My son is two-and-a-half years old. He is also teething. If you’re familiar with toddler boys and/or teething, I can probably stop here and wait for your virtual hug. If you’re not, I’ll just say it’s been a rough week—partly because I had a plan.

Yep, I’m back into planning things, making lists, feeling accomplished when I can check things off my list, keeping a tally of all I have to do, yada, yada, yada. And this is all well and good when things go according to plan. When they don’t, the lists just become a false sense of security. That’s what happened this week.

First, the teething. That was a surprise in itself because I thought we were done with the worst of it. Apparently, the teeth feel differently. They’re not done partying and hurting my little guy. So, the nights were bad, which led to the days being bad, which did not help our will he/won’t he nap situation. Then, yesterday, those darn teeth were especially wicked and caused Little Guy to run a fever so I canceled my sitter and plans. Today, had a sitter but Hubby studying for exam and sitter can’t stay late so so much for my writing plans. Oh, and re nap situation—that was when I would write too, so that’s not been happening. And my little lists are sitting and mocking me—not intentionally, of course, because my lists are cute and sweet and mean no harm—and I have projects I need to finish (they may have long term deadlines but still), and I just want to write because it calms and makes things feel less chaotic.

This all got me thinking about how other people do it. All you people with lots of obligations besides writing, how do you get things done when life gets in the way? I love my family, love spending time with my son, but then I get a few weeks where I can’t seem to get anything done. I feel like other people find a way. Where? How? I know people who write when kids are asleep but if they don’t go to bed until later and still don’t sleep through the night, when do you do it? I’m not writing this to complain. Really. I just need some advice. Anything. One of the Tenners, Scott William Carter, just created something called  Games Writers Play. His first is to write 30 minutes or 500 words a day, whichever comes last. I think this is a start. That’s what I’ll do tonight. But what else? One thing I learned is that I need deadlines. Whether people read what I write or not, even having to report to them to acknowledge that I wrote, would work for me. Will you be the lucky one I rope in as my report-to person? Want to volunteer?

Tell me your ideas or advice. Do you just suck up the hard weeks and make up for the loss when things get better? I can do that, but have to learn not to feel guilty in the interim. And guilt is another entry altogether—guilt for not spending time with son to write, guilt for not writing enough, etc. I can bore you will all that another time.

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