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- A rant about school supplies plus my plan for full-time writing
Oh man, it's a beautiful morning, rainy and cool. School starts tomorrow. We went to Open House last night, where we met all the kids' teachers and found their desks and dropped off the school supplies. The amount of crap they need for school is incredible. I can remember carrying all my school spplies in my backpack on the first day, like pencils, a spiral notebook, glue, crayons and Kleenex. Now they need plastic baggies and dry-erase markers and regular markers and colored pencils and copy paper and two kinds of glue and paper plates and glitter...I mean, seriously. Where do the schools spend all that money the lottery was supposed to give us? Oh yeah, the football program, which my brainiac son might never need, and my brainiac daughters certainly won't.
I figured something out about school supplies, though, after years of busting my ass and spending big bucks to get every item exactly as described on the list. They even say on the list, "Please buy specified brands and sizes!! Thank you!!!" And of course the brands are all the expensive ones, I guess so there's some sort of consistency, since grade school is a socialist regime and all the supplies go into one pile to be extracted as needed. We've been spending between $150 and $200 for three kids. This year we didn't have it. Just couldn't make it work. So I asked the school if they had a program to help with school supplies, and they did. Filled out all the paperwork, went to the school a few days later to pick them up, opened the bag and found...RoseArt brand supplies. Not Crayola, freaking RoseArt. If I had known I could have bought the cheap stuff, I'd have been doing it every year! Shaved 50 bucks off my bill! Geez!
Breathe, Sherri.
So anyway, back to my beautiful morning. Now that I'll be writing full time, I definitely need to get my daily schedule into shape, and that includes backing off the fun stuff like Facebook and Twitter. To start, I'll be turning off email notifications on all my accounts. I'll keep my email up in case of emergency, but I'll have a prescribed time for replies. This means if you have a pressing need which only your faithful Sherri Blossoms can fulfill, I will still be available, I'll just be making better use of my time. Here's my tentative plan:
- check email, respond to urgent messages
- write
- check FB and Twitter during lunch, reply to non-urgent emails
- housework and exercise
- editing or more writing, whatever needs doing
- kid time
- dinner
- more FB and twitter, stats, blog posts, crits, etc
It's not set in stone, because I need to be able to change what's not working. However, if I don't think of it as set in stone each day, I'll fall right back into chaos. So maybe first thing in the morning I should set my schedule for the day, based on what worked yesterday and what errands need to be run, and then it's set in stone. Till tomorrow.
I'll be online all the time in case you ever need me. I'm yer Huckleberry.
ReplyDeleteStupid socialist schools. When I lived in PA the school provided everything for grade school kids - down to the notebook paper. It was a cold dose of reality for my parents on our first day of school when we showed up supply-less and unprepared. I heard they're making parents stock up on Kleenex and hand sanitizer this year to ward off swine flu.
ReplyDeleteI think making a daily flexible schedule is awesome. I wish I had done that when I was on maternity leave because I had some days where I was like, "Where did my day go" as Ben walked through the door from work. Be careful of those time vampires - FB and Twitter! :)
I'll have to muddle through my day without your wit and funny banter. Hmmm, maybe I'll get more done, too?
I love the way it's set in stone, except it's not. The story of a woman's life :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I started writing full-time, I just had two requirements for my time without the kids: write every day and exercise everyday. I found that I couldn't really relax until those two things were done and so it became self-enforcing. Everythig else had to fit in around those two things. I did however, give myself the occasional Friday off for me-time, like lunch with a friend or shopping. I also had to allow for my CFS. When we get back from taking Claire to college in three weeks' time, that schedule will start up again.
Well, duh.
ReplyDeleteAw, you're sweet. I'm not so reliable on Twitter anymore, I guess. There's always email!
ReplyDeleteHand sanitizer is always on the list. Thank goodness I found some fragrance free.
Knowing that you've actually done it and plan to do it again gives me hope for myself. This is a new thing for me, being able to set my own schedule. Maybe we can help each other keep true. :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the time management. Seems to be the only way, with the internet being such a time suck!
ReplyDeleteWell, you've got a plan, and that's quite something. If it works, you're golden, and if it doesn't, you'll be able to figure out why.
ReplyDeleteI'll miss seeing ya online though. :)
I went to public school for a while, and I don't remember my folks having to supply anything. At the private schools, they had to supply everything, pretty much. Today's public schools sound a lot more like the private one I attended in terms of what they make you pay. And kids aren't getting the education I got either.
Thank God for the lottery though, right?
Maybe I should play the lottery so I'd have a chance of getting a piece, huh?
ReplyDeleteYep, and I'm sure I'll slip, but the guideline should help. I think twice a day on Facebook is enough to do whatever I need to do!
ReplyDeleteIt's insane what they charge parents for "free" public education now.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the schedule li'l sis - I have complete and utter confidence that you'll do just fine. :)
Thanks, Fal. I'm happy to have your support. :)
ReplyDelete[...] We even bought most of their school supplies already, a nicer experience now that I know I can buy the cheap stuff if necessary. The registration was also better than in previous years, because they put the forms [...]
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