Last week I spent much of my ‘online’ time researching what is wrong with my Mac Submarine. Monday, I posted on Facebook that its life was coming to an end. To my surprise, God answered my prayers and sent me a new computer! -Seriously, no joke. Someone gifted me a computer so I could keep writing, working, and being me. Feeling guilty for accepting the gift, I went to the Apple store and had the geeks run all kinds of diagnostics to tell me that the submarine needs to be shipped off for further inspection (to find out that water damage voids the warranty). Off I went with my new 21″ iMac and a huge smile -mostly, because I am beyond grateful for the gift!
For two days I worked from my “smart” phone. While it’s easy to respond to tweets and Facebook, it’s quite tedious to write a post. The entire week flew by; and by Friday, I was quite grumpy (and so was Eric at my codependency with my phone). Thankfully, my in-laws took our kids Friday afternoon and to my surprise Eric and I headed to P.F. Changs to have a dinner-date. While you might be thinking “what’s the big deal?” Oh, it’s big. We rarely do alone-time dates. For the past 6 years I’ve worked weekend nights, since that is when my husband was home to take care of the kids. In other words, I’ve worked non-traditional hours to stay home with my kids.
Now, I work from home while the kids are at school and I’m adjusting to the new weekend schedule. I am really enjoying doing family things and just being home. The weather is getting nicer and we are spending more time outside. The kids are asking for more daddy time in the evenings (nice right?) and I am spending that time testing out new recipes or researching. It’s working out… for now. There are days I feel overwhelmed with the lengthy to-do list and my only time to catch up is late at night.
I’ve come to realize that I’m stuck in a vicious cycle. I work from home while the kids are at school (between 9:15-2). My days are jam packed between 8am and 3pm though. I work, try to exercise, shop, laundry, 50 min school commutes 2x day, clean the house and if I can remember… take 5 minutes for myself. Did I mention all the coffee I drink? Community coffee should put me in one of their ads. Other days, I can’t wait till 8pm; when my husband takes over bedtime and I head off to pack lunches and get to work some more. Some days, my brain hurts. Mainly, because I spend time talking to engineers and learning the manufacturing lingo; or, I exhaust myself looking at numbers trying to figure out how to keep costs down so I can manufacture my product in the USA and not in China. Mostly, I find it really tiring to surrender to the things I can’t control. Welcome to the life of the Momtrepeneur. It’s busy, overextended, tiresome… yet happy, fulfilling, and exciting at the same time. For this, I am grateful. I wouldn’t do it any other way.
If you work from home, what are some of the things you do to “unplug”?
Dede
Your schedule sounds as busy as mine, although I don’t have kids. I don’t really know where I find the time to do everything and consequently things get missed!!
The computer tends to take over and I lose concept of the things I intended to do. Does this sound familiar??
Laura
an every day struggle here! I get sucked in and lost in time on the computer….