It’s Monday again! Yay! That means it’s time for another guest! Today’s guest is *drumroll* Renee Harvey!
Good morning, world!
It’s 5:35 a.m. and I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready for this Saturday!
Actually, I’m still in my pj’s, wavy hair uncombed, glasses on, and I’m curled up in the Lazy-boy with my bowl of dry cheerios. My laptop is plugged in, and my flash drive is booting up. I’ve banned myself from the internet for the next two hours, or for however long I have until the rest of the house wakes up just so I have some peaceful time to work on revising my second novel. Careful, don’t wake the sleeping monsters—ahem, I mean munchkins…
While my document loads, I should introduce myself a little (hopefully this won’t count as an info dump). I’m Renée, and I’m a 25-year-old mother/historian/genealogist/writer. Either way you look at it, I tell stories for a living. Lately they’ve revolved around 13th century Burgundy, America in the 1800s, and Mr. Brown can Moo! Can You?
Ah, there’s the book. And scroll down…Hehe! A Munchkin left a treasure in my document: Nb;’ There are three little Someones who could’ve left that…Eenie, Meenie, Miney…oh, Moe! Why are you crying?
Alright, let’s try this again.
Good morning, world!
Its 5:52, and prayers are said, Baby Moe is fed, and I have an hour and a half before Miney stumbles out of bed.
Ok, I got distracted. My characters are just being so serious. I checked Scribophile (nothing I want to worry about at the moment), then went for Facebook and Twitter (30 second break!) and found this. For all the donut social media butterflies. Back to work…
6:45. There’s Miney! First words this morning: Daddy save me down (no idea what that is), and Daddy take nap (Daddy’s still asleep). A sippy cup a little bowl of cheerios ought to keep her occupied for a bit.
6:53. Moe’s awake again. Must type faster!
7:22. Good morning, Meenie! His first words this fine day: I want a pop tart.
7:25. Good morning, Handsome Dustin! My husband shows me a headband and says in his sleepy I-just-woke-up-but-at-least-I’m –in-a-good-mood voice, “It was under my pillow.” Eenie, Meenie, Miney… I’ve finished chapter 6! Time to read through chapters 5 and 6, and get at least chapter 5 posted to Scrib before getting everyone dressed for the day. The Saturday Ritual is to have our friends, Liam & Amy, over so they can use our washer & dryer. This time they’re bringing breakfast. (Yum! They can cook. I can’t.) Their kids, Harry, Larry, and Mo are great friends with ours.
7:45. There’s Eenie! She is not a morning person. Chapters are posted, and now I need to go put in my eyes and put on my Mommy cap for a while.
11:04. Writing time! My writing buddy, Amy, and I got Moe and Mo down for naps (Amy’s son, Mo, is about 4 months older than Moe), and we have snuck away for an hour or so of focused working time (we don’t have internet at the complex lounge), leaving the hubbies with our horde. They’ll be fine J. Now, off to chapter 7…
Whew. Its 1:34 now (crazy early considering everything I’ve gotten done). Kids have been fed, and now it’s Quiet Time. During the weekdays for me, this means splitting the computer screen so I’m sharing with the kids, but today I get to work off the lap top while the second screen is attached. Yay! I still have Jake and the Neverland Pirates going in the background, but I can see what I’m writing. Amy and I spent a good 45 minutes back in the lounge just talking about our work—she helped me clean up a can of worms and I got to be her sounding board for her new opening chapter. After that we cranked out a combined 3,200 words.
Would you look at that? My baby learned how to sit himself up! And he’s trying to go from army crawling to crawling on his knees, which I think is super cute. I’m so glad that even after four kids, watching them learn new things never gets old.
 |
| Miney, Meenie, Eenie, and Moe in their natural habitat. |
Anyway…
From here, I’ll hop onto Scribophile and attack the critique list I’ve let build up. I’ve been productive enough in my own writing for the day that it’s time to dive into some other works. Miney is in my lap, where she’ll stay until she falls asleep. I give her five minutes.
2:08. Oh, good grief. I went to check on Miney because I set her in bed and she’s supposed to be asleep. She’s not. She’s playing in the bathroom with Larry. At least both girls are happy and the toilet paper is still on the roll. There will be early bed times tonight.
8:33. So, it turns out Miney had a half hour nap while Amy and I were writing; she didn’t go down again until she zonked in a pile of books ten minutes before bed time. Poor little sleepy head. Now that all four munchkins are in bed, I’ll probably be up until 11 attempting to get more work done. I’m on my fifth critique, and I have some scenes I really want to get to work on, so we’ll see how far I get. My husband just might turn on Person of Interest or something else that will completely distract me. By evening, my brain goes on shut down mode, even though I’d like to pretend otherwise.
11:30. Moe ended up falling asleep later than I wanted him to, the little stinker! I finished reading a book and got the last critique wrapped up, and now it’s off to bed. Sundays are usually pretty quiet days, but Monday will (hopefully) be just as productive as today was. Either way, every day is an adventure in this writer’s life!
Check out the other “A Day in the Life of…” posts! As always, if you want to participate, comment here or find me on Facebook or Twitter!
~Allie
This was awesome, Renee! I was laughing the whole time "While my Moe was drooling on me".
My kids stopped taking naps around 18 months, so I'm super jealous that you still get them!
And you get a lot more accomplished than I do. 😀
Such a crazy day and you still got so much done! Kudos, Renee!
Yes kudos for getting anything done with all that going on! Great to hear about your day, Renee.
This was fabulous. You manage to be productive in spite of so many distractions!