Cherish the Moments

Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.
-- Christopher Morley

A lot of writing moms ask "how do you write anything with kids at home?"

I tell them that I can only tell them how *I* write, not how they can do it. I'm a night owl. I get a lot of writing done at the end of the day, when the only noise is the sound of the baby moniter.

During the day I take a lot of time out to play with my kids. I do my chores, I putter about, I clean, I do laundry... and I try to take a lot of time to cherish my kids.

Already my six year old would rather go and play outside than spend a minute inside. He's got so many friends in our new neighborhood that his social calendar is booked solid I think. My daughter is just learning to walk, so she is a handful.

It can be hard being a writing mother, always trying to eek out moments of quiet time at the computer.

Several years ago, my son was probably a year old at the time, my best friend had a son who died very suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition. He was eight months old. That little boy changed me as a parent. I knew from that moment that I could not take a single moment for granted. And I try not to. I try to look on the positive side, even when my kids are making me pull my hair out and I want to crawl under the covers, I try to stop and think "there are mothers who wish for my problems".

And the added bonus is that I feel less guilt during the day. The fewer the number of times I need to say "just a second, mommy's working on something" the better I feel.