The day continued in the usual way – six hours of teaching teenagers, stop by the gas station, a full round of grocery shopping and then back to pick up the kids. Put groceries away, make dinner, type in codes for Moshi Monsters and get kids fed. Apparently I ate at some point before bathing kids, reading books and celebrating when a tooth came out five minutes after the oldest was supposed to be asleep. (That delayed the schedule a bit, but it’s fun to watch your kids get older.)

Now it’s 9:32 in the evening, I’m rather sluggish, and I’m going to do what I do best – motivate myself to get back in gear. I’ve discussed a few favorite methods for waking up in another post, but there are only so many things you can do when the rest of the world is sleeping a room away – there’s no jamming out to music and power walking with mosquitoes and possums in the dark isn’t especially appealing. Yet despite this deadlines loom, so here’s my plan to kick my sluggish butt back in gear right now:

Do the Easy Stuff First

Long ago, I realized that stacking the deck in my favor makes Monday nights far more tolerable and productive. So I do the fun stuff on Monday. I have some blogs to write for a site catering to ‘tween girls and a couple of regular, small projects. None of it involves serious research, and I actually enjoy the topics on Monday. It’s like a (profitable) warm-up for the rest of the week.

It helps that I’m in my sixth or seventh year of working with these particular clients as well, so there isn’t much stress here – this is the easy night, and that’s highly motivating. (For the record, the hard stuff waits until Tuesday night when I’m most motivated and must be done by Thursday night when I start to drop off again.)

Stare at My Calendar and Move Stuff Around

I live by my calendar, and I play a game with myself almost every week. I put some projects on the calendar in a moment of highly productive drives. At some point last week I was convinced I was going to write some guest posts tonight.

As I spent five minutes staring at my calendar a bit ago, I realized that those posts aren’t likely to happen after all – plus they aren’t the easy, routine client work I count on for my Monday. So I drag those guest posts down a few days to an empty slot on Thursday. Presto! I have a lighter workload today, which feels good.

Be careful with this trick or you’ll get addicted to moving things around and fail to actually get them done. Since I know I’m playing mind games with myself and that the posts will get done by the end of the week (even if I move them to Friday when I actually need to finish them), playing around with the schedule doesn’t hurt anyone and makes me feel better about my workload.

Force Myself into the Zone

I only have a couple hours to work before I crash, rinse and repeat tomorrow. So I can’t afford to waste time or I’ll lose any edge I had. So I turn on music (softly) to keep me motivated, I minimize email and social media and I put my cell phone far away on the charger. I grab a drink, sit down and put myself in the zone.

There comes a point when you just have to force yourself to get started. Pull up the easy stuff, put some words on the page and focus exclusively on what you’re doing. The more intense the focus, the easier it gets to zone out into work. Short of a crying or vomiting child, nothing is going to knock me out of this zone for at least another hour or so. And that will be a productive hour at least.

It takes a lot of dedication and discipline to freelance from home. As I sit here, a book I started and the newest episode of Glee are calling my name. But I won’t stop writing to give in to the temptation. I can’t. I have work to do and only a certain amount of time to do it in. Fortunately, I’ve been practicing self-sacrifice, or as we mothers like to call it, “setting priorities”, for years. And that is why working with kids can be such a productivity booster.

There Is No “Later”

My boys figured it out very fast. When I tell them we’ll do something “later”, they know it means we’re probably not going to do it if they can’t pin me down to a specific time and date. Sadly I try and fool myself sometimes with the same trick. I plan to do something “later”, but it rarely works – it would be like losing an argument with myself. I know there is no “later”, because if there was, I’d have been using that time for years to do the things that need to get done around here. I work during my work time, because there simply is no other time.

90 to Nothing

Try telling a young child to go back to sleep Saturday morning when he pops awake at 5:30 am. (Thanks, Daylight Savings Time.) Just try and close your eyes for a few seconds in the afternoon with two young boys playing ninja in the house. Every moment at home with children you’re engaged in some way – you’re either listening carefully while you try to pretend you have free time around the house or you’re actively involved playing, breaking up arguments, soothing hurts or reading stories.

The concept of downtime takes on a whole new meaning after kids. I’ve yet to meet a mother who lounges about on a Saturday morning wondering what she will do to keep from being bored until she goes back to work. Instead every morning is the start of a daily marathon and you must pace yourself. Guess what? So is work! When you finally have those hours to sit down and work, you can’t screw around surfing the web or playing Facebook Friends.

Fortunately, we don’t require a warm-up period. We can pop out of bed at 5:30 to the sound of crashes from upstairs, and we can start cranking out billable hours in a matter of moments when those little sleepy eyelids finally close. We know that there’s only a certain amount of time available between eyelids closing and eyelids opening and not much time at that. Productivity experts ain’t got nothing on us!

Don’t Look at Me in That Tone of Voice

I hope I can say this for all mom-writers out there, but I’m afraid some might not have realized the true combined power of motherhood and writerhood just yet. Mothers have immense power over their children when they choose to use that power it wisely.

You can also turn assertive mothering into assertiveness in your business. You wouldn’t stoop to argue with your child over candy for dinner – it’s just a firm, “No – that’s not something we do in our house.” So don’t argue about things you don’t do in your business. I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve snapped off with a “Because I said so!” tone of voice(text?) before I could even think about being “softer” on clients.

Surprisingly it’s paid off – as it turns out clients in my market like to know that a freelancing professional is assertive enough to know and state her mind. They don’t want simpering, apologies and gentleness. They want someone who is firm, assertive and tough when she needs to be and nurturing as necessary.

Sound familiar?

There are all sorts of writing – and all sorts of good writing.

Once upon a time I felt like the world was ending if I got caught in a grammatical mistake. I worked hard to separate myself from writers at a level I considered less capable, although as a teacher I tried not to look down on abilities (since I see a range of talent every day in emerging minds), but rather on how niches of the marketplace are set up and the lack of business aplomb some would-be master writers lacked.

Over the years, it’s become more and more obvious that there are tiers of writing. I don’t have to be at the very tippity top and I don’t need to criticize those closer to the bottom. I’ve found a comfortable place for now.

Cheap writers are cheap for their own reasons and they have nothing to do with me or the market as a whole. Likewise the very expensive copywriters or print writers for major publications – not my thing, so I don’t think much about it anymore. Those writers have a set of clients of their own, and often my clients use their services, too – I can’t be everything to everybody after all. I refuse to have my feelings hurt because a client wants killer sales letters or super cheap keyword stuff that I choose not to write.

Is there competition out there? Of course. Just be sure you’re focusing on the right competition and leave the rest alone to write well in a different kind or level of the industry.

The writing market is not stable, nor will it be.

Once upon a time I earned a business degree and one of my favorite lessons I still watch in action was about the business cycle. Every industry has ongoing cycles and there must be constant change and growth to keep the industry and individual companies or providers employed. In the growth part of the industry, money seems to be readily available.

Then, once the market is saturated, there’s a sort of shake out and the stronger players emerge to stick around, but only by changing and adapting to the needs of the market. The weaker companies/writers/employees shake off and go and find new jobs or opportunities.

As a writer, I started online more than six years ago, and I still consider myself a relative newbie to the game. A lot has changed in six years, and part of riding the waves is watching the industry and adapting to it with new offerings, new clients and new marketing angles to stay above the fray. I would argue we’re in a form of shake-out now. The game changed and the stronger players will come out ahead, but only by streamlining and evolving. You might be a casualty of the streamlining in the industry, but it’s just the way the game is played – either drop out of the market or evolve to stake a new place within it.

Always earn more than you need – and save, too.

I made a huge mistake one year. I planned a budget based on future income and I paid for it dearly in the end. What should have been a great year staying home with my babies and writing became a nightmare of bills coming due and some serious cash flow problems. I should have stayed put in my steady job stockpiling cash before making a big leap. I should have eliminated expenses. I should have budgeted in a totally different way, because you’ll never earn enough, especially when you seem to need it the most.

Not surprisingly, about the time we climbed out of that hole and back on top of the personal finance hill, my husband’s business went under and we were right back in cash flow problems and financial stress. I make it a policy now to always market, pitch and gather work that exceeds what I need each month, because there’s always something that comes along to throw me off.

Bottom line: make a budget based on what you’ve earned on average, not on what you think you can earn. Oh, and make a regular savings plan although I’ll be honest – every time I start trying to really save, I get wiped out by some sort of household emergency or a client’s sudden disappearance. But then, hey! It’s all part of the freelance adventure!

“So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.”

There are plenty of reasons to work. The biggest is, of course, money. But let’s pretend for a moment that all jobs paid you enough to live on easily. What job would you pick? What career would you seek out? I can tell you right now it wasn’t power accounting for me. Been there, did the job just fine, but was miserable doing it.

I decided to make the rest of my life a journey of sorts to find the things I enjoy doing and then to make money doing them – as much money as possible, of course. And for the most part I have. I took a huge pay cut to teach at-risk kids and never looked back – ten years later I still love it, and there are ample rewards, if not financial ones.

“If they take my stapler then I’ll set the building on fire.”

And then almost seven years ago I decided to use the other part of my brain for business and I started to write. Some might write for the sake of writing, and I tried that more than a few times over the years, but I found the small business format much more successful and a great deal of fun.

Would I teach and write for free? A juvenile phrasing, but very effective, in all honestly I probably wouldn’t do it for nothing. I have some serious bills to get paid over here and I thrive under my own little capitalistic system. Money is motivation when the sheer pleasure of writing website copy is not. But there’s more to it than that.

“This isn’t so bad, huh? Makin’ bucks, gettin’ exercise, workin’ outside.”

I’ve written frequently about finding balance with the writing, teaching and mothering, especially as a mother who also works outside of the home. Over the summers I just write and hang with my little men, so I know both sides of the working mother lifestyle – the home and the workplace. I still get questioned about having the two jobs, but not as frequently as I used to. Most people have realized that I enjoy having both careers and I’m reasonably successful at both. But it does take some work and some positive self-talk at times to barrel through the tough days.

For example, on Monday I watched my kids take an exam the district put together to get them ready for the new standardized test in my area. The exam they were taking should have marked the end of a grading period, but there was no curriculum on the thing – teach the test, indeed. Annoyance with the stupid test aside, I was fortunate to have almost half a day that I could work at my desk and just keep an eye on the kids testing. I used to time to play with numbers.

“And here’s something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.”

All freelancers have to play with numbers. It’s a maintenance task that I love to do (I do have a business and accounting background, after all), but often I put off because there are only so many hours in the day. I also have my self-employment taxes taken out my teaching paycheck, so I don’t have to file quarterly for the writing. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to put off accounting tasks otherwise.

But we’re coming up quickly on a very special occasion over here – my husband is allegedly going to be getting a nice raise when he’s hired on permanently to a computer company in this area. He’s been contracting for the company for about nine months now.

So I played with the numbers. I only have eight months left of childcare payments. Big savings there starting this summer. I’m almost finished paying off one of those zero-interest loans on a much needed sofa. More savings there. Then I factored in the raise we’re hoping for and realized that in about a year I will only “need” to make about a third of what I do now to maintain the lifestyle we’re accustomed to.

“It’s not just about me and my dream of doing nothing. It’s about all of us.”

That’s a very big deal, and one we’re working hard to reach – we cancelled cable since we can watch shows online. We condensed cell phone plans to cut bills, and in another eight months I’m going to be freed from a lot of the financial obligations I’ve had to meet with my various careers for the past few years. I texted my husband, “We’re almost there!”

It was a clarity moment for me. I’ve been working hard for years because I enjoy writing, but also because I need the income while my husband builds a new career. Now that phase of my life is drawing to a close, and guess what! I don’t have to write very much in just a few short months. But I will. Hell, I’ll probably write more because I’ll be free of the money worries and stress that have driven the career for so long. I’m once again enjoying a job that I would (but certainly don’t have to) do for free.

I hope the same is true for many of you, especially my fellow moms working at home to supplement the family income.

Every parent has bedtime woes with kids, but as a mom who works in the evenings (Yes, I was doing mornings, but I keep switching between morning and evening schedules), I can’t seem to be soothing and patient while my kids take their time falling asleep. I love to watch them sleep, of course, and I love the quiet time together with my little ones – it’s about the only time they are still – but in the background I can hear those precious minutes ticking away between their bedtime and mine.

So far tonight I’ve scouted for monsters. I’ve read plenty of stories. I’ve sang, I’ve fussed and now I’m running out of patience. I’ve been sitting here for almost forty-five minutes and finally I’ve broken down and started emailing myself this post through my phone just to feel productive. This is a great idea, by the way, grammar and spelling of my thumb typing notwithstanding. Maybe I’ll at least get some ideas sketched out while I wait for the little one to fall asleep and the house to become still enough for real creative work.

Like so many things about raising children, this ever-lengthening bedtime drama is going to be a temporary problem since my kids won’t need me to feel their wiggly tooth for the fourth time or check all of the closets for monsters once they reach a certain age, but in the meantime I’m allowing myself a good gripe.

I wish this big boy of mine would just fall asleep! He just peeked over to see what I was doing while I was trying to patiently wait for him to close his eyes. Grrrrrrr! For the record, I learned long ago that I can’t just sit or lie down peacefully beside him – I fall asleep before he does, hence the phone’s heavy use.

Surely I’m not the only parent who loses billable hours to upset tummies, loose teeth and fidgeting kindergarteners. Help me out here!

Sent from my iPhone

I got up with my kids this morning around 6:45 and lay in bed for a few minutes thinking and sleeping some more. My almost 6-year-old raced upstairs to play Mario on the Wii and his 3-year-old brother trailed after him. I could lie in bed for a while and luxuriate with my now-slightly-less-sore throat or I could use this time. I could actually work.

So I did.

I have four things to write this morning.

I wrote the first one without interruption. I reviewed it and sent it off. Then I started on the second. It was a bit more complex and required some research. By now I had company in the form of a three-year-old, but I powered through with the help of Starfall.com and some squeezing yogurt.

I thought that was going to be the end of my productivity this morning with my oldest coming back downstairs, but suddenly – a stroke of luck! The boys found their art kits sent to them by their loving grandmother back at Christmas time.

As I write this they are coloring and perhaps painting using their art kits. While I’m slightly concerned about what they are doing, I have them set up on the kitchen table where I can hear them. So far we’ve only had one spill and no fights. Who knows? I might actually finish all of my work this morning while my kids are awake – what a novelty!

I have a few thanks to offer up for this unexpected productivity.

First I’d like to thank the Wii for providing distraction in the form of Mario Brothers. My oldest will play you for hours given the opportunity. In another year or two, the younger man will likely start playing with great intensity as well. I can expect a tremendous productivity boost at that time.

Next I’d like to thank my cheap vinyl tablecloth from Wal-Mart. For only 5 dollars, I have the peace of mind that no matter how much they color, paint and spill water in the breakfast room as I type, nothing will stick to my table. I might go in there in a few minutes and find a huge mess, but with the use of the vinyl table cloth, while not very attractive, the mess will be easy to clean-up. I should give a shout-out to the tile underneath the table as well for catching some of the mess for me.

Finally, I’d like to thank the early morning hours. It’s a proven fact around here that my children are much more cooperative and independent in the morning hours than they are in the evening. Once the day is winding down they are whiny and needy, but right now they are enjoying themselves. They are honing their coloring skills, and they are creating a heck of a mess, but they are content. I don’t feel as though this would be the case in the afternoon or evening. It gives me hope for the summer months – maybe I can sleep in until 5 and still be productive!

Now I’m off to the last piece of work for the day while I still have a chance. May your day be as productive as well.

As I write this I’ve been up for 15 hours and spent roughly 7 of those preparing kids for the big standardized test next week. If you think teaching or parenting is an easy job, I’d beg to differ, but that’s a post for a different day. Rather than a sobbing, whiny poor-pitiful-me story (too late!), I’m going to be proactive and see if a change is in order. I’m going to reverse my days.

Naps, No More!

Once upon a time when I was only a WAHM – not a WOHM and WAHM at the same time, I got the advantage of serious naptimes. I could do most of my work during naps, finish up at night and pretend to get plenty of sleep. Then the naps disappeared. Now the bedtime is moving a bit later as the kids get older. Soon we’ll be starting up sports that push into the evenings. I’m running out of time! Of course, I could write while they are up and playing Wii or whatever, but I like to think that their waking hours when we’re all home from school is the time I give them exclusively every day.

So that leaves me two choices: later nights or earlier mornings.

Scheduling Necessary Changes

I’ve been rocking the later nights, but I’ll be honest with you –it’s starting to really suck. I’m unproductive without massive amounts of efforts and caffeine to gear myself up for work every night. Even when I am working like a champ, I’m sacrificing sleep or time I need to do other things around the house, which plays mental havoc on the tired brain. Most of the time I’m just plodding along when I’d be flying if I had even an ounce of the considerable energy the rest of my life requires.

So I’m going to try things the other way for a while.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to get up at 5am. The boys won’t be getting up until 7am most likely. (For the record, I’m writing this Friday night – days ahead of the posting date. I amaze myself with my dedication to my sacred calendar). I’m going to write a single article, although it’s a doozy. It will probably take over an hour to piece it together and I have to leave time for teeth brushing and face washing and the sullen monitor staring that precludes a nice caffeine rush.

Hopefully I’ll knock out that work like nobody’s business and then I’ll have a new routine. On Sunday I’ll get up at 4 and make it a point to get to bed by 9 that night to get up at 4 the following morning. I get two uninterrupted hours in the morning (kids get up at 6:15ish on weekdays) to be brilliant when my mind is fresh and then I get to actually relax for five seconds at the end of the day.

Before you point out the obvious, I realize I’m only allowing myself seven hours of sleep every night, but that’s more than I’m getting now anyhow, so it’s not a huge concern at this point. Two hours might not sound like a lot of work time, either, but its’ roughly the amount of time I schedule for myself in the evenings since I write part-time, so that’s a not a big problem either. Or at least I don’t think it will be. We’ll find out.

This is a noble experiment, and by the time this post goes live, I’ll have some data to share. Of course, I probably will be back to nights out of sheer habit after five years, but I’m going to give it a try at least. What are working mothers if not flexible?

Save Money by Not Eating

I find that taking time to eat during the day just disrupts my productivity. Sure, it might only take five minutes to eat a bowl of cereal, but that’s five minutes I could be working without little boys for company. You can’t waste that time! It’s best to just not eat at all during the day and then gorge yourself on all kinds of junk food at night. This might be a terrible way to manage your health, but it’s a great way to squeeze every billable second out of your already too short work time. There’s an added benefit to not eating during the day – see the next tip!

Save Money by Skipping the Gym

Gyms cost quite a bit. The one near me that has great childcare is $75 a month. Who cares if that’s an article or two a month for a lifetime of fitness? Since I don’t eat during the day I find I don’t need to burn many extra calories during the day either. Fortunately, I do a lot of twitching in my chair while I work as I try to contain my adult-onset ADD, but between the twitching legs, flying fingers and wandering about the house I figure I burn plenty of calories.

In addition to the normal routines, I try to enhance my daily non-workouts by taking pointless trips to random places in the house. I find that by getting up urgently to do something important and then completely losing focus on whatever it was, I get to have at least thirty minutes of stair climbing, hall walking and standing in a lost stupor throughout the daytime hours. This is great exercise!

Save Money by Not Opting for Childcare

Who needs quiet and peace when they are trying to do a bit of creative work? Not me! I like to write in madness of the day (Jake! Stop hitting your brother!). I find that my best work of all comes at the end of the day when everyone is most tired and the boys are least likely to just play nicely together. (Brian! If you hit him again, there’ll be trouble in this paradise!) I know some writers create a peaceful luxury of silence while they work, but the really tough writers can crank out articles and blog posts with one hand and change a diaper with another. It’s only a problem when you forget which hand is supposed to stay clean for the keyboard.

Save Money by Never Cleaning

It’s amazing how much you spend on cleaning supplies. Want to really waste money? Why not hire a cleaning specialist to come and take care of all that cleaning for you? Who really needs a clean house? The houses and desks of geniuses are always messy! I’ve seen pictures! I certainly don’t have time to deal with things like vacuums and sponges. I figure if it was important enough to do during the day it would either involve billable hours or a future generation. Since I don’t see the sink paying me to get rid of the dirty dishes and it certainly isn’t going to be giving me grandchildren someday, the dishes can wait another day. Or two.

As I write this, I have one week of school left until Thanksgiving vacation. Hurray for the break, at least, but it’s going to be tricky making a new schedule that fits everything in without a handy conference period and quiet lunchtime during the day. Fortunately, I’ve done this before (a few times even) and have some tricks of the trade!

Step 1: Don’t schedule anything at your house for Thanksgiving.

If you want to have friends over, that’s fine, but the rule is – if you have to clean and prepare for longer than thirty minutes, it’s not happening. Making your sister or your mom host the big get-together is the number one way to remove the stress of the season. Now you can just pig out in someone else’s immaculately cleaned house and leave yours as it is.

Step 2: Make a list of what’s most important for the holidays.

Around our house, my little men are ready to set up the tree about three seconds after early release on Friday. We haven’t even thought hard about Thanksgiving dinner by then, but fortunately nobody comes to our house for Thanksgiving so they don’t have to know that we’ve set up the tree in mid-November. It’s a big thing for me to get the house cleaned before the decorations go up, so that goes first on the list. (6 days and counting…)

Then I need to finalize the shopping over the break, so I’ll need a list of which presents are still outstanding to make that shopping time with two kids highly targeted and effective. (I have a thing about shopping with crowds). Finally, I need to think about what’s most important with the kids while they are home. We have at least three different day trips over the week of Thanksgiving and plenty of house time since I’m determined to hit every closet and cabinet in a giant clean-out this year. Cleaning is so….cleansing for the soul.

Step 3: Work your work in.

The last step is to look at your family schedule and then look at your work calendar. In my case I’m actually more rested at the end of a day with my kids than a day with the teens at school, but I’ll not want to overload myself. I’m flying solo with my husband working at the dealership until close to nine every night, so daytime work is out with two kids. That leaves evenings, and I’m taking at least two of them off in the nine days I’ll be home. Bottom line, work goes into the routine, but it’s going to be well padded with time and intent.

Step 4: Enjoy the break!

We work at home to have more time with our kids, and this is one of the shining moments you can make that possible. Go on day trips and visit with family. Take the stress out of the holidays by making these days more like a vacation at home. That’s my plan at least…until Christmas arrives.

The biggest little man in my life brought home some library books from school yesterday. He’s in kindergarten this year with weekly trips to the school library. Like we do every week, my two little men and I snuggled down to read these new, exciting stories at bedtime. The first was a bit ragged around the hardbound cover, but was titled, Mommies Are for Loving. I thought it sounded perfect at the end of a long day – I was thrilled with my son’s selection and good sense. Unfortunately, the perfect title was deceiving.

Apparently in addition to being around when you need them to ride the bus for the first time, Mommies are for shouting things like “WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS.” She does this yelling in heels and a dress complete with an apron if the illustrations are to be believed. On the next page, Mommies are again for loving, but this time while she wears a handkerchief on her hair to complement her apron and vacuum cleaner. I swear I’m not making this up – the vacuum cleaner appears in an honored role twice in a book with less than twenty pages.

I’m not totally opposed to my children being taught traditional gender roles if for no other reason than discussion and talking points, and Mom does wield the vacuum better than Dad around here, so no too much harm done…yet.

The next page about did me in. Apparently while Mommies are for loving and vacuuming, Daddies are for taking the kids on nature walks and answering all of the science questions in the given universe. They are also for “going to work, painting the house and taking out the trash.” While he does these things, he gets to wear cool hiking clothes and carry binoculars. He also gets a suit for work and a few cool tools in a tool belt. Dad also gets to say things in regular fonts like “You heard your mother” and “Later, I’m busy now” while Mom screams her head off about Dad’s forthcoming discipline.

At this point in the book reading, I was laughing hysterically. My kids thought that was pretty funny, even if they had no idea why.

I thought about having a heart-to-heart with my boys about true gender roles in a modern society and what they should expect from the genius-level wives that I hand-select for them someday, but I decided that actions speak louder than words. And my actions, along with my collection of power tools, my science and math teaching certifications, my two college degrees and my penchant for mutual discipline with Dad ought to be enough to cement what real Mommies are for – absolutely for loving and hugging and maybe yelling, but also for creating successful businesses, building closets, ripping out sinks, replacing toilets, planning science experiments and vacuuming only when the carpet is no longer visible through the dust.

I’m thinking of branching out from my traditional fields of freelance writing to write an updated version of the book – I think a 2010 version would be considerably improved over the 1962 version I have in front of me now. We all have to hang up the apron at some point and put down the hose extension of the vacuum cleaner. I’ll admit though that a comment about potentially discarding the book from the library collection will be sticky-noted on that book from this certified school librarian to the one at my son’s school. And I can’t wait to show this one to my mother – you know, the mom who was a working mother in her own right as an elementary librarian while raising three girls and never once vacuuming in a skirt and apron.

Now, enough with this computer and writing nonsense, I’m going to dust off those heels and practice using every extension on my own vacuum to try and reach a place of true self actualization.