The office for my day job (which has been my guest bedroom since March) was closed for the MLK holiday today. In my mind, I was going to use this unexpected day off to focus on finishing editing Community Klepto and work on some other documents for my publisher, since they’re due at the end of the month. However, because I am a working mom, my day off ended up looking more like this:
- Get the children off to school
- Take the microvan for an overdue oil change and an overdue state inspection
- Finish paperback (Dry) waiting for microvan
- Take microvan through car wash because bird shit happens
- Vacuum fossilized french fries and Reese’s Pieces out of the microvan
- Pick up more Zyrtec-D because it’s cedar season in Austin
- Barre class (yay! I usually have to do this before anyone else in my house wakes up)
- Take bunch of bags of crap to the Goodwill, also the box spring for old bed, now bungeed to the top of the microvan
- Goodwill won’t take box spring – attempt Habitat for Humanity Restore
- Restore won’t take box spring – succeed at Salvation army 10 miles away
- Start editing, realize I need to start crock pot
- Start crock pot, realize I am too tired to stare at computer screen
- Finish audiobook (Fight Club) falling asleep
- Get up, finish editing book before retrieving children
The reality is that even when I have a day off my day is really just filled with the backlog of things that I haven’t been able to get to because I either can’t do them when I am working during the day or I can’t do them while I’m with my children on the weekend. This is the reality for all working parents, especially moms.
As a mom with a full time job and a book coming out next year, time for writing, editing, or doing author platform building comes at a premium, and often comes after my children decide they’re done jumping off their beds for the night and decide to actually sleep on them. So even when my “day of editing” gets derailed by a jillion other tasks that have to be done, I can feel a great sense of gratitude in actually getting editing time in when the sun is out.
And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that the manuscript is now officially ready for the publisher. And the children loved the crock pot soup.
Leave a Comment