Writing, Homeschooling and Being Mum

With changes to our routine and things being quite different to normal at the moment I thought I'd share how I'm getting on with the writing while trying to homeschool my children and still doing all the mum duties same as normal. It's not an easy task and most days I end up wiped out, but I will keep going to ensure me and my family stay safe.

Writing

It's a daily struggle to get writing done. The inspiration is hard to come by because my head is filled with coronavirus measures and ensuring we have enough food in the house. Just when I think I've got a moment to sit and write something comes up and the moment passes.

But I am getting some writing done and that's the main thing. Yes, it's a struggle but the words land on the page, albeit slowly. I am determined to finish the first draft and think I will celebrate once it's finished. There's a long way to go but I will get there.

Homeschooling

Another daily struggle, although not quite as difficult as writing. The struggle is mainly to do with keeping the kids busy enough that I can write, which as you can imagine is not an easy task. I have my youngest in my office with me during the day so I can be sure he's doing his work, but this obviously interferes with the writing because he talks all the time. While I love having him around every day it's not great for getting writing done. The schooling part of it though is going well, my youngest has finished his school packs and moved onto the next ones and we've enjoyed a few days where we've looked at online videos and talked about more interesting things.

Being Mum

Stressful. 

I am not just mum anymore but teacher too. I'm having to make meals twice as often as normal, I have to make sure there's enough food in for everyone to eat, and the cleaning needs doing more often too. My old routine, when they were all at school and work, was great. I'd have everything done by 9am and then be able to get on with writing, now though I'm lucky if I'm done by 10am. What with washing clothes, cleaning dishes, and keeping the house tidy there's plenty to do alongside trying to write.

Add to all that having to go to the supermarket regularly so we have enough food, a stressful thing in itself at the moment. When I do go to the supermarket I wear a makeshift mask (using a scarf of mine) and do my best to stay away from people, but the whole thing is stressful and I breath a huge sigh of relief when I get home. I'm tired. I'm more tired now than ever before. I feel like I need more sleep but it's not happening.

But of course I always like to look on the bright side so here it is: my family is home. We spend lots of time together, the Hubby and I get to go for daily walks alone (sometimes with our boys), we're all taking on new (or old) hobbies and making sure we all have something to do to stop us getting bored. My boys will remember this time for the rest of their lives. They will remember staying at home instead of going to school, they'll remember all the time we spent together, and hopefully they'll remember it being a good (and maybe a little scary) time.

Right now the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we can go for a walk. So we will. And when this is all done I will still be writing and I'll still be mum.

How are you coping during these uncertain times?