Working at the bookstore
My laptop gives out in an hour and Brett isn’t picking me up for about two hours. Oops. And here I am blogging instead of taking (more) notes. But I think my notes are good and now I just have to write (and interview one more person) so it’ll be fine. I can always take notes (gulp) by hand.
Brett and I are having a Discussion while the children are at the grandparents about Budgets and Planning. I am hunting for childcare again (and dearly hope S’s daughter A can help out) so I can get phone calls done. It’s the only part of freelancing that’s been really really hard since I started working in earnest. Unless I’m calling the west coast, which I can do when Brett gets home, I have less than an hour most days to make phone calls. Madison goes down for her nap at 12:30ish and wakes up by 1:30. That’s lunch hour for a lot of people and I hate trying to smush in those phone calls during that measly hour. I try to set it up beforehand with an email but truth is, for the best response you just need to be able to pick up the phone and call someone. It’s hell to get people to return emails.
I also have to remind myself that I can make things better but I can’t make them perfect. The alphasmart helps a lot but it’s not a magic bullet. Having a mother’s helper so I can make phone calls will help but I’ll still likely have frustrated days. I think sometimes that I’m looking for something to make all my problems go away and I’m not going to be able to get that, which is kind of a relief. I mean, it’s not that I’m a mess — it’s that freelancing is messy. I’ve actually done better than I expected I would and have been more efficient than I thought I could be. Bit by bit it’ll get better, I’ll learn what makes it easier and I’ll get to the point where I’m seeing the checks come in instead of being at the front where the invoices have gone out but no money has winged its way to me yet.
You know, the nice thing about letting others help you is that it’s a blessing you give them–the joy they get from helping, right? Or so you said last night. So anyway, I’d like to hang out with your tot tomorrow. I’ll call in the morning, and you can tell me when to show up, to socialize with Madison, not with you!!!
I’ve got the same pains (less really since my kids are older, 7 & 4, but they are still very needy and my office is their playroom). Something that has helped me is to try to plan out when I HAVE to be on the phone vs. when I could use phone time and replan every day based on that day.
And it doesn’t hurt to keep my expectations very low on what I think I’ll accomplish.