This Week on "Becka's All Talk..."
On this week's episode of "Becka's All Talk", watch as the writer cringes whenever NaNoWriMo is mentioned, quipping, "NaNoWHATmo?" Marvel as Becka finally admits she has more on her plate than she wants you to believe, and gasp in horror as Becka breaks book deadlines left and right.
See for yourself what everyone is talking about. You do NOT want to miss it.
Becka's All Talk, tonight on FOX. Check your local listings.
~*~*~
Gah, ever feel like you're life is under a microscope? Or at least, your work. No matter what you do, you'll never please all the people all the time. This year, I've had a heck of a time juggling writing with my personal life, and wouldn't you know it, 2007 has turned out to be my busiest year as an author to date.
Murphy's Law #5,671: Success will wait for your personal life to go insane before finally taking effect.
Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring authors. Write one book at a time. That's all you can do anyway. Otherwise, you risk becoming like me, tearing your hair out because there's no way in hell you can clean toilets, do laundry, plan dinner, do karate, promote and write all at the same time. I do have four kids, but they're young yet, 8, 7, 6, & 4, so the amount of chores they can do is weighed against exactly how well they can do them. They do their own laundry from start to finish, so that's a BIG bonus. They help out as much as they can, because they love helping out. They're good kids.
But regarding the topic of this post... Yeah, I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. Ain't no way unless I suddenly chucked homeschooling out the window along with chores, errands, and family time (and that ain't happenin'). And missing one deadline early on this year (in April) acted like a domino effect for all my other projects. Now, I'm racing to finish two books before the end of the year (The Vampire Oracle: TOMB and ONCE A DREAMER) and I'm feeling the burn. Good news is, I have 11K out of 15K on TOMB, so I'm in the home stretch.
Wish me luck, folks, I'm going in.
~~Becka
http://www.rebeccagoings.com/
posted by Becka @ 3:48 PM
6 Comments:
lol
Your kids do their own laundry? How exactly? At what age did this start?
Good luck with those two books you have to finish! I do not know how you do it.
I'm doing NaNoWriMo...and as you know in no way shape or form am I a writer. I just want to see if I can do it.
The only way I may have a real chance of finishing is because my doctor gave me a week off of work this week because I have a lung infection.
It started when my kids were young, and I told them to bring me their laundry (because it was in their basket in their room. So they'd either bring me the basket or the clothes themselves in armloads. They were probably 2-3-4ish at the time.
So they'd bring me the clothes, and I would wash them and dry them. Then, I'd fold the clothes and have them help me put them away in the dresser or hang them on the hangers, which was probably when they were older, like 3-4ish.
They couldn't actually DO their laundry until they could reach the controls of the washer, but I would teach them how to load it, and I taught them how to move clothes over to the dryer next.
Since the dryer is infinately easier to operate than the washer (no messy soap), they could set it and turn it on themselves by about 4-5ish. As they got taller, I'd have them turn on the washer as I poured the soap.
Eventually, when they were strong enough to lift the liquid detergent (because I don't use powder), then I taught them how to pour the soap and how much to use. Now, they knew how to turn on the washer, move to the dryer and turn that on, and I would still help them put clothes away.
The moment they could reach their own dowel in the closet to hang clothes, I gave them the reins of the laundry.
Now, the olders teach the youngers, so I don't even have to do anything, just sit back and enjoy. Of course, I still have to TELL them when to do laundry, they haven't perfected the "skill" of perceiving that when there is a mountain of clothes, laundry should be done. LOL
But the bonus in the Goings household is the double washer/dryer hookups. We have a house with two "living areas", so it literally has two kitchens and two washer/dryer hookups. We only use one kitchen and use the other as DH's office, but we do have two W/D's, so kids can do all the laundry they want and not interrupt Mommy's laundry. :)
So basically, the gist is this: teach them in stages. And start young. If they're young enough to get dressed by themselves or put dirty clothes into a laundry basket, then they're old enough to help you out, even if right now, it's just collecting their laundry, moving it over to the dryer, or helping you put it away.
:)
~~Becka
~~Becka
Another thing to consider as well is perhaps buying a step-stool for shorter children. That reach into the bottom of the washer can be hard for little ones, but if they have a stool, it makes it easy.
Another bonus is more than one child, so one can take out of the washer while they hand the wet clothes to their sister/brother to put into the dryer. Assembly line, baby. :)
~~Becka
I'm with Lisa!!! I can't get my five and six year old to stop tearing stuff up much less do their own laundry.
Your advice is wise, oh great Becka.
Wishing you luck.
My opinion of NaNoWriMo?
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!
We have a front loading washer, so getting stuff out shouldn't be a problem.
I definitely need to do some thinking about this! Mike is 5 now, he clears his spot at the table, and cleans up after himself (toys), and makes his bed *sometimes*...He's definitely old enough to be doing more
However, laundry is my DH's domain! I bet he'd appreciate the help. :) :) :)
And, I'm enjoying NaNo...I think its for non Authors to get the feel of writing an actual novel length piece of work. And mine, is real piece of work, let me tell you. This is going to be the worst 'novel' in the history of the world. But, I'm having fun. :)
Heh, yeah, when I started having all these kids, I thought to myself about the "farm" mentality of years past... How farmers would have like a bajillion kids and they would all help out around the house and such. Figured if the Good Lord was going to give me a gaggle, I might as well put them to work! LOL
Besides, there was no way in hell I'd be doin' all this stuff myself. The moment my oldest dd could push the vacuum, that became her chore. :P I still have to get in there from time to time to really get the corners or the couches or whatever, but yeah, the kids do the vacuuming.
They also unload the dishwasher (no loading just yet, I still have to teach them that. :P), clean the cat box(es), wipe down the bathrooms, etc. In fact, I just gave my oldest the chore of pouring the Pine-Sol into the toilet and scrubbing that. LOL Oddly enough, she enjoys it! Go figure. Probably something new.
Granted, my oldest kids carry most of the cleaning load, but as my youngers get older, they'll have more responsibilities as well. :)
~~Becka
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