Wednesday, August 23, 2006

How do they do it?

Holy cow. Those of you who have kids, work a full time job, have a marginally clean house and *still* manage to have a writing career, I salute you, I swear.

I had a mini panic attack today as the penalty for trying to be nice when my teacher asked people to switch to the earlier class. No problem, I thought. I'll go to the earlier class, I'll come home, kick back, I'll go to the later class.

Except it's 35 minutes, more or less, one way to school. Not counting traffic. And then home again. And then back again? And. I needed to get groceries and clean the bathroom (my favorite chore ever!) and replace a toilet seat and get The Engineer's laundry done *and* I was doing promo today and well, let's just not talk about how much writing I didn't do, shall we?

How do you all do it? This is what comes of being out of the workforce for five years, I think. Or from having actually kicked off the career I want. I didn't have this problem when I was doing school before because I had no deadlines. The dread D word.

So now I have to decide whether I can keep up with school, not drive myself or the Engineer nuts, and still make deadlines. That whirring sound you hear? May be my brain. If you smell smoke, don't worry. I have an extinguisher.

9 comments:

Lyric James said...

Well, since I went back to work and school started, I'm finding it harder and harder to carve out a little chunk of time to write and it's driving me crazy. I'm just so freakin' BUSY!! I think what I'm going to have to do is make a schedule for myself and stick to it. And stop surfing the web. Ack!

Shelli Stevens said...

I don't work, I have kids, but... i just write during naps and at night. You just write when you have a free moment. Or schedule a time slot where it's possible. Then write that entire time and you're done for the day.

Dayna_Hart said...

I don't work, but I have three kids. I admit, my house is a wreck. My husband is neglected. He works from home until 5pm, we do dinner together, and then at 7pm, my butt hits the chair and I don't move til 11. Bedtime. I've been working at leaving the computer alone during the day to spend more time with the kids (although I get to bloghop during Dora the Explorer ;)
Mostly I feel guilty a lot of the time for spending too much time on one thing, and not on another.

Emmy Ellis said...

I don't work, but have 5 kids. My house gets tidied each day, bit not at a specific time. I spend all day on my PC, and most of the evening. I get up inbetween jobs and clean, do laundry, answer the door, sort out the kids, cook...blah blah.

The day just does itself really.

I would find your way of doing it harder. I salute you!

:o)

Emmy Ellis said...

but...I meant but, honestly...

:o)

Jana Armstrong said...

Juggling makes for some f-u-n times. And the guilt, oh!

Then again, my house is pretty messy but I do always have clean laundry. My kid loves me, my husband is content (he's busy too). The only people that might not be too happy would be my bosses who probably wish I would work a bit more on the day job stuff.

Loribelle Hunt said...

Well, I don't work and all the kids are back in school so I'm something calmer. I still feel those deadlines looming, but I've worked out a schedule sort of. Drop them off, clean, work out, get on the computer. Now if I could just stop the net surfing I'd be in a much better spot lol.

Karen Erickson said...

I don't work but I have 3 kids and a very busy at work husband. It's been a little easier w/ the kids in school cos I seem to carve a schedule out a little more. And I'm like Shelli - I write during naps and at night. Hubby's usually asleep early so I don't feel too guilty.

And the house is not perfect but no one complains. :)

Ann Cory said...

IT's a crazy life, isn't it? Never enough time. I am sleep deprived, only so I can gather a few more hours - and of course I pay in the end. *shakes head* The problem is - I love what I do so I don't think it will change. Writing is my full time job - and the housework gets neglected every once in awhile. I too salute those who can have a full time job as well!

*hugs to you hon*