“It’ll give you something to do!”

As summer rolls in and school finishes here in Texas, I am filled with excitement that my aunt is finishing up her first year as a special education teacher; as I’m sure she is too! Now I finally have someone to spend my days with! Gone will be the days upon days of sitting in bed until 11am and cleaning every ounce of our apartment daily.

As of January, my life changed from working 40-50 hours a week, to being unemployed in March and living essentially as a housewife! One big misconception about anyone coming to live in the United States is that you are able to work instantly. Oh how I wish it was that simple! First you must go through mountains of paperwork, money, interviews and a medical exam before you can even begin to say the word “employed”. For some, sitting at home doing nothing and not working may seem like an idealistic lifestyle! But not for this girl! Even when I was in sixth form, I was working five days a week to pay for my trips to Texas! I have always had my own money; always paid my own way and loved to work! So you can only imagine my struggle when I had to give up my job in England and enter into a lifestyle of waiting and waiting. One of my biggest struggles is accepting that Adam is completely responsible for all of our finances. I paid rent when I was working full time and living at home in England so to have my husband pay for everything while I sit at home all day is tough! He tells me all the time that it’s what a husband is supposed to do and if I never worked a day in my life he would continue to support us both; however he appreciates that once I am able to work and earn my own money, I will give an input into our finances. He also appreciates all that I do around the house; the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry. And he does remind me of this quite often.

Now I have to admit, I do like to clean. I enjoy looking around my home and seeing that everything is in its place, where it should be. What I struggle with is the fact that we have a small apartment and there is only so much that I can clean and organize on a daily basis!

One of the phrases I have heard a lot in the past four months is “it’ll give you something to do!”. Everyone who knows what Adam and I are going through have said this at least three times if not more to me. My aunt bought me a finance organizer and said: “I thought it would give you something to do during the day!” Also suggested to me by people was couponing, taking up crafts or volunteering. Although I am not the most imaginative or creative person, I have considered volunteering at our local animal shelter. It is within walking distance and I am pretty sure that I am able to volunteer while we waiting for our paperwork to be completed. Heck, it’ll get me out of the apartment and give me something to do!

I am trying to stay patient on our journey and Adam constantly reminds me of this; things take time and I know I will really appreciate it when I finally get that work permit through in the mail! For mow, I am going to enjoy what could possibly my last summer in Texas not working! Now reunited with my tanning buddy, I plan to have a very hot lazy summer!