Having Houseguests Amid WAH Mayhem

It's March break here so The Boy is off school for a week. We've had SO much snow this year it didn't even feel special because he's been off school sooooo much.

Anyway, I arranged for my sis and her two kids to come visit. Her older child is my older son's age and her daughter is a year older than my Wee Boy so I thought it'd be good for the kids to have some company since we didn't have any real plans to go out.

I figured I could work like crazy the day before she came and get by with checking e-mails just a few times to keep things manageable with work for the 24-35 hours she was planning to visit for.

Well, the freelancer's life isn't smooth most of the time and of course I had a broken dishwasher and 6 loads of dishes to do the day before she got here. And, I had a massively overflowing basket of laundry (broken down washing machine too. Don't ask! Our appliances decided to boycott us all at once, it seems.) I had to get the house clean and guess what? I had LOADS of work.

I'm not the perfect housekeeper but I do get incredibly anal about the house being clean when company is coming. I have to make sure even the cupboards are clean should my guests have to go rooting for anything. I really do put myself under enormous pressure when people are coming.

Two days before sis is due to arrive, workload starts flowing in with the force of an avalanche!

Incoming!

One of my client throws work at me with no warning. Anything that comes has a 72 hour turnaround time and I never know how much I'll get. They threw a bunch of work at me.

Another project wasn't going smoothly with the team member I had assigned it to and because I had to bounce it back three times I finally just decided to do it myself because it was a new and picky client and it needed to be "just so".

Now I had 2 rewrites and 8 new articles more to write in the next 48 hours and more clients sending me work. I also have multiple projects already going on and work coming in by the truckload to be edited and checked before going off to the client. Plus...half the team is busy with other clients of their own this week. YIKES!

Choices: Cancel or Muddle Through?

I had two choices. I could either cancel with my sister or I could make the best of it. If I canceled, she'd be disappointed and she really needed to get away for a day.

Even more importantly, my kids needed some stimulation. Wee Boy was cleaning his room for his very first sleep over in his room because my niece was going to camp out on a mattress on the floor beside him. For him, it was huge!

The Boy was excited too. It's his school break and all he'd done so far was play video games.

Me, I knew I could use a visit from my sis and some laughs even if it would be a challenge to clean, entertain AND keep my clients happy.

(Also, I haven't had company in a while and my house could do with a good sprucing!
Did you know that the best way to get your house clean is to plan a party or invite someone over? It is for me!)

So I decided I'd get through it. I told my sister I had to do some work while she was here and if she was ok with it, I wouldn't cancel. She said it was fine. She played on my sons' computer while she was here and although I did get a lot of interruptions I was able to get everything that HAD to be done finished.

The Outcome?

I'm knackered but:
1) The kids had fun
2) My sister was happy
3) I got to have a few laughs and my sister brought me a gift of some bath gels, hand cream and three brand new mascaras which made it a bit Christmassy
And... The house is now clean which gives me more juice to get my writing marathon of work done this weekend. I always work better and smarter when the house is clean.

If I'd canceled, we'd all have been disappointed and one of the reasons I want to work at home is because of flexibility.

Sometimes you have to make small sacrifices to manage your writing career but you have to live a little too otherwise, "What's the point?"