A Monday in the Life of Me.

A Day in the Life of Me – Courtney Rene

I am a writer.  You already knew that right?  Well I am also a wife, and mother, and employee, and daughter, and sister, and aunt, and, and, and…..  One of the big questions I get asked (all the time) is when do you write?  How do you find the time?  On any given day, that answer changes. 

Today, right now, this is how I find the time.  It’s Monday, so that means I am up at the butt crack of dawn to make sure that my oldest daughter makes it out the door to school on time, which is a still dark 6:45 a.m.  I drag my bleary eyed myself, with my still warm afghan to the couch, where I promptly flop down and pretend to watch the news, actually I am dozing.  I never once said I was a morning person.  Ever.  I hear my daughter making all sorts of noise so I continually peel open my eyes to check the clock.  At 7:00 I get up and say, “You leaving?”  The snarled reply I usually get is “I’m working on it.”  By 7:05, I am pacing around her door, being spritz’d with gallons of PINK perfume and Suave hairspray until the girl is finally ready at 7:10 (usually).  She grabs her bag, flies by me with a quick, “Bye!  Love Ya!  I’ll text you when I get there.” Then she is out the door and I think, “One down….”

My husband heads out usually right after and the house is quiet…for a moment.  At this point I hop in the shower, with my cell phone on the counter as I wait to hear the ‘ding ding ding’ of a text saying my daughter made it safe to school.  Having a new teen driver is harder than I thought it would be.  After I am dressed, hair still wrapped in a towel, I go and tickle my little one out of her own warm cushy bed.  I haul her to my room, where she quickly snuggled down into my bed and turns on the tv.  I grab her clothes and toss them on her head.  I head out of the room to the kitchen usually yelling, “Get dressed while I make you something to eat!”  The bad mommy that I am, this will consist of toast with any number of toppings, bagels, English muffins, yogurt, cereal, quick muffins, instant oatmeal, or a pop-tart.  Rare occasions you get an egg or pancakes, or French toast, or waffles.  Usually, though, nope. 

While the breakfast is “cooking” I put away the clean dishes, do a quick re-pickup, and counter wipe and run downstairs to toss a load of laundry in the wash.  While Seren is eating, I do my hair, then her hair, which is 3 feet long…maybe more at this point.  Tv is off, beds are made, dogs are fed, lunches are packed, and we are finally out the door.

Seren is dropped off at school, I then head to work.  I will not drone on about how hard my work is.  It’s work, it’s not suppose to be fun.  I check email all day….I do.  I need to stop doing that, but it’s a habit.  Then I get an hour for lunch.  I use this hour for research and administrative stuff, which surprisingly there is a TON of admin crap when you are a writer.  Who knew?  Some days I will hit the library.  There are 3 that are right by my office.  Or I just hit google.  After that I will do my emailing, blogging, updating, whatever I can squeeze in, in an hours worth of time all while oinking down my lunch.  Then, I get back to work. 

After work, it’s pick-up the little one from after-school care, run home, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, do Seren’s hair again, up in a firm bun this time, and it’s off to dance class where I have another whole hour of quiet time.  Yup, you guessed it.  Writing time…..

After dance, it’s home again, bath time, laundry time, house pick-up time, and then bed time for one child, and then an hour later, its bed time for the other.  It’s 10:00….do you know where your children are?  I do, both of mine are finally in bed and quiet.  I open up my laptop; sit down in my office (Oh all right!  My dining room table), plug in my ipod, and I am zoned for as long as I can keep my eyes open, writing, and creating. 

Some days this is for a short half an hour.  Sometimes it’s till after midnight.  That….right there is how I “find” the time.  It’s all I can do.  I won’t give up my time with the girls or my husband and I can’t give up my paying job (I so wish!), but writing is important to me so I take time, make time, from myself.  Yes, I don’t get as much sleep some days as I would like, but it’s worth it to me.  I am a writer.  It’s what I do.

(Sorry everyone, my photos would not post from this computer, so I will try to post from my laptop once I get home tonight).

ctny