Today is the first day that I tried out the grand plan that I had for this summer for my freelance writing business. The grand plan that I have for this summer is that once or twice a week, I would like to be able to take my son to a lake which is at a state park about a half hour from my home.
I am a work-at-home mom, so being able to do the fun things that I want to do with my little guy definitely involves advance planning for when I will get my work done. My normal work schedule is during his naps (about an hour, any time between two and four in the afternoon) and for about two to three hours after he goes to bed at night. On days that I would like to take him to the lake, I will have to be careful and creative about whether and how I plan to get any work done during his nap time.
Today was our first day at the lake. I thought that I had packed everything that we would need to ensure success, and for the most part I got it right. The one thing that I did forget to bring was my mobile broadband card, so I am not able to submit the work that I create until later, during my night time work hours. That is a minor inconvenience, though.
The bigger problem that almost happened was that I almost completely lost the nap time work session. I thought that if I brought our little play tent to the beach, Dylan would take his nap in there when he was tired. We got to the beach and I set it up in the shade of some trees. I even weighted it down with the rest of our stuff so it would not blow away. I slathered us with sunscreen and down to the water we went. Even though he’s only eighteen months old, Dylan really enjoyed the water and played very well. He even dipped his face in and let me hold him so that he could kick his feet.
We had a great time; except that when I noticed that he was starting to get cold he did not want to get out. A meltdown ensued so I tried to get him to the tent for a nap. He just screamed louder. At that point I knew that my little plan for naptime was not going to work so I quickly changed him into dry clothes, packed up our gear and headed for the car. It’s hot today so once he was strapped in to his car seat in the nice, cool car my son fell asleep before we were even out of the park. As I drove away, I planned my next move. I found a shady spot along the road by the river, parked the car, and rolled down all of the windows. As cool late afternoon breezes flowed through the car I took out my laptop and began to write. Crisis averted. When he wakes up, we will go to the little restaurant up the road for an early dinner and then home to play some more.
What are your grand plans for your home-based business this summer? What potential pitfalls do you see that could create a need for some creative problem solving in order to make everything work? I would love to hear about them.
Photo by click on morguefile.com.