fruitful growing experience.

So, you might have gathered that I’ve been speaking of Judah’s unemployment in the past tense. And yes, that means it’s over! So, what comes next? Judah starts his new job next Wednesday, doing HVAC and metal fabrication. I go back to being a stay-at-home mom. It’s going to be an interesting transition for both of us. Judah will have to get used to working again. I will have to get used to being home alone with a baby all day long. I need to remember how to keep myself sane. But until then, we will be working on a few more home improvement projects, and enjoying time as a family without the stress of job hunting!