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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Author in Residence

5:30 - Wake up, check Twitter, debate whether I should go workout or not

6:00 - Wake the girls up, spend fifty minutes begging them to get moving

6:50 - Give the kids cereal

6:55 - Eldest panics over forgotten test, try to teach science concepts in three minutes

7:00 - Frantic hunt for shoes

7:05 - The bus arrives

7:10 - Wake up Bambino and feed him

7:15 - Chase toddler so I can get a new shirt on him

7:20 - Leave for speech therapy

7:50 - Sit in the freezing waiting room waiting for the perpetually late speech therapist

7:52 - Bambino starts screaming

7:53 - Rescue Bambino's shoes, put them back on

8:00 - Try to remember all the words Bambino used this week

8:30 - Leave speech and drive home in a rainstorm

8:50 - Get home, give Bambino toys, open manuscript

8:51 - Bambino sits on my lap with a book "Read?"

9:35 - Distract Bambino from pile of books with morning snack and blocks, review outline, start to write

10:00 - Respond to emergency email from school, check Twitter

10:10 - Write three words

10:10 - Hear the front door open and slam shut

10:11 - Chase Bambino down the street in fuzzy pink socks

10:13 - Catch Bambino when he stops for a mud puddle

10:15 - Haul screaming, muddy toddler home for a bath

11:30 - Toss the muddy clothes in the laundry and make lunch, check Twitter

11:45 - Eat with Bambino

11:50 - Clean up lunch disaster before peanut butter dries on the ceiling fan

12:15 - Clean up the dog food soup spilled on the living room floor while I was cleaning up lunch

12:30 - Put Bambino down for a nap

12:35 - Sit down at computer with glass of water, check Twitter, check email

1:00 - Open manuscript, try to remember what I was saying because I stopped in the middle of a sentence

1:40 - Delete 800 words after writing 300 new ones

1:45 - Stop by Twitter to cry over editing woes, notice time, wake Bambino up

1:46 - Thunder crashes overhead and lights flicker, I hope I saved, I'm in the car going to pick up kids

2:00 - Dentist's office - pay $300 because someone lost a filling in gym class

3:00 - Feed the hungry savages, check Twitter, check to see if manuscript survived the storm

3:30 - 5:00 - Argue over homework, the proper use of past tense, and what 2+ 2 equals

5:00 - Meltdown, everyone starts screaming and Dog does his potty dance, Eldest screams that she has scouts tonight

5:20 - Return from tug-of-war with Dog and find cereal spread across the floor, Bambino is eating a candy bar and cheese, load everyone in car and drive to scouts

6:00 - Start dinner, clean living room, check Twitter, dodge question about how this chapter is going

6:30 - Eat dinner

6:35 - Clean up, run to pick up Eldest from scouts with two tired kids screaming for bed

7:20 - Tell the kids to take a "really quick" bath

7:50 - Tell the kids for the last time to get out of the "really quick" bath and get to bed

8:00 - Bedtime, reopen manuscript, check Twitter in despair, what was I writing again?

8:10 - "Mom, I don't feel good."

8:30 - Peek at manuscript again, is it really that bad?

8:32 - Start Googling "new hobbies" I'm obviously not cut out for writing

8:47 - Beta-reader sends an email demanding the next chapter

8:50 - Start writing again

8:54 - Someone starts throwing up, go clean up, administer medicine, send to bed

9:25 - Check email for inspiration of any form

9:26 - Read email: "It must be great to do nothing but write all day! I wish I could do that!"

9:27 - Reply, "Me too."

7 comments:

  1. Ha! Thank you! This should be posted far and wide.
    -- Another SAHM/writer

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  2. I work 40 hours a week at an office desk. A quiet one. Then I come home and work another 40 hours or so per week with writing/publishing.

    I could not handle your life. LOL I'd go stark raving mad in less than a day, I think.

    I'd love to write full-time, but I don't have kids (and won't). I have a lot of respect for people who manage with little ones and all that entails. Talk about chaos! Better luck today... :-)

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  3. I can't believe people say that. It blows my mind.

    This looks pretty accurate, and I only have 2 kids!

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  4. As another Write at Home Mom, I feel your pain!!! What a crazy day, and it starts over each and every morning! LoL.

    Katie Salidas

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  5. Amen! Though this does make me feel guilty, since I only have one kid and he's in school most of the day. My progress doesn't show it.

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  6. Well in a few years when they are all in school you can switch from sci-fi to nonfiction, How to books or Survival Manuals. Then the next day you can reflect on how it feels to be an empty nester and switch back to sci-fi, but with a strange twist on the mating habits of aliens. Just remember all this "experience" is potential fodder for your broadened writing horizons. Of course you will be living in a world where everyone only has e-children...Not the flesh and blood variety. However your oldest flesh and blood one will buy you a round trip ticket to Mars and send your grandkids with you for the four year adventure....

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