Juggling Writing and Life

Juggling by Chamsim
When I am lost in writing, the house itself could be on fire and I would never notice.  Juggling writing and kids at the same time is nearly impossible and I constantly struggle to keep my balls soaring in the air.  And all too often, I feel as if every ball in the universe has crashed down upon my head.

I eliminate unnecessary balls, confine writing time to nap time, and put more attention on my family.  Yeah!  The balls stay in the air - but only momentarily.  Eventually the deep writing deprivation hurls each and every ball to China.  Writing is an addiction that I can never fully satisfy.  I find myself begging to write during diaper changes, soccer games, carpool pick ups, and during those early morning hours.

I am desperately struggling to control my writing desires because I need to be present, involved, and fully engaged in my life and the lives of my kids.

Which makes writing a challenge.
Especially now that I want to take writing more seriously.

I spent a lot of time last week thinking about boundaries and control and how I can approach the desire to write in a more healthy manner.  Here are some ideas I came up with:

• I no longer plan to spend my kids-are-happy-free-time with Facebook.  If everyone is happy, it is okay to write for 10-15 minutes.
• I am committing 30 minutes to writing every morning before the kids get up.  I struggle to give my family one hundred percent in the morning when my brain is plotting.
• Writing is not a competition.  I don't have to compete with word counts, conference attendance, books, and/or publications.  The only writer I have to be better than is the writer I was yesterday.
• I love reading social media - period.  I could happily spend every moment pouring over the events of people's lives because I love discovering real life stories.  Social media (for me) needs to be consolidated into a twenty minute activity that happens no more than once a day.
• Blog posts take me forever to write. I once read about a blogger who confined her blog writing time to twenty minutes per post.  I want to adopt this practice.
• I need to write.  Period.  I can learn to honor my needs and so can my family.  I shouldn't be ashamed or embarrassed that I spend a lot of time on the computer instead of knitting socks.  
• I am strong enough to shut the laptop and walk away.
• According to literary agent Rachelle Gardner, blogs are no longer considered mandatory for all writers.  Really?  Julie Leuk and Joy Hedlund offer more information about this topic. 
• I can slow down.  I can juggle writing and motherhood when I am not focused on competing with other writers.  I have my own pace and I can respect that.  I can do this, but only one day at a time.

{  How do you control your desires to write?  What "writing boundaries" have you established in your life? }