Wearing My Writing Hat More Often

I am a mother, so I think that should speak for itself when talking about the many hats I wear. To take that one step further, I am a mother to a three year-old and a five year-old (who you will see here with some of the hats I have made). 

On a daily basis, I’m a referee, cook, cleaning lady, playmate, wife, mother, friend, music lover, reader, obsessive fan girl, glorified chauffeur, and all around multi-tasker. That doesn't include my duties as a Holistic Moms Network chapter leader, homeschooling my children, or the work I do for my crochet/knitting business, Fiction Stitches. 

On top of all that, I am a writer.

During the month of July, I've been participating in my first National Novel Writing Month event, Camp NaNoWriMo, for a young adult contemporary I’m working on. While participating I've tried very hard--sometimes only doing it because of the constant nagging of my darling husband--to write something every day, even if it’s only fifty words. 

Surprisingly, I've done a pretty good job of it. I've found that it’s instantly rewarding to watch something grow at a more rapid rate than other work I have done, when I have purposely pushed my writing hat further down in the pile.    

With all the other things I have going on, it’s pretty easy for my writing hat to get pushed down or lost in the pile. And it’s only recently while doing Camp that I've realized it’s OK to wear it more often, or even in place of another hat I think I should be wearing, like dishwasher. 

The tasks of motherhood are never ending, so if I don’t make an attempt at writing somewhere in there--before my kiddos wake up or after they go to sleep--it’s just not going to happen and then it will take another twenty-one months to finish a single first draft. I need to make time for it. Period. Otherwise the characters in my head run crazy and I can’t focus on the other things I enjoy. Like spending time with my kiddos and making more hats!

**Due to safety concerns, I have since opted to remove the photos of my children wearing their hats.