Day in the Life

Since it’s summer…and it’s been a while, here’s a new day in the life post of what it’s like to be a work from home mom / pro writer.

3:25 AM – Why am I awake? Dammit, why am I awake? More importantly am I going to go back to sleep?

6:30 AM – Yeah, still awake. I guess I’ll just stay in bed until the alarm goes off for Bull. I mean, I could get up and take a bath, but…the room is cold and that seems like work.

7:00 AM – Bull is awake and realized he doesn’t have to go to work until 10:00 AM. I begrudgingly go to take a hot bath.

7:30 AM – Not only did Athena try to lick me in the eyeball while I was washing my hair, but I can hear Baby Bull. I get dressed and let Bull know the tiny one has arisen.

7:45 AM – Breakfast for the little one. Bull looks for his work clothes, takes out the trash, and feeds the cat who took up residence in our garage. I do the dishes and begin mentally planning my day.

8:00 AM – Put black beans on to soak. Start booting up laptop. Wonder why the virtual assistant service can’t figure out the difference between eastern time and central time…because my fucking phone won’t stop ringing.

8:30 AM – Start looking at my project management solution and begin adding the 12+ blog posts sent to me over the weekend. Plan day. Wonder if I’ll make it out alive.

8:45 AM – Start working on Tuesday blog for Lawyer Z. Bull leaves for work. Baby Bull wonders into my office and takes his place on the chair. I take a photo of him over my shoulder…and he’s giving me the side eye. We have the door open into the backyard.

9:15 AM – Pause my work long enough to slap some sunscreen on the kid and give him his socks and shoes to put on (for new readers, Baby Bull is 8 years old and has autism. He’s classified as “severe,” but can do many things for himself. However, he is primarily non-verbal although he can repeat television commercials like no one’s business “Call the hurtline…Dan Davis.”) The sunscreen is a necessity. One of the meds he takes makes him extremely sensitive to the sun. The side of the house where my office is remains shady until after 12. So, while it’s cool, he can play outside where I can see him.

10:00 AM – Finish Lawyer Z’s Tuesday blog post and social media. Go outside to check on Baby Bull. Take him in for a potty break. Start the black beans and wonder why in the hell there are so many flies in the house (realistically, I know the answer. I like to have the doors open while it’s cool enough to do it.)

10:50 AM – Check in with chatbot developer client to determine if he wants an extra blog post this week since yesterday was a holiday.

10:51 AM – Start editing for Client J. Oh great…a problem in their CMS that means certain things have stopped auto-populating.

11:40 AM – Bring in Baby Bull for lunch and cartoons since he has speech this afternoon. Back to editing for Client J. Today, I learned that a certain Australian marsupial literally dies from too much sex. And that they’re propensity to procreate may sound awesome, but they’re now on the endangered species list.

12:05 PM – After some of the shit I just read, I need a break.

12:38 PM – Hey, know how you get a kid to eat black beans? Mix some BBQ sauce in them and tell him they’re chili beans. He loves chili. He ate the whole bowl. Went outside to check on garage cat and he got upset that I left him eating alone. So, I had to come right back in. He’s happy now that he can see where I am. Unfortunately, previous events in his life gave him some abandonment issues / separation anxiety. No, they didn’t involve me or his dad, but since he’s with me most of the time (since I work from home), I deal with it more than anyone else. Long as he knows where I am, he’s golden. Now I move on to Client P. Nothing like test writing.

1:04 PM – Hit a snag with test writing. I have to wait for Client P to respond to email. So, on to Client F, content writing: 5 state specific pages related to the same subject.

3:44 PM – My brain is fucking melting. Time to finish up the curated newsletter while my Mother’s Helper plays Candyland with Baby Bull. Oh, and of course I still need to do dishes again and make dinner. A mother’s work is NEVER done.