The End (of Summer) is Near...

Image via Wikipedia

For this year.

Last time I wrote here I complained about how different, how 'bad,' summer was going to be - as an adult and a parent. I wasn't wholey wrong. Of course, I wasn't entirely right either. Having to adjust and re-work schedules or, in my case, completely forget having a schedule was a pain in the ---, well, I'm sure you get where I was going with that. Yet it also gave me a sense of freedom I hadn't expected.

As a stay at home mom I always have a certain degree of freedom when it comes to what I do, and when I do it, but this was a different. If I wanted to take the kids swimming in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday, I could, there was absolutely nothing to stop me. If I wanted to go camping for 2 weeks straight, I could. And if the kids wanted to go away with family for any length of time, and that family was able to take them, they did. It was actually sort of... Nice.

But, like the title says, the end is near. The kids go back to school next Monday (in less then a week!) and we're back to the extra-curricular schedule within a week of school starting too. And now, I've decided to go back and do a few classes at the local University as well. It's going to be stressful and busy, and all of us are going to have to stick very closely to our new schedule or it's going to be chaos.

I can't wait.

Of course, as I've been debating the last couple weeks over whether I should be going back to classes or not, I've had to consider the extent to which I was willing to allow my writing to be, shall I say, inconvenienced. I've talked to some other authors, some friends, and they've all told me very similar things.

Writing is a full-time job. As such I should treat it as a full time job and therefore devote that amount of time to it. At least I should be doing that if I want to "succeed." I don't disagree with that.

But I've also been told, and taught since I was a child, that all knowledge is power. If I can use what I'm learning in my classes to help me with my writing I'm not really abandoning the effort then, am I? The actual number of hours that I'll be able to spend writing may decrease, that's pretty much a given, but my classes may work for me rather than against me. Especially if they are the 'right' classes.

I've also had to consider how much I was willing to allow school and writing to detract from the time I'm able to spend with my kids.

It's a hard decision to make. But I made it. There are some things that no matter how much I read about and research, I'm never fully going to be able to figure out on my own. In that way, I need the classes. And where it comes to considering the kids... well, I've had to make a few allowances there. I've compressed the time I'd be busy in school to two days a week. I've made sure that I'm there while my oldest is at her school. That leaves me with the other two. For them, I decided that spending a bit more time with Grandma and Grandpa, or Auntie, really won't hurt them. And they are more than happy to keep them.

Image via Wikipedia

So I'll try a semester. I'll keep writing on the days when I'm not at school and spend time with my kids when I'm not doing either of those. Weekends are going to be extremely important for all of us, I think. But I'll make it work. School plays into my writing. The writing plays into supporting my kids. And the kids are the most important thing.

I will make it work. I have to.

So the summer is at an end, but something else is just beginning. Again.