Hello everyone,

In a way it's odd for me to post on here as I initially felt somewhat desperate. I stay at home with my youngest daughter all day who is 4 and my son 8 and older daughter is about to turn 11.

After moving into our new home it was determined that having my wife work full time was the best bet as she makes more than double the salary I was making and I can still earn income as an artist, but need to do it freelance. The freelance thing is a challenge as it seems like more effort is put into finding various jobs than in the actual art creation process, but it still beats getting a local part time job around my wifes schedule which would be pretty hard to do considering her ever changing hours as she is in the medical profession in a leadership role and things always seem to come up.

I am hoping from being in the group that I can find some advice by just seeing how you guys do things. Primarily balancing keeping up with the kids emotional. physical and cleaning needs. In addition to that we are in a brand new home which is great, but I am left with many tasks that come with a new home in addition to your typical change the air filter in the vent , daily cleaning and laundry duties. It is great that we have a nice big home, but man, there is alot to clean and getting the kids to help has been a struggle for me as well as I guess I'm just not stern enough.

Then I am balancing in my freelance artwork when I can but with art, It is hard to be constantly interrupted by other things like taking care of the dogs and my daughter as needed during the day and once my other kids get home I might as well forget it as homework needs and dinner preparation begins.

Well anyway, those are some of my struggles and I hope to find any kind of advice that may help from those that have experienced similar challenges.

Glad to be here and that this site exists in the first place.

Tom