ElizabethPW

A Day in the Life of a Mompreneur

Posted on 07. Aug, 2007 by Elizabeth Potts Weinstein in Blog

Monday August 6, 2007

5:55 AM – I wake up to a tiny hand pulling on my arm.  "Mommy?"  Gracie (age 2.4) climbs up on my bed and cuddles with me.  She tells me about her bad dream ("cat was mean and scary").  I hope she wants to cuddle for a while longer.  No luck.  "Mommy up!  Wake up time!  Hungry!"  Ugh.  It’s still dark outside. 

6:03 After giving Gracie a cereal bar and plopping her down in front of the TV for a Dora show, I check email and delete spam.  Answer an email from my mom about my sister’s new engagement, and travel plans for September.  Read the front page headlines on cnn.com to make sure the world did not explode. 

6:15 Cook breakfast of eggs with cheese, onions, and green peppers, for myself (I’m on Atkins, so I have to cook for each meal, ugh) – while that is cooking, clean up the kitchen and tidy the living room.  Grace asks to do art, so I get down some letter stickers and construction paper, so she can make a collage while I eat.  I wish I could eat in peace, but that does not always happen.  Then get Gracie some crackers and juice as second breakfast.

6:50 After I clean up dishes, and pack her lunch for school, I hunt around the house for a clean set of sheets and blanket for nap time at school.  Since I did not launder her usual nap blanket (who wants to do laundry every week?), I ask Grace if it is okay to use a "new" blanket.  "Yes, new blanket.  I’m cold, blanket?"  She wants to use the blanket now – mental note to not forget blanket just because Grace abandons blanket in random part of house.

6:55 Grace wants me to listen to the dinosaur CD (classic kid tunes with dinosaur lyrics), so I play that as she practices turning her light on and off.  I tidy her room, then tell her lights are not for playing, and she just smiles as if saying "just wait until you leave the room, then I can do whatever I want."  She then says "exercise!"  We get on the floor and do leg lifts and sit-ups (a great way to make sure I do my sit-ups), she does a few so-called jumping jacks, then jumps on top of me so I do the last few sit-ups with 28 pounds of girl on my chest.  Ouch.
 
7:30 I try to take a shower, but get distracted because Grace cannot find her Dora doll.  We look everywhere, to no avail.  Dora, where are you?  Oh no, we have no replacement because that doll is discontinued, maybe I should get a backup on eBay?  Finally get into the shower as Grace decides to wake up daddy.  Too bad for him. 

8:30 Take Grace to preschool.  Praise god, my husband filled my car with gas last night — chivalry is still alive.  Get Starbucks coffee on the way home.  Oops, forgot to bring the mail, so don’t run by the post office on the way home like had planned.  That means I have to remember later in the day, which is even less likely. 

9:05  Get home, gather up laptop and papers to go "to work" in office (attached to garage).  Set up in office, check over email and delete spam.  Throw emails to answer in the Follow Up folder like a good GTD girl (but will I actually look at them later?).  Confirm schedule and to-do list with myself.  Start working on writing blog posts for the week for The Wealth Spa Business Blueprint blog — idea is that I will get all my blog posts (for 3 blogs) done for the week, today, so I can work on the book for the rest of the week.  Rough draft of the book is due on Wednesday, and I want my full second draft done by the end of next week. 

10:00-10:17 Phone call with host of radio show on which I am appearing in late September.  We chat about ideas for the show (had not thought about it ahead of time, so had to wing it) and about my business.  Need to remember to get her $100 "donation" and info sheet.  Move her email from Press folder to Follow Up folder. 

10:17  Work on blog posts.  Change mind and decide to shorten one post, which was going to be way to long if I covered the entire topic — now it is a three-part-er.  Did a book review, which I also post on my Squidoo book review lens and amazon.com.  For some reason, can’t get Squidoo to display amazon.com links of any kind, which sucks.  Will have to figure that out later.  But maybe I don’t care, because I only get like 17 cents per book sale anyway.

11:31  I’m really hungry.  Go into house and get current novel (Arrow’s Flight by Mercedes Lackey, which I have read like 10 times already), and go to Baja Fresh for lunch to (1) get an Atkin’s friendly bare chicken burrito with no rice meal, and (2) feel like a real business person who goes out for business lunches.  Yes, I am part of grown-up, non-hermit society! 

12:35 PM – Back in office, finish up posts for TWSBB and procrastinate on anything else by checking email and reading blog RSS feeds on Google Reader.  Decide, no, I’m not going to procrastinate!

1:00 – 1:20 Get Acquainted phone call with prospective client.  She will probably come in for an hourly consultation in a week or two.  Have to look up her name because could not understand her well, probably because we were both on mobile phones and my 1-800 number is over VOIP. 

1:23  Start working on posts for Chronicles of a Mompreneur.  Pace around the room instead of writing because am stuck.  Come up with new post that is a "top 7," which tends to be easier to write than plain paragraphs, and would be good to submit to blog carnivals etc.  Also decide on posts that cannot be written until later in the week, because they are either based on things that are not done yet (radio website not finished) or require me to wear makeup (video), which did not happen today.  Great, a valid way to procrastinate on work, and can cross that off my list. 

2:25  Worry about The Wealth Spa Radio Show website.  My web host (my dad) has the domain name registered, but I don’t have any of the login info so I can’t upload wordpress and figure out what I have to do for podcasting my radio show (starts next week).  I emailed him on Saturday and have heard no response.  If he was a company, I would call and nag, but since he is my dad … doing business with family (especially parents) can be a problem. 

2:31 Start working on posts for Travel With Toddler blog.  Close email program so checking email as procrastination tool is more difficult.  Decide to get Coke Zero drink to procrastinate instead (means I have to go inside house).  While inside house, check mail (not there yet) and see little magnet left by city councilperson, with helpful numbers and dates for local events.  I have a fleeting thought of running in the San Jose Rock & Roll Marathon in October, until I remember that I don’t want to run in a marathon. 

2:48 Working on TWT blog.  Check Squidoo lens on flying with toddler, and there is a comment from Mom2Mom that they are going to cover it in their September issue.  Cool. 

3:29 Take a break.  Re-evaluate tasks for the day.  Probably will get blogs done, not sure if will get to eZine or not.  Write in calendar that for sure will take off Thursday to spend with Gracie, and will take her to Happy Hollow.  Get cheese for snack, yum.  Check snail mail (nothing interesting). 

3:54 Finish up work on TWT blog.  Decide to create new Squidoo Lens on family travel book reviews, since already doing family travel book reviews on blog.   Having trouble uploading a photo onto the new Lens, hum, Squidoo has made editing lenses better (can add html links, etc.) but the photo upload is buggy.  Realize it is 4:40 so may need to stop soon. 

4:52  Got an email from Host Services at Voice America with the audio for my new radio show – the commercials for the show, and the leadin’s.  Wow, very creepy and cool to listen to an announcer-chick voice talk about me in official, radio-sounding way. 

4:57 Shut down computer and pack up to pick up Grace from school. 

5:15 Arrive at Grace’s school during pick-up rush-hour.  A bad idea, have to get a tiny parking space for my SUV.  (why have tiny parking spaces at a school parking lot, where everyone has huge kid transport vehicles?)  As we leave, Grace says "cheeseburger, fries?!"  I decide to say yes today, so we go through McDonald’s drive through (I get a southwest chicken salad, since I am on Atkin’s).

5:35 At home I first have to set Grace up with her dinner, then feed the cat.  Why does everyone else eat before I get to eat?  After she finishes, Grace comes over and whines — probably because she did not get enough attention from me right after we got home, in her opinion.  She wants a band-aid for an "ow" on her knee that happened like 2 weeks ago.  I comply, just so I can finish eating in peace. 

5:41 I decide to go check my email for a minute, which means that Grace comes up 30 seconds later to try to get my attention.  "Sticker book!"  I get out a new sticker book (Dora, of course), and we pick out stickers and figure out where they are supposed to go in the book. 

6:05 Grace says "outside mommy" and I realize that the backdoor is standing wide open — she has figured out how to open the backdoor.  Great.  We go outside to play.  Grace starts playing with "painting" water (using a paintbrush to paint water on various outside things), so I get to read my book for a bit.  She decides we should go for a walk, so I get my iPod and we get the stroller out.  Great, will I get my walk in today?  No, after 3 minutes she’s too cold (it’s very windy today) so we come back, and she refuses to believe that a blanket will keep her warm, so we go inside. 

6:27 Grace plays while I do some emailing and RSS feed reading.  

6:54 She runs up and says "mommy up!  mommy pick up!  sit on lap!  mommy sit on couch! watch Little Einstein’s!"  We cuddle on the sofa while Grace watches Little Einstein’s.  I give her some "bear cookies" (aka Teddy Grahams). 

7:21 "Mommy, exercise!"  We go into her room to do another set.  I try to get her to read a book with me, but that reminders her of dinosaur sticker books (and we don’t have one, so she’s upset).  I distract her by asking her if she wants to take a bath.

7:31 Grace takes a bath.  I call Mark (husband) to see when he is coming home, and he asks me to record a show that starts at 9 pm, which is not a good sign. 

7:42 Grace’s bath does not last as long as I would have liked.  She now sits on her little chair in front of the TV (wrapped in a towel) to watch the same episode of Little Einstein’s again.  Hey, at least that show has classical music and art, so it’s not bad TV, right?  I go into the kitchen and clean up from dinner and her lunch box, then tidy up the clutter left behind by the cleaning people (they clean and find tons of junk under furniture, etc., and leave a bunch of stuff for me to put away).  Grace (still naked) asks to sit on my lap, but I tell her "I only let people with clothes on sit on my lap."  She chooses being naked over sitting on mommy’s lap. 

7:52 I remember that I forgot to call a friend back, but can’t remember her kid’s sleep schedule and don’t want to call in case it messes them up.  I can call her back tomorrow – and make sure the post-it note with the message is on my planner notebook. 

7:54 I start working on my to-do list and plan for tomorrow (written on a sticky post-it note that is stuck to the front of my planner).  Tomorrow I am going to dictate the last two chapters left in my book and send them out to be transcribed, and email a survey to my panel to gather leads for case studies for the book.  I have a 1 pm call with my book coach.  Then I will go through all client files where I am waiting for something (papers, a decision, etc.) and send them a reminder (aka nag) to get it done.  If I have time, I will then work on client projects.  Hum, Grace is now running around wearing a wood bead necklace, and nothing else.  I shut the drapes.

8:01 I fold laundry that’s crazy wrinkled because it has been sitting there for 3 days.  Grace announces "I did it" because she went BM in her potty.  "Yay, Gracie!"  She finds two used toilet paper rolls in the bathroom (why didn’t the cleaners throw them out?) and put them on her forearms and runs around making monster noises.  I ask her to throw away a used dryer sheet, so she takes it to the recycling can and find that it contains interesting stuff, like an egg container and a used soda bottle.  She comes up to me and says "soda and eggs!  soda and eggs! I want soda and eggs!  Please soda and eggs for me?"  She apparently wants me to cook her soda and eggs.  Um, I don’t think so. 

8:17 Grace announces "I go to sleep in my own bed."   I’m all about that. 

8:30 Grace is tucked in.  I turn the muted TV to HBO so I don’t miss my show on at 9 pm, and sit down at the computer.  I check the stats on my websites and blogs, Squidoo lenses, RSS feeds, and my eZine.  I update some Squidoo Lenses and publish a group. 

8:59 Big Love is on! 

10:00 I love that show.  Mark finally arrives (with sushi for his dinner). 

10:17 After a quick visit with Mark, I’m off to read in bed. 

10:45 Sleep

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Tags: day in the life, day in the life of a mompreneur, day in the life of a work at home mom, home business, Mompreneur, work at home, work at home mom