Mish, just read something from FlyLady that seemed like a good idea. Instead of asking family and friends for money (which is hard to come by right now for anybody), ask them for their "stuff," their clutter. The woman who wrote about this ended up with 2 yard sales that netted $1400! Anything that didn't go, she boxed up in the garage and will have another sale in the fall. Is your mom able to sit and make change if you have a sale while you are at work? Marc can even have a cookie/cold drink stand (they often pull in as much as the sale when a kid is sitting there). You can also list things to sell for free on craig's list.
Another friend is making a LOT of money with home Gold parties...people bring their old/broken jewelry, she collects it and pays on the spot and gets a cut. I don't know the name of the company....
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Mike - Ick about Kim. My only advice is to try to come off with her as empathetic, tell her that Caleigh can talk with her a few times a day, you will take along a pic of her, etc. On the other hand, if Kim is so concerned about C not seeing her often enough, why is she working so much? Consequences for not having a 2 parent home suck - she is just going to have to live with it. It's 7 days, not a month. Sounds like she just isn't happy that you are going on vaca, and she isn't.
Ignore the jab about being unsure about having kids - she is just trying to make herself feel better (but you know that already).
