‘Tis the season…for all the Help Wanted and Now Hiring signs. Welcome to tourist-land! Each sign and job posting I see makes me wonder: could I do it? Would I want to? I’m approaching an entire year of this “full time mom and creative” gig life and while Western culture has a greater awareness now […]
Category: It’s a Start
And so it continues…
Figuring out this whole creative mommyhood thing feels a lot like Sisyphus with his boulder. I find the magic formula, only to have it all roll away from me again. With the prospect of a baby came the fear of losing myself – of not doing the things I love like writing and acting. The […]
2018. Finally.
I am occasionally superstitious. Of course, I can’t go for the conventional superstitions. Someone wishing me good luck before a performance, for example, doesn’t bother me, and I only avoid saying “Macbeth” out of respect for everyone I know who does take that seriously. My husband doesn’t even like me to say it in the […]
All I Want For Christmas
Is it normal to feel this unprepared for Christmas? I mean, our Christmas tree has a single string of lights that ends partway up. That’s it. No other ornaments. Presents? I usually find most of them by browsing and exploring, but not this year! Now, I wish I’d spent the pre-baby part of the year […]
Still Learning
Babies operate on their own schedules, and good luck trying to dictate anything different! I learned that more quickly and painfully when my daughter decided to cut what is usually a many hours- or even days-long process of arrival down to two hours. Of course, I knew this about babies years ago, but knowing something […]
The New Face Of Self Care
Self care looks very different with a baby. Self care used to be painting my nails, or cleaning the house (not fun, but necessary for my ability to function well), or an hour-long phone call with a writer-friend, or taking a day to sleep in and read a book cover to cover. See where I’m […]
Word Count Surprise!
The other day, I woke to an email congratulating me on reaching 10,000 words for NaNo. The night before, I’d plugged in the day’s word count to the site without looking at or thinking about the month-to-date total, so the email caught me by total surprise. Cue the dance party! 100 or 1,000 words […]
So Far . . .
So far, the little one is asleep and I’ve just broken 8000 words with my writing for the month. How awesome is that? When I’m updating my word count with 100 or 200 words in a day, it feels like a drop in the ocean. My biggest writing day so far? Something over 600 words. […]
Of Course
Of course, this is when she sleeps. Now, when we should be out the door within half an hour and it will take at least that long to get her ready. Of course, she sleeps hard. Hard enough that once I put her down, I have time enough to brush my teeth, and pluck my […]
I Am Superwoman: Part Two
In case you missed it, you can find part one here. With everything going on, I made two requests of my baby-to-be: arrive in October – anytime, so long as it’s October – and be under eight pounds. I thought those were reasonable enough, and she apparently agreed. At work, I managed to pass along […]
Melissa Burkart 