Supermom? The “Art” of Balancing Life as a Work at Home Mom
Today I have a guest
blogger. Caroline Andrus is the webmaster and artist of Melange Books
Publishing. I’m happy to be part of this great group of people. Caroline keeps
everything running smoothly at Melange and Fire and Ice YA all the while being
a busy wife and mother. I’ll let her tell you about it with the following post.
Welcome, Caroline!
“You
continually impress me with your supermom like ways!”
I stared at my laptop
in stunned silence.
This was the comment
a friend had left on one of my Facebook status a couple of weeks ago. Me?
Supermom? The post in question spoke of my completion of my Busy Mom’s Meal
Swap meal for the month and contemplation of making “The World’s Best Chocolate
Chip Cookies” to go with. To me, this was just a once a month event. For those
who are not familiar with Meal Swap’s, it’s when a group of people meet up,
each agreeing to make a bunch of the same meal and then meeting up again to exchange
the meals so everyone gets something different. Sure takes some of the stress
out of dinner!
But back to the
matter at hand. I couldn’t help but wonder, did I give off the impression of
being a supermom? I didn’t feel like it. Most days I feel like I’m barely
keeping it together. I am a wife and mother to two little girls, ages 6
and almost 2.
I lost my full-time
day job while I was pregnant with my second daughter and opted to just stay
home for the most part. I hated missing out on my first daughter’s childhood
because I worked from about 9:30 am and didn’t pick her up from Grandma’s until
around 6 pm. Then she was in bed by about 7:30. It was rough. Now, being a work
from home mom, I feel like I get less done around the house than before, but at
least I get to see my kids!
A little background
about my work. I am a Jack(ie?) of all Trades for Melange Books, LLC and it’s
YA imprint Fire and Ice. I am the webmaster, head of the art department (aka
book covers manager and artist), I run the blog, I load books to our website
shopping cart, and I format and load books for Amazon Kindle and
Smashwords.com…among other odd jobs that get thrown at me! On the weekends you
can often find me working as a product demonstrator at Super Target. This is my
one chance to get out of the house and interact with adults.
My typical day
begins either with my 6 year old bursting into my room anywhere between 7 and 9
am, usually whining she can’t get the Wii to work OR on a good day, I wake
between 8 and 9 when the little one wakes up in her crib. Regardless, unless
there’s an emergency—which is rare—I don’t get up much earlier than around 9.
Next up is breakfast for all three of us. Followed by dishes (I’m not an
evening dishes person, I’d rather do them first thing in the morning.)
Sometimes we’ll go outside and the girls will play and I’ll work in the garden,
other times we’ll stay inside and I’ll get to work while the kids play. On an
ideal day, my 6 year old gets to run down the road and play with our
friends/neighbors. My biggest obstacle, believe it or not, is Facebook. Not
only do I have my own personal Facebook account which sucks my life away, but I
also have the Melange FB page to manage, the Fire and Ice FB page, my personal
design FB page and I created a group to interact via FB with our authors and
fellow staff members.
Somewhere during the
day I try to find time to pick up the endless clutter that is overtaking my
life. I try to get my 6 year old to do it, but she seems to think she’s getting
a free ride and throws a conniption fit if I so much as ask her to pick up the
granola bar wrapper that fell to the floor during her snack. You’d think I was
asking her to clean the entire kitchen floor with a toothbrush the way she
overreacts! We’re working on this, and as she gets older, I hope it gets
easier. I also have to fit in laundry and figure out what the heck is for
dinner. It’s an endless challenge.
In the evening, my
husband comes home from work, we eat dinner and typically it’s about time for
the girls to get to bed. We usually team up and each take one child. Regardless
of which child I put to bed, once they’re tucked in and lights out, I spend the
evening on the couch, working on my laptop (website, book covers, etc.) and
listening to, “Mommmmmmyyyy! I need a drink of water!” or “Mommmmmyyyy! I need
mommy snuggles!” or, my favorite, “Mommmmyyyy! I tried to fall asleep but it
didn’t work.”
And so, when someone
tells me I’m Supermom, I’m a little flabbergasted.
I struggle daily,
balancing work and house and kids, but it’s a challenge that I enjoy.
I wouldn’t trade it
for the world.
LINKS:
Some of Caroline’s
work:
Thank you to Nancy for letting me post this lovely interview.
