The Great Thing About Being Unemployed...

The great thing about being unemployed is that I have so much more free time. I [Jonathan] lost my job in June after being at the Hartford four years.

So the last four weeks we have done some fun things as a family.

We took a day trip to the West Hartford Children’s Museum. The kids had a great time seeing all the reptiles and other exhibits.

We went to Cape Cod, MA for camping one weekend with some friends and had terrific time cooking and playing at the beaches there. Here is our camp site. The older kids actually slept pretty well in their own tent, though Miriam did have to be comforted at 2am once - dreams about hermit crabs coming and eating her (after the kids had caught a bunch the previous day).

The tide pools were awesome on one side of the cape, and the crashing waves were large and powerful on the other side. We had fun running in and away from them.

Kristy built a great sand castle, but the rising tide knocked it out in two strokes.

After a get-acquainted phase (read "lots of crying for five minutes") Emily decided the sand wasn't so bad and started enjoying herself - this was on the calm side of the island.

As the tide pulled out - and it really went out - it left these cool rivlets in the sand. We were able to walk out a mile and still the ocean was only six to twleve inches deep.

Blueberries came in season and we went and picked them.

The kids were adorable and mostly only picked the ripe berries. Emily was kept happy by skimming some of the product from us. We blended some berries into vanilla ice cream to make soft blueberry ice cream when we got home and it tasted wonderful.

I have spent a bunch of time working on stripping, sanding, and restaining our deck. It needed it badly. I will definitely rent a sander from Home Depot next time rather than use a belt sander for a deck this size.

While replacing some boards we discovered a little surprise too - a robbin’s nest with three blue eggs (we made sure not to disturb it).

It's also fun to just be home during the day and see the kids playing together or doing their own individual thing.

At nights we have family picnics outside. Our deck furniture is on the lawn though, since the deck is under construction still.

And even the getting all dressed up for the job interviews is kind of fun. Showering, shaving, gelling my hair and putting on my best suit I always feel like I’m going to prom again. (Honestly, though, Prom is much more fun than an interview.)

Still, despite the fun of it all, I would trade it for the security of an income stream that a job brings. Hopefully that will come shortly.