Week 2: Hustle Pays Off and Sometimes You End Up Crying in a Pile of Baby Laundry

Hello again! This is week two of my new Ramblings section, in which I talk about my week as an author, bookstagrammer, mom & wife, and CEO {that sounds weird. I technically am, but it makes me think of pantsuits. And unless LulaRoe starts selling those, that's not what I wear}.

This week started off pleasant and even a little relaxing, despite it being packing week. Toward the middle, however, it devolved into a reevaluation of my current work habits and crying in the middle of a pile of Madeline's laundry while talking about my hopes and dreams. It was all very glamorous. Luckily, by the end, I had a new plan, and dove into week three with the feeling that I will get everything into a semblance of a rhythm soon. I hope.

On the BUSINESS OWNER front:
Nerdy Post Boxes Yet To Be FoldedOne part you can't forget about when you own a subscription business is packing the boxes. With the help of my mom and dad, I was able to complete the Packing Week process in just three days. The first day, I rolled posters while my mom bagged up mini-button packs and my dad folded our new and improved boxes. Day two my mom and I packed all the boxes in a nice little assembly line. Usually, on my own, this takes me two days. On day three, we all taped up and added shipping labels to each box, then crammed them into every available space in my 4Runner, and I dropped them off at the post office. It was probably the smoothest Packing Week we've had yet. I really think we could sustain this method of fulfillment each month well into double the amount of subscribers we are currently at.

On the AUTHOR front:
This week, the book was put to the back burner until after packing and shipping out boxes. I had the last of the formatting to take care of before sending the file to my best friend and her husband, who have offered to look over it for any blatant typing errors and any formatting mishaps. Formatting for paperback isn't too bad once you get the hang of it, but it's definitely a trick to getting to that point. My goal for next week is more on the design side of the book. I plan to put together a Bonus Box for reviewers and for those who want to buy directly from me so they can get a signed copy. I was originally considering doing a pre-order bonus type deal, but after looking at the logistics of my time management and the cost to us to get things printed, it made more sense to do almost a mini version of my subscription box, but include a signed book. I hope it works out and people are interested. In this case it actually helps that the book has been out in e-format for a year. Thanks to starting my business instead of designing the cover and prepping the files just a couple months after publishing, the gap in time is larger, but it has given me time to accumulate reviews and the like on Goodreads!

On the MOM & WIFE front:
Baby Laundry, Successfully OrganizedSo, I'm not the best housewife these days. On my list of priorities, cleaning the house or doing chores or making dinner is at the bottom. It's not that I dislike doing any of it. I just know that I can sacrifice doing the dishes for an extra 30 minutes of baby-free design time, and that kind of prioritizing adds up. The funny thing is, I am so much more centered and focused and confident and productive {especially when it comes to bookstagram} when my house is clean. Which brings us to the moment my husband walked in the door while I was having a mini-panic attack while folding Madeline's laundry on the living room floor. I started venting about how I can't keep taking on freelance jobs, but I don't know how to say no since we could always use the money, and half the time I just really want to be involved in the project, so I just say yes, but then I hit hot deadline after hot deadline and I never have time to hang out with my kid or my family or my husband, and I feel like a crappy person. By the time all that came out, I was in tears. So we decided to take a few minutes to discuss what we imagined our life and our surroundings to be and make a plan for realizing those things. It helped. And once I finished the hot deadline designs, I immediately dove into doing exactly as we planned.

Madeline's CLEAN Room!A little setup: I have three problem rooms {used to be two until we re-did our living room}. My office, my work/storage room {known as the Room of Requirement}, and lately, Madeline's room. Mads seemed to have gotten four thousand toys for Christmas, and her room had become an over-cluttered disaster instead of the sanctuary it had always been. My Room of Requirement was overloaded with boxes of inventory for the subscription box and all the boxes in the picture above. My husband has always felt that room would make a great playroom, but I really need that space. So I had an idea.

Madeline's New Playroom!We have a ton of extra baby gate fencing, so it would be possible to use it all to create a divide in the room where both of us had access to it, since there are two doors into it. The one closest to Madeline's room became the entrance to her "playroom" where I would take all the excess toys and furniture from her bedroom and create a play space for her that might possibly help keep the living room cleaner. I bought organizers for my inventory and consolidated that mess, took the boxes to my parents' house, shoved everything else of mine on Madeline's side of the Room of Requirement onto my side of the room, put up the fence, and made the playroom happen. My plan from here is to purge my side like I did with my closet, then move all the bookstagram photo and video setups into my side, which would clean up my office and would finally fix all three rooms!

And last but not least, BOOKSTAGRAM:
I am still behind here. But with a vacation on the horizon, I am making plans to take a bunch of photos and put them in the queue so that I can post on a more regular schedule, as well as make a list of photos I can do more frequently so I will not be so starved for creativity as I have felt lately. I think all of this will be helped immensely by the de-cluttering and organizing of those problem rooms, so... wish me luck!

I need an acronym for this section so I don't have to list out the parts of me. Hm. I shall think on this.
Also, I really wish our walls were all grey. The grey looks so pretty in pictures. Maybe I'll add that to my list?! Haha