Welcome back for another episode of the Merry Go Round Blog Tour. Did your April (Snow) Showers bring May Flowers?  We’re working on that down here in Central Texas. Our tour theme for May is balancing family, work, and life with writing and how we do it.

This was easier when I was geographically separated from my husband. I could come home from work and just write.  You’d think it would be easier now that I’m retired, but I’m not longer geographically separated from my husband.  He has…expectations.  Expectations that I’ll spend time with him, do things with him, be available when he wants some help without having (as he puts it) to beg for my assistance (me not reading his mind must translate to begging, I guess). But if I’m more charitable, I could attribute it to him being polite and not wanting to interrupt me when I’m working on something.  I’ve tried to explain that almost everything I am working on is flexible and he can be accommodated, but it is a pain to have to come find me when he only needs me for a few minutes.  Which explains why he seems to prefer I just hang out with him and be ready to hand him something.  We’re working on it.  Sometimes it works better for us than others.

At first, I thought he resented my desire to write.  But that wasn’t it.  He does resent the amount of time I spend at the computer, but he claims to be supportive of my writing efforts.  What bothers him is the amount of unproductive time I spend at the computer.

Oh.  Umm. Ahem.  Well, yes.  Quite right.

Alrighty, then.  Reduce mindless web surfing.  Increase writing productivity.  Did you know that really works?  Yes.  It does. Consider giving it a try and insert whatever you think you don’t have time for in place of writing.

Web surfing time aside, finding a time when Mr. L doesn’t need me around has been the most challenging.  Here in Texas, outside work or work in non-climate-controlled areas needs to be done in the afternoon in the winter and in the morning in the summer. Inside work, when you’re working in a climate-controlled area, can be done anytime. After Mr. L goes to bed is another time, but if I don’t want to stay up really late, this doesn’t work well, so I try to find times when I’m clearly not needed to do my work, and I try to be available other times to help with our various projects. So far, it’s a matter of constant adjustment.

Also, I’ve found that if I’m waiting for him to go to bed before I work on something, I spend my evening wishing he would go to bed and not enjoying the time spent with him.  Not good, right? For that reason, it’s best if I can get my work done before supper time and have the evening mentally free for me to do whatever we like — lately, that’s jigsaw puzzles or, on Wednesdays, bingo at the local VFW.

I’ve done reasonably well at getting an hour a day in on productive writing time.  I still need to increase that value, because I spend much more time than that on the computer. Sigh. Yes.  I’m a work in progress.