Organization is NOT easy...

Today I spent most of the day trying to get organized. Not just my office and our house, but my work life as well. My boyfriends sister has hired me to babysit her two youngster's and thats all great and dandy, but with my business, it isn't all that simple to schedule projects and babysitting into one day. I decided to take on the babysitting gig as a favor to her (a paid favor) when my work flow had began to become slower than turtle's natural pace. Last week business picked up and I had already scheduled the babysitting gig. I didn't make it back to my house in time to get the project completed and submitted. I only had time to cancel it before the deadline. That was bad, but also good. I still have this client and this week a full schedule of work along with three nine hour days of babysitting. I don't yet have children of my own, so you can just imagine me someone who isn't around kids very often jumping in with both feet to babysit a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Yep, at the same time.By the time the day is over, the only thing I can manage to do is drive home (slowly), check some e-mails, and scavenge through the fridge looking for leftovers or sandwich foods. I'm always beat.

My business is my priority, no matter what it comes first. I just feel like now I'm obligated to watch her kids (and I could use the extra $$$) because she's family and going through a tough time with finding childcare and only working a few days a week. In some ways I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. No one really understands how a freelance writers life really is. We work when the work is there. And projects can become available at any moment. If we're not there to accept them, the client moves on to someone else and we miss out. Many people (my family and friends who are not writers) think that I do nothing on a daily basis. I work from home so to them it means I have a ton of free time and nothing else to do.

I have so much to do around the house when I'm not writing or waiting on projects and just like my work, the house is under a deadline as well with the remodel. It's almost completed, but with only 15 days left to get 3 rooms to be sanded and primed, 4 rooms painted, 1 room tiled, 3 rooms carpeted, and 20+ cabinets in the kitchen to be primed and painted; time is running out. It would be different if the kids came here to be watched, but with the house being unfinished, I don't feel comfortable with them being in here. It's really dusty from the sanding and organized - so I go to her house.

So, today I've spend the day trying to get projects in, organized, and deadlines agreed upon that will fit around my three nine hour days this week. So far I have figured out my schedule for today, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I don't know what will be for Thursday and Friday I'll be babysitting, so hopefully there will be no tight deadlines I will miss out on or just miss completely.

Sorry the venting, but you are all writers for the most part, and you understand where I'm coming from. :)

Moving Along...

I hope everyone is having a great Monday morning! So far so good on my end although I'm still exhausted from the events from the weekend. Saturday we (my boyfriend, his father, mother, sister, and myself) knocked down the wall dividing our (used to be) dining room and our living room. Our house was built in 1973 and back then apparently every room was separated and had a door on it. Our house is just like that. Our living room was small and cramped - not anymore. We decided to make our sun room into the dining room - it works great as that and Saturday we had our first lunch party. The picture above is the first hole and "We have light!". It was so great to see light coming through into this room. I just can't wait until its completed and we can enjoy it. Right now it is completed other than the tape and floating of the drywall and the paint of course.

Yesterday afternoon I was cruising the job boards for freelance writers and noticed such disappointing and down right insulting ads. Some clients are only willing to pay anywhere from $.50 to $1.50 for 500 - 1,000 words. I remember a time when you were paid by the word even if it was only a penny for each word. This is ridiculous! Why are people so cheap. I hire writers and due to my budget can only pay them a penny a word, but I would never ask someone to write on a per article base of such a low rate. My writers write from a template where all the information is given to them and all they have to do is put it into words. No researching for various material needed. I'm hoping to find much larger projects with a much larger budget so that my two writers and I can bring in a much larger income. 

Ah, the good old days when clients were willing to pay what a writer was worth at least come close to it. I hope those days haven't vanished. If they have, I may have to change my line of work. I enjoy being a freelance writer. I love working from home and having time to do what I want to do while still being able to complete my work. It has been a bit tough in the last few weeks due to the renovations, but that will be done by next weekend and my office can be placed where I can get some work done and I will be able to take on much more work than I currently can. 

I came across this posting Liquid Silver - Geeks Need Love To and thought maybe I'd post it here and I myself may attempt this. Considering one of my MS in my novel is a geek per say.The deadline is in June, so it doesn't leave much time to finish it. I do not know anything about this company, so before you submit (if you choose to) please do some research on the company to find out if they are legit or not. 

This is going to be such a busy, busy, busy week. I'm in the process of selling my truck so that I can buy a 4-cylinder car (2002 VW Jetta). We have to complete the renovations on the house and I have quite a few projects due before the end of the week as well as searching out for new clients so the income will begin to flow. Then there's my novel which I'm not so sure I should write in first person present tense. I think I may change it to first person past tense and the book I'm wanting to finish reading, "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer. I want to finish it before I watch the movie.

Projects await, so I'm off.