Stress, thy name is Mom

I recently did a guest post over at the authorialmomblog and it got me thinking.  How do moms and dads work full-time, write, be functioning people in society and still be a parent at the same time? 

Let me break it down.  I work full time.  No secret.  I'm a wife, a mom, I love to cook, read mountains of books, beta for my lovelies all while tackling this new career as an author.  All these, no secret.  Did I forget to mention that I'm now the PR/Marketing Manager at TMP?  Yeah, that one might have been a secret.  Now as much as I'd love to drop one of these tasks, I can't.

So how do I juggle them all?

The answer.  Have no clue but I'll manage.

Today, mom role tool over and I have two kids home with strep.  Great!  Great?  I know what you're thinking.  Jennifer, sick kids does not equal great.  In my book it does.

I love my kids and if you have older kids you know that as they get older, they don't act like they need us anymore.  Sure, clean their clothes and do their laundry, they need but the constant cuddling or hugs or pats, not so much.  And that's what I miss.  But when they're sick, Yeah!  I get my kiddies back.  They want my lovin'.

But that's only part of the great.  The other part is...wait for it... wait...

I can get crap done around the house!  The laundry, the dishes that have piled up higher than the laundry, the dusting, vacuuming and WRITING!  Yeah, I said it.  I have all day to write.

But what about the sick kids you ask.  And that's where the dilemma is.  What? You ask.  Yeah, so between running around making sure each kid is comfy I have to juggle between clean clothes and another 1000 words.  And throw my new job in the mix and find review sites for their books.  Some might think, why bother.  Drop something and move on.

And maybe years ago, I would have but I can't.  I'm on a quest.  A quest to be a published author, which I've accomplished but I have to maintain now.  And in the meantime, this awesome opportunity fell in my lap and you bet your sweet bipy, I'm gonna work my butt off to do the job right.  But being a mom and wife, I can't neglect them as well.  So during the week and sometimes weekend, my craft sits and gathers dust but that's okay because I have days like this one where I can make up for lost time.

So while my kids zone out to Disney, I get to write and write and write because sure my plate is full from seconds and thirds, today I got to take one thing off of it.  My day job!   

How do you manage?  Any secrets to share.