Major Schedule Change

My wife Holly and I had lunch on Thursday of last week and put our entire work situation on the table to re-examine it all again, fresh from the ground up, for the first time in about 5 years.

As you might know, since the launch of Spirit Blade Productions in the fall of 2006, I've also been a substitute teacher for about 60 days of each school year to help round out our family finances. Spirit Blade Productions is able to pay for some of its own expenses at this point(Thank you Insiders, Financial Contributors and Customers!!), but not all of them. And it certainly isn't a source of income for us.

As I tend to be an out of the box thinker, I put a somewhat wild idea on the table, thinking Holly would hate it. The idea being that I would fully embrace the role of "Mr. Mom" five days a week(instead of just two), allowing her to work during the day every week day, while I do my work for Spirit Blade Productions beginning at 4pm or so every week day.

I hate working nights. I seem to require a minimum of 1-2 hours at the end of each night to "detox", or else find myself very moody in general. So you might think that CHOOSING to work nights every day is a disaster waiting to happen for me. 

 

But I have recently found I can leverage my time well enough during the day (even as Mr. Mom) to still get some work done. This is important because by doing this I feel I can justify ending my work day around 7:30 or 8pm each night.

 

The "Mr. Mom Scenario" gives me about two or more "multi-tasking" hours each day to write and answer emails or create/adjust web content while I manage our boys and other household responsibilities. Then I also have around 3-4 hours of completely focused and undistracted work time, which I typically use for a little study and then largely creative endeavors. (This much "focused time" is typically what I've managed on my best days in the past, but it's never been even close to the norm.)

In this scenario, Holly will work two extra hours each week, all year long. I will also take on more responsibilities for running the household... and completely stop substitute teaching. Resigning as a sub is something I've wanted to do for years but I had always hoped it would happen because of SBP's income. The timing isn't right for that to be the case, but to my surprise Holly was still open to this idea.

We're still working out details and it will require some significant stretching and growth on my part. But in the end we both think the pros outweigh the cons. Still, we want to experiment with a trial run for one semester before committing long term. From now through December we will be giving this lifestyle a go, making adjustments along the way. We'll either crash and burn at some point along the way or re-evaluate in December, at which point I'll either resign as a sub for good, or go back to subbing part-time for the rest of the year and onward.

All this yapping to say that we could use some prayer as we explore this new approach to our lives. It looks like it could be very good for both of us, our family and Spirit Blade Productions. (If it works out, it will shave months away from post-production on "A World Of Shadows" and all future endeavors!) But we want to be on Yahweh's agenda, even if it doesn't look as appealing and beneficial as this does.

So if you think of it, please pray that God will give us wisdom, clarity, patience and grace for each other in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks,

Paeter Frandsen