I am currently living in Upper Michigan in a small country home on 4 acres with my 3 dogs and 2 cats (sadly, my all too rapidly aging "children"). I love to cook, raise a large garden each summer and I have a small flock of poultry. I have owned two businesses in my lifetime. The first one was doing pretty well but after 4 years, I became ill and had to shut it down. After my recovery, my husband and I continued with it for a few years but it eventually petered out. The second one was doomed to failure in this short summer climate...I should have been wiser to begin with. So, I am back to looking for a job that will not be too demanding physically, that will hopefully allow me a little flexibility or at least be part time and still pay decently. Very hard to find! There is a lot of competition out there for good part time jobs. The last two jobs I applied for that I would have loved to get received over 50 resumes each and I am not fooling myself...I am no longer a young chick or an employer's dream applicant. I am well educated, decent looking, fairly intelligent, hard working and have years of varied work experience under my belt but it seems that most of the jobs I have applied for are falling to young gals or men. I finally took a job selling advertising for a small publisher in the area and prayed I would do well with it. It certainly has the dream schedule for me, but in these rough economic times, I don't think I am going make enough to keep it. It is becoming very disheartening. I have already met with close to 50 potential clients and so far, not one definite sale. Most of them are telling me that they have had to cut back on their advertising dollars since they are having a rough time just making enough to stay in business...they have to cut back somewhere!  I am going to give it another week or so but at the same time, I'm going to be looking for something more financially definite. My husband and I are now separated, largely due to financial stress, and probably on the verge of divorce. I am worried what the future holds.