Balance
Discover What’s Out of Balance
Last night things just felt “off.” I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly because life couldn’t be better! But when I started to examine all the different areas of my life that are important to me, I realized there’s one aspect that’s been stagnant. My spiritual l life. If it wasn’t for the Life Balance Journal I…
Taking Care of Family While You’re at Conference
So you have your One Sheets, perfected your pitch, you know who you’re pitching to, and you even splurged for a mani/pedi, but what about those you will be leaving behind? As I get ready to drive to the ACFW conference, I’m trying to make sure my family is taken care of. Here’s a checklist…
Author Jennifer Beckstrand on Writing, Publishing, and Interruptions
My Writing Journey—or Detour You know how about four kids into your life you suffer from chronic insomnia because you can’t stop wondering what you forgot to do that day—like hug your child or go to the bathroom? That is basically how I started my writing career. One night, a few months after the birth…
Making the Most of the Minutes
My greatest challenge in balancing writing time with household responsibilities is avoiding my own tendency toward the all-or-nothing approach. I’ll happily use every available hour to write – except those times when I studiously ignore my manuscript in favor of chores and errands. The problem is that total lack of progress in one priority…
The Big Picture Perspective in Running a Household
My husband and I enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles, but it’s been a while since we’ve done one. To remedy this, I picked out a grand thousand piece puzzle depicting a classic scene from Beauty and the Beast. (Hubby took this selection as commentary, but it wasn’t meant as such – honest!) Right now, we’ve…
Maximizing Your Time
Chances are that you know whether you are a morning person or a night owl, but are you maximizing your time by putting your peak hours to their best use? Many of us juggle household management with work and the business and creative aspects of maintaining a writing career. Working with and not against your…
Resurrect Your Dream Passion for 2012
Our dreams can be like a familiar childhood friend. They’re often something we’ve grown up with and treasured in our hearts since we were little, but for one reason or another we’ve drifted away from. We all go through seasons where our dreams need to be grounded so we can focus on other things in…
Balancing School with Writing
Writing fiction is, for most of us, rarely a full-time job; it’s a labor of love. And for most of us, finding the time to devote to our craft is a struggle between family and other responsibilities both inside and outside the home. It’s hard to create a balance between the life we love and…
Letting Go of Appearances
You already know the signs when something’s got to give. Overscheduled and overtired, you dread what you once enjoyed. Overextended and over-budget, essentials find their way to negotiable status. Daily living takes on a frayed look, tattered around the edges, which you most likely recognize because you’ve been there before or you’ve been there a…
Is Balancing Your Life Possible?
I started blogging to try to find the balance between raising my family and working on my writing career. I interviewed close to a hundred moms and dads who seemed to have found that balance. Six ears later I am still searching for that balance. I’m starting to think balance is the wrong term to…