This is What I Do All Day

Let’s revisit that question of what I do all day, because this week is a good example of everything I do rolled into one.

My number one priority is the Schuster-Szabo empire. I run the business end of the construction company. We have 4-5 employees, depending on the time of year. I do all the paperwork and bookkeeping—basically, anything that doesn’t involve the actual pouring of concrete. The husband often says that if it weren’t for me, he’d be part of the underground economy. He has no interest in any of that stuff. And I am OCD about tracking every last penny. I reconcile the bank statement every month and our accountant has everything he needs to prepare our tax returns by the end of January. Have I mentioned how much I hate QuickBooks?

I am on the board of the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation. That is our local community organization. The Foundation owns the property on which stands the original 1927 schoolhouse as well as our community center where the sewing group meets on Thursdays.

I built and manage the Foundation website, produce the quarterly newsletter, and I am the chairman of the Fundraising Committee which meets once a month. I am also the chairman of the annual plant sale. Last year, the Fundraising Committee set a goal of raising $25,000. We beat that by over a thousand dollars. That sounds like a lot of money, but half of that is earmarked just for keeping the lights on and the doors open. Our insurance premiums alone are $6000 a year. This morning, I’m going to a presentation by the Whitefish Community Foundation to see about possible grant opportunities for our organization because we would like to renovate and improve the 1927 schoolhouse building.

I produce a weekly podcast. (Yes, I am going back to a weekly schedule.) That isn’t generating much income at the moment, but I enjoy it and will keep doing it. I have met a lot of very fascinating people.

I teach sewing (and knitting). I have a class on ruler quilting scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at the quilt store south of town. I’ll be teaching at Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA, at the end of February. I enjoy teaching and probably would travel more except that I promised the husband that I would confine my roaming around to the Pacific Northwest. Traveling does take a lot of time and it’s very disruptive.

I am the pianist at the Mennonite Church. Every Sunday. As part of that position, I’m on the worship planning team. I am also currently the chairman of the pastor search team. Our previous pastor retired in the fall of 2022 and we are searching for another pastor. There are five very devoted people on the committee with me. I enjoy working with them, although that position comes with a lot of expectations and pressure.

The daily chicken chores are partly my responsibility and I do 90% of the work in the garden. The husband helps with the heavy lifting, but starting and growing all of our crops—as well as half the plants for the Homestead Foundation plant sale in May—falls under my purview. All of the food canning and preservation is my responsibility.

In short, I am not sitting around doing nothing. I know that people look at me and think, “Well, she doesn’t have a real job so she must have all the time in the world.” Ha. (The husband reminds me frequently that I do have a real job as the CFO of the construction company.) Most of the time, I enjoy the way my schedule is set up. It’s only when people assume that I am their paid staff and treat me as such that I get annoyed.

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Recording today’s podcast interview was a lot of fun. I got an e-mail from a woman in the Netherlands a few weeks ago. She asked if I would be interested in visiting with her about how she created her own custom dress form. She had a local company do a 3D scan of her body, then sent the files to another company to have them make a foam copy of her body. She set up a website to help other sewists do the same thing for themselves. I finished that interview thinking what a shame is is that we’re on opposite side of the planet, because she would make a great sewing buddy. And I am kicking around the idea of making myself a custom dress form.