Noah is not awesome at reviews (so giggly!)
Aug 16, 2008 Blogging, work work work
But he’s on Kids Know Stuff any old way. I think they let him in because he’s kinda cute.
Today I’m taking him to WOSU’s Digital Days at COSI to help me sit and talk about blogging to any interested passerbys. See, I figure one of the advantages of working from home is that you get to involve the kids and give them an understanding of the ins and outs of the work-a-day world. I’ve noticed that Noah is much more willing to watch Madison when he gets that I do this work, I send this invoice and then (theoretically) I get paid. He comes and looks over my shoulder a lot and he at least feigns some interest in my portfolio.
I figure all of this is homeschooling, too, being involved with our work stuff.
Lately we’ve been talking to him a lot about budgeting explaining to him what we would have done differently at the start of this freelance gig with what we know now and talking to him about the long-range plans and why Brett’s at work now. He’s clearly feeling more ownership in how our family does and feeling more integral to our success. I know he’ll have his less than stellar days but this past week he’s been extremely helpful in getting the house going, Madison settled, etc. so I can finish a project or get lunch started before I have to field a call from a client. He’s very “we’re all in this together.”
Anyway. He’s a nice kid if giggly. He can’t help it. Those Lena and Liberty girls are funny — what’s a boy to do?
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Tags: Blogging, Friends, kids, kids know stuff, Noah, reviews, work, working from home
We’re rearranging the house
Jul 20, 2008 The Story of My Life, work work work
I’m taking advantage of Brett’s muscle to get things moved around — tv down to the playroom, upstairs living room rearranged, etc. Since I’ll be working without childcare for at least the first few weeks of Brett’s job, I want to get it set up so the kids can be down here where I am and happily out of my hair.
I guess I hadn’t explained very well that Brett going to work doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop working — no way, no how! Because, for one, I make about as much money as he does and neither of us alone is making quite enough to keep up our lifestyle and add to savings so we’re both going to put nose to the grindstone for awhile. As my business grows we’ll reasses (it may be having less childcare will slow me down but I don’t think so because I’m going to have to spend less time marketing — Open Book Strategies is already easier to sell to folks, which is proof I’m on the right rack, I think). I will definitely need childcare but I’m going to try to get to fall when it’ll be easier to find and I think that’s doable (fall is just around the corner after all). I don’t anticipate having the same problems I had before because Madison is older now and more amenable to someone coming over to play with her while I sit at my desk. I’m figuring if I can get someone to give me some mornings, I can work and Noah can do school and then the afternoons will be fairly free barring rush jobs and overflow work (there are always evenings and weekends for that, too).
Anyway! I need to go do some heavy directing of Brett’s heavy lifting. Those boxes of books aren’t going to move themselves!!
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Tags: child care, childcare, homeschool, Homeschooling, Open Book Strategies, schedule, working from home
My husband is funny
Jun 8, 2008 work work work
Brett just awarded me employee of the month at, you know, Smart Cookie Communications. I guess we’re going to take turns with that. I hope he’s buying me chocolate to celebrate.
When people ask me what my husband does (or ask Brett what he does) we’ve been saying he’s home with the kids but now we’re going to say that he handles the accounting for our business because:
1. He does.
2. It engenders less discussion.
3. It’s easy for the two of us to forget how vital he is to our daily operations and we need to put it at the forefront of our minds.
I can write for days and days but am easily bored by mundane things like billing and keeping track of W9s and remembering to send back contracts. If he didn’t help me with that stuff things would be so much more muddled around here. Plus he chases down people who haven’t paid, he handles all the insurance and retirement issues, and he deals with our tax records. I would be drowning in a sea of paper (and likely not even noticing) if he didn’t handle all that.
But this month I get to be Employee of the Month because I promised to catch up on the book reviews even though I am easily bored by them and he’s trying to cheer me on so I can get ‘em off my desk. Whenever I send an invoice out, I cc him for his records and I just sent one so he emailed me back and let me know I’d be getting my plaque any minute now. Maybe they’ll put my picture in the company newsletter!
If I hadn’t already snatched him up, I’d just marry the heck out of that guy.
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Tags: billable, business systems, entrepeneurship, invoices, invoicing, marriage, smart cookie communications, work, working, working from home
Little to no work today
May 20, 2008 work work work
I theoretically have a day off from work because Brett is at Home Depot and I’m here with the kids. I’ve got Noah playing with Madison so I can at least get a little bit done this morning but I’m going to try very very hard not to work anymore today. I spent a very long time cramming work in around the kids so it feels normal to me to be fretting at the computer while the children nip at my heels but just because it feels normal doesn’t mean it feels good.
I can’t write/work unless I’m removed from the moment and in my own zone. I know not everyone works this way but I do and that’s why writing around the kids for the years before Brett’s lay off were excruciating; I always felt like my brain was being torn in two. Really. It hurts to have my train of thought derailed and so in the early Madison years, I was mostly frustrated and unhappy about work. This is why I don’t want to go back to Brett being gone full-time. I think I can deal with having occasional days like today but only if I steer clear of my computer until this evening when Brett gets back.
It’s funny how pressing deadlines feel so much more pressing when I’m not at my desk. I can sit here tooling around blogs not worried a bit about an essay I need to get written but send me upstairs away from my laptop and I get antsy and nervous about getting it done. It’s the attention divided that kills me.
Ooh, I’m already frustrated and I haven’t even run out of work time yet!!!!
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Tags: Brett, frustration, home depot, Madison, Noah, working, working from home, Writing
Everything old is new again
May 17, 2008 Uncategorized
I’m home with the kids today while my husband is at work just like how things used to be but totally different. Brett started today at a Home Depot for three reasons:
- Possibility of getting help with our insurance;
- Learning to do some of the things around the house that need to get done and learning with an employee discount;
- A break from the kids.
Seriously — a break from the kids was a big reason he wanted a job. I hear that.
Meanwhile it looks like my on-site gig, (which amounts to about five days a month across two weeks), might be regular which is what I hoped. At least they’ve already assigned my time to come next month. Perfect! It’s a big chunk of our budget right there and a big relief. Plus it’s fun. I mean really, really fun.
We think we’ll be able to swing the scheduling so that one of us is with the kids while the other is at work but there will surely be times where I’ll have a client meeting when Brett is gone so we’ve got a few back up plans. My sister is always good for some childcare and I volunteered Abby (without speaking to her first but she was game) and there’s Noah’s friend L’s family and the inlaws are back in town, at least for now. So that’s all good although Madison has been periodically showing up in tears to remind us that she never, ever, ever likes to have playdates when one of us is not with her. She says that when she is a mommy she will never, ever, ever leave her kids.
“I hate [job site]! Do all mommies have to go to [job site]? Or do some not go?”
I told her not all mommies go there and she declared that she certainly will not then. I told her this is fine.
I was having some stress earlier this week because someone sent a marketing this or that my way and it was all about getting out there and making zillions of dollars and I looked at it and thought, “I can see a way to market myself with these tools” and I could see how it might work but I could also see that to do it I would have to kinda push and shove some other people who are dabbling in the same sort of thing. And also there’s this marketing tone that’s very, “How much money have YOU made today???” that doesn’t resonate with me AT ALL. In fact, it’s something that kept me leery of marketing communications as a career and I still duck and cover when I show up at a networking meeting and there’s someone at the door glad-handing everyone and saying, “I made six figures in the last six months! How badly do YOU want success???”
The truth is I want some success. This past April with the two missing checks? That’s made me feel a lot less down on the whole money-money-money credo. But — not to be corny — I would be happy with money-money; I don’t need money-money-money. (See, first money covers the bills and the second money puts cash in savings.)
When things were feeling very bad last month, Brett and I sat ourselves down and said, “Can we really do this?” Because it looked like we were on our way to failing. Should Brett go back to a full-time desk job? Would I have to go back to scrambling for nickel-and-dime jobs while the house descended into chaos behind me? We put it all out on the table and decided, “No. We’ll make this work.” (Part of this was because we knew there’d be some very “I told you so” types if we threw in the towel, which made us want to kick freelance ass because we are contrary like that.)
Way back at the beginning of this thing Julia asked me what I wanted from this. Last week she reminded me of this after listening to me angst about not wanting to take over the world. She said, “Dawn, do you remember what your goal was? It was to make enough money to support your habit of being with your family.” (Is that a great line or what?)
This past April scared me so I was thinking, has it scared me enough to head into the dog-eat-dog, high-enthusiasm, take-no-prisoners world of hard-core marketing communications marketing? To elbow my way to the front? To make enemies in the name of getting more work and higher pay-outs? And Julia said, no. Because I don’t need money-money-money when money-money will do.
She also reminded me that I’ve come a long way, baby, in the past year. I know a lot more now and I know which marketing groups seem worth it and which didn’t do much for me so I’m wasting a lot less time smiling stiffly at events. I’ve made friends and contacts and colleagues. I’ve added a whole lot of work to my portfolio. I’ve learned the lingo and how to use it. I’ve learned to listen more than I talk. I’ve got a work wardrobe for the first time in my life and I’ve gained so much confidence that everything feels a lot less hard.
Other accomplishments:
- I’ve had several public speaking gigs and have three more upcoming;
- I’m no longer nervous about returning phone calls to perfect strangers;
- I’m not afraid to turn down work that doesn’t suit me;
- I have people who come to me with work.
That last one, that feels great, lemme tell you.
If this on-site gig sticks around awhile we’ll be in the clear even if someone loses a check (or two) for four (or six) weeks. If Brett likes Home Depot (and I think he will), he’ll be able to get some of the work done around here that’s making him crazy. (Like refinishing our oak floors that weren’t sealed and so are getting trashed; like finishing the basement; like building out an office space for me; like replacing more tile in the crazy bathrooms; like fixing the solar panel thingies on the roof; like rescuing the house from its 50+ year old landscaping.)
And we can support our habit of spending time with each other and with our kids. I know — how selfish are we? But yesterday I worked all morning and then Brett watched three sets of kids for the afternoon while I went thrifting with the moms and then the families all went out to dinner together and Noah sat laughing with the big kids and Madison giggled and fell off her chair with the little kids while the dads talked budgets and the moms talked kids and I thought, “This is what I’m in this for. Friends and family and time enough to work.”
Like everything it’s a balance. I’ll work a zillion hours a week as long as I can do it on my terms — with breaks to eat a sandwich with my husband or watch Noah play lacrosse or give Madison a foggy bath for her runny nose. I’ll hustle and hustle and hustle if I don’t have to sell-out to do it. But I have to stop sometimes to reassess — am I where I want to be and on my way to the next right stop? Today I am. Next week I’ll check again. And on and on and on.
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Tags: at-home parenting, budget, budgets, Erica, freelance, freelancing, inlaws, Julia, Madison, marketing, marketing communications, networking, Noah, Parenting, values, working from home
