"Had we but world enough, and time..."*

I was thinking this morning about how hard it is to do all the things I need to do each day. My to-do list is often left unfinished, as everyday chores, like cooking and laundry and cleaning and running after children, take up most of my time, leaving little for the other things that really need to be done around here, like organizing and weeding out clothes that no longer fit and attempting to unpack more of the boxes I put in the basement when I moved here years ago. Fitting in writing time is sometimes an even bigger challenge, but it's an important one--and also the topic of today's 100 words:

As a writer and a mom, one of the things I struggle most with is finding the time to write. I stay at home with my two very young kids, something I wouldn't trade for anything. I do some writing early in the morning before they get up and some late at night after they're in their beds; however, in both cases, I'm pretty tired and often unfocused. But to paraphrase Tim Gunn on Project Runway, I make it work. I have to. If I have to sacrifice something--sleep--to follow my dream, that's what I'll do.

*Opening lines of "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell

Playing hooky

This morning's 100 words:

I'm playing hooky today, skipping the kids' storytime in favor of a few more minutes of sleep and some extra writing time. I call it a mental health day, and I need it after a week spent getting up too early, frantically trying to capture all the pieces of the chaos and coax them into something tamable. It's the season, I guess, the time of Halloween costumes and parties and an evening spent trick or treating in the cold, shivering on the sidewalk as my children go from door to door, plastic pumpkins in hand and wide smiles on their faces.

Jed's still talking!

I haven't mentioned my WIP in several weeks, so here's a quick update:

I finished outlining Jed's story and have started writing the first chapter. Things are going well so far, except for the lack of writing time I've had in the past month or so due to birthdays, visitors, vacation planning, etc. I hope to get a large chuck of the book written before I leave for Michigan next month, so I need to start that push next week. Jed's constantly yammering in my ear, and if I want my brain to myself for a while, I have to get this book written soon!

My 100 words on writing

Most days I'm eager--sometimes even anxious--to put words on the page, so excited by whatever ideas came to me during the night that my fingers trip over each other on the keys and I find that I just can't type fast enough. Today, though, my typing is slow, and my enthusiasm is almost nonexistent. My writing time looms ahead of me, and though it is short (as it has been since I had children), it seems like too much time to fill, too many words to write, too many reluctant thoughts to translate to the page.