7 Ways to Make it Work

I once took a Saturday freelance editing class at Duke University, and the instructor began with the line, "If you're in this for the money, you're in the wrong class." Freelance editing has been more lucrative for me than writing has because the work is more consistent. There will always be website copy to proofread. Editing, however, is really, REALLY boring and offers no creative element unless you have to revamp someone's dissertation. Torture.

Unless you have another way to write about teenage vampire romance, the chances of making a lot of money writing from home are slim. With some connections and some photography skills, magazine copy can be worthwhile. In general, writing articles just to have clips to show a major magazine requires a lot of research, travel, and time for little or no money.

With a toddler and a family business to co-run, I had to find a way to make money without the overhead, travel, or wait (for responses to queries). That's where TeachersPayTeachers came in. Now that the site takes school purchase orders, there's a lot of money to be made, and there are folks who are making it . . . and finding themselves able to leave the classroom and control their own schedules.

So, what does a passionate writer do until the sales start to pop? I found that I had to change the way I lived in order to live the life I wanted. Here are some recommendations if you're serious about writing from home:

1. Move. But that's so drastic! So is quitting your day job. We went from 2200 square feet (plus two attics and a basement) in a high-tax city to 1600 square feet (no attic, no basement) in a rural area. We cut our mortgage in half, our taxes in half, my husband's commute in half, and our electric bill in half. (The real sacrifice here is, of course, the 30-minute commute to Target.)

2. Hire an accountant. You might think you're saving money by doing them yourself, but a professional can find all kinds of tidbits here and there.

3. Watch "Hoarders" and "Hoarding: Buried Alive" at least once a week. I watch an episode or , two while I'm cleaning. Purge and sell. I'm just getting into Craig's List, eBay, and consigning.

4. Open several bank accounts (at the same bank so that you can see them all online at the same time) and tuck away for emergencies, repairs, and holidays. You will not know what you're making month to month, so you need to save where you can when you can. Have a yard sale just for the Christmas fund. Sell on eBay just for the emergency fund. Consign just for the kids' clothing money. Using an envelope system works just as well if you won't borrow from yourself. I've tried it---epic fail.

5. Brace yourself for hard choices. Last week, we became a one-car family. Last year, we were on the borderline for Medicaid qualification. Today, I put my grandmother's glass candy dishes on eBay.

6. Cut up your credit cards. What the what? Leaving teaching or any other semi-secure job is ter.ri.fy.ing. If your security is in your credit cards, you'll use them instead of choosing not to make the purchases. You may not have the extra income to pay off that bad debt, so don't accumulate it. Set up an emergency fund first and then, snip-snip!

7. Hang this sign up somewhere in your work space: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The list of what you might have to do to set up life so that you can quit your day job will be long. Take one bite at a time and do it well.

Guilt and Productivity

The unfamiliar, gutteral screams coming from my son when I took him to his first "Play Pals" group yesterday could not have been more painful had they been the result of being sawed in half with a paring knife.

I had to do it. Working from home--at some point--has to mean actually working. My toddler spends his day unfolding laundry, spilling drinks on brand new leather furniture, and saying "Nooooo!" to his mother. One morning a week, he will have to wreak havoc elsewhere so Mama can write.

When he's with me, I find that I do minuscule jobs all day--fold two laundry items, wash one dish, put my shoes on. There have to be chunks of committed time for writing; otherwise, I have to re-read and re-group every time I sit down.

Defining My Mulling

I've been mulling. To mull is to consider, ponder . . . or mess up. What does it mean to be a blogger when I'm not sure who I am outside the classroom? I taught for 23 years. I've been writing for much longer. When I started this blog, the idea was to make my readers laugh at funny things students said. I pulled from student essays, conversation, and overheard drama. Those years were lots of fun, and they are over for now.

So what am I now that I'm at home with a two-year-old wild man? I'm defined neither by my profession nor my motherhood. I do a lot of different things in a day---work as my husband's bookkeeper, write teaching materials, follow bugs with my son, get my home ready for showings, create jewelry. I am none of those tasks.

So, how does a writer in need of an outlet know in what direction to funnel her energies? (I guess she could begin by cleaning up those mixed metaphors, but what would be the fun in that?) I want and need to write about so many topics, but there must be a need to define myself as a blogger. So, what do you blog about?
Why would I want to follow you? Would I learn anything from you? Will you make me laugh? Will you be sappy and sentimental? Dunno. Dunno. Maybe. Surely. Probably.

My customers--my soul mate teachers--might want to know how I come up with ideas for the units I create. They might want to hear about sellers whose products I would recommend. They will surely want to laugh. My writer friends want to know how I can pull off quitting my job and writing from home. We can just clear that one up right now: I don't live on my earnings yet. Right now, the sales of my teaching materials pay the mortgage. Not bad.

So, I need some feedback. How to do I blog about teaching, writing, and working from home? Comments would be greatly appreciated.

For the sake of it

An idea "flew into my funnel" today. (I can only use toddler references these days as my brain is turning to mush.) For the past two days, I've been reading a book for pleasure. I want to write that again. For the past two days, I've been reading a book for pleasure. The autobiography I Am Malala has swallowed me whole, and I've made it through 130 pages while working on a product for TeachersPayTeachers and chasing an active, curious, mischievous, loud, messy, clutter-producing toddler. He ran by me once--naked, wearing Halloween vampire teeth--but I was undeterred.

So, back to that idea in my funnel. It's not new, but I believe all revelation has to be personal. It's this: I must read as much as I write. On becoming a mom, I all but gave up reading for pleasure. I find that I can't stay with a book for any length of time, and if I can't completely forget where I am, it's no fun. Today, the fleeting thought that prompted the revelation was this one: I should be writing, not reading. Reading is a luxury. It's a lie.

I have felt more relaxed in the last two days than I have in weeks. Consequently, there's room in my head for ideas. As writers, we can't sacrifice pleasure for production.

How's your stress level?

I woke up angry this morning---a common occurrence because I dream like crazy---angry on behalf of my friends in the classroom. A revelation slow in forming (paradox?) is taking shape.

Here's some context: My family has a lot going on. My grandfather passed away last Sunday, I had to euthanize our cat on Thursday, we're in the middle of a tough home sale negotiation, we're moving November 15 and haven't yet found a house, our dog bit our son in the face a few days ago, my husband is expanding his business, I run an online store, and I have a book coming out next month. Let's not forget that I'm 45, my husband is 49, and we have a 17-month-old wild man running around our house laughing maniacally with the remote in his hand.

The question: Friends asked me this week, "How's your stress level?" I replied, "High, but it's nothing like teaching." My mom asked me last night after the funeral, "How's your stress level?" I replied, "High, but it's nothing like teaching." My pastor joked that I live a year's worth of events in one week, but my stress level feels relatively low.

So what? I woke up without the "Sunday knot" in my stomach and the carousel of 15 presentations I need to plan for the week. I started thinking about my jealous friends who pop Zoloft to deal with the pressure and look forward to December so that they will get enough gift certificates to buy their own kids' shoes. I thought of my buddies who teach elementary school without an assistant, who write seven lesson plans for seven subjects for one day and have trouble getting coverage to go to the bathroom. I thought of my friends who teach middle school, who are expected to juggle the emotional needs of little hormone bundles, all while bracing themselves to take the blame for high school failures. When I was a curriculum specialist, I saw the bulk of the district pressure fall in the middle. Of course, since my experience is at the high school level, I think of my friends there, my exhausted friends who carry a class load of 150 or more and then drag home a suitcase full of papers to grade.

It's wrong. It's unethical. It's suicide, not service, for a teacher to run on the fumes that teaching is a NOBLE SACRIFICE. Education is not a charity.

Perhaps I feel angry because it would take revolution to change our own mindset. We're so used to the pressure that we can't imagine life without it. Teachers who recognize it, get to work right on time, leave as soon as they are allowed, and refuse to work at home are seen as lazy, uncommitted, cynical curmudgeons. I'm beginning to think they have the right idea.

Freedom

Today made me grateful to have the freedom of a freelance writer. After waking up way too early, I got in an hour and a half of editing before anyone else woke up.  That's more productivity than I often manage in an entire day!

Waking up early was no accident: My father called to tell me that my grandfather was dying. (He has been in the hospital for about a week with kidney failure.) I woke up my son, fed him quickly, put him in the car, drove two hours, and was able to say goodbye. My son, a bit frightened by all the tubes, machines, and beeps, stayed far away from the dear patient but blew him sweet kisses.

What's so precious about my son seeing my grandfather? This was the first time. When we adopted Samuel, he was too tiny to travel, and then school started back, and I never carved out the time. Today, I had no substitute teacher to find, no emergency lesson plans to create, and no overwhelming guilt for putting my family before my students. After 23 years of missing funerals and other family functions, I was able--without hesitation--to drop everything and go love on this man.

Writing From Home

When I began blogging as Musing Mama K, I was in the classroom, collecting funny one-liners on a daily basis. I still gather those little gems, but I find lately that I'm gathering them from my own family. I'm going to change direction with my blog and offer a glimpse into what it's like to hold down a freelance writing career while chasing a VERY active sixteen-month-old boy.

If you do not follow my adoption blog, here's a summary of the last two years of my crazy life: In October of 2011, our adoption of a little boy fell through when the birth mother changed her mind a week before delivery. When we got up off the floor, God gave us our Samuel, and I began motherhood at age 43. After one year of teaching AND being a mom, I found that my heart was no longer in the classroom. I had waited too long to be a parent, and I was missing it. Mediocrity as a teacher? No. Mediocrity as a mother? No. A lot of parents pull it off, but for me, I had to make a choice, and I chose to work from home as a freelance writer.

Here's how it works: My son is a serious sleeper. When his eyes close, I head for the computer. What do I write? Right now, I am working on a large unit on argumentation and persuasion, which I will sell on my TeachersPayTeachers website. During Samuel's morning nap, I might dabble with that unit. During his afternoon nap, I might switch gears and revise a piece of the book I've been writing, a biography of jeweler David Webb. On rare occasions, I do a bit of dissertation proofreading or prep a workshop I've been hired to teach. That's an ideal day, but most days involve furtive, obsessive checking of sales stats, a Pinterest pin here and there, and then hunkering down once he goes to bed.

Life is still funny. Here's snapshot of lines actually spoken in my home yesterday:

"Samuel, stop putting chicken in your hair."
"How did the phone end up in the dogs' water bowl?"
"Get out of the drawer."
"Get out of the dishwasher."
"Don't slam your hand in the dryer."
"Incoming!"
"Dogs don't like asparagus, honey."
"Is that the dog's toy in your mouth?"
"Is that the baby's toy in your mouth?"
"Acting cute will not undo the fact that you whacked the dog with a cane."
"We have a showing TODAY?!"

Oh yeah, we're trying to sell our house and expand my husband's business.

So come join me. Laugh with me while I try to figure out what it looks like to be 45 with a toddler, living life as fully as possible while playing Twister.

Mr. G!!

I am always sooooooo excited when I meet another teacher who collects funny things students say. (I still have the tiny sticky note on which one of my husband's fourth graders scribbled, "Mr. Kratzer, I have a migration.")

Today on Pinterest, I discovered, Mr. G, a subsitute teacher who DRAWS the funny interactions he has with students. Adorable! Go check out this guy's blog:

http://mistergkids.com/2013/08/27/mr-g-asks/

Read a Good Book Day 9/6----and a surprise!

Friday is Read a Good Book Day! Here are a couple of reading-related products you might want to use:

Reading to Rebel: A Handbook for Getting Kids Hooked on Pleasure Reading

Punch Card Bookmarks

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR BLOG AND FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS ONLY:

I am only 14 sales away from 1000 products sold on TeachersPayTeachers! If one of my blog or Facebook followers purchases the 1000th product, he or she will win a gift certificate to TpT, redeemable for any purchases made from any store(s)!

Dinner and L.A.are Burning

I can smell ground beef burning right now, but I've been watching VH1's "Uprising: Hip Hop and the L.A. Riots," and I have enough ideas racing around my brain for about ten blog posts, so dinner will just have to burn. I can't find my reading glasses, so forgive whatever grammatical madness ends up here.

In late April of 1992, four police officers were acquitted of beating a black man named Rodney King. (For those of you who do not remember the original incident, Google "Can't we all just get along?"). Riots followed the verdict, and I watched the footage in disbelief. A random white man was pulled from his vehicle, held to the ground, and beaten senseless. Looting, fires, beatings, and death reigned.

I was 23 and in my first year teaching English and newspaper journalism at a 97% black urban high school. My students and I had discussed the trial, had healthy debates, and written about it. The day following the start of the riots, my one white student, a freshman boy, was not at school. Dentist appointment my foot.

I don't remember a lot about that day except the one empty seat. What I'm thinking of now, over 21 years later, is Why didn't something this dramatic happen over the Trayvon Martin case?

BACK INTO TEACHER MODE: There is so much to be done!!

• Comparison/contrast essay on reactions to the two cases (Lots of background knowledge required; students would need to do the legwork outside of class.)
• Re-writing closing arguments
• Using the trials to teach the importance of evidence
• Research paper on the trial, riots, black/police conflicts, etc.
• Pro/Con discussion about the riots
• Pull in Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law somehow

My lack of reading glasses and the need to find something else to cook for dinner brings this post to a close, but I need more ideas! Please comment!