As the snow began to melt so work began to firm up, until by the end of the day I had a potential book to write, a couple more book reviews on the offing and several features to complete that I’d been waiting until the last minute to do – basically because the homeschooling coupled with the domestic load really is such a full time job.
I’m not great at saying no to work, essentially because it’s all money in the pot plus I’ve got to the point where most of my commissions are for things I really want to do. Having written a book during the last lockdown, however, and then found myself at the bottom of a slippery slope due to complex family issues, I’ve been making a concerted effort not to take on more than I can chew.
As one facet of Tom’s job is as a carpenter, he’s been had non-stop work throughout, much of it out of the home – in his workshop at the arch or on site. Which leaves me, like many people, managing pretty much everything on the home front. Third time around, in terms of lockdowns, I’m fine doing this as part of a team i.e. me and Tom but not without firm boundaries that allow us both some potential wriggle room.
Some weeks that’s going to work, some weeks not. Today, I felt things mounting up in terms of the daily juggle – millions of conversations about who is doing what when (to be honest, as a marriage between two freelancers we’ve been doing this for years, although not always successfully) – but having put way more time into self-care over the past few months, I’m think I’ve now got the strength to just get on with it, making sure those boundaries don’t become so moveable they eventually disappear. Dry stone walls, I can work with those.
Thus the book was taken on, one of the features just had to get written (what should have taken an hour taking about four as the constantly interrupted words just wouldn’t get written) and the kids were cared for as best I could (pizza; skip bath). We were all exhausted at the end of the day but fed, watered and warm, and I went to bed mind-writing my other feature on wildflower meadows, ready to type up the following day.