I just said to Tony I wish I could just sleep for 5 days

Freelance work can be tough at times, and especially when one's freelance business is still less than 3 years old. When one doesn't work, one doesn't earn. We don't yet charge enough for what we do. We've recently put our prices up, but it's still not enough to afford a holiday once in a while - not even a holiday right at home. We're still growing. But, oh, to just do nothing and sleep sleep sleep as much as we like. I think that five days of doing absolutely nothing and sleeping as much as we like would feel like a 3 week vacation to us.

But we cannot afford to just stop work and do nothing for a few days. And if there is no work for a while, we spend the time marketing or blogging to give ourselves or our sites more exposure to get the next bit of work. Or we apply for jobs on oDesk.

Ok, we have breaks, and since Tony and I are pretty inseperable, we take breaks together:

Taking the boys to school is a break. 44 minutes there and back just for the driving, so with a brief stop at the shops for some essentials, it's about an hour and fifteen minutes break from work.

Fetching the boys from school? Perhaps another hour and fifteen minutes.

We sometimes (perhaps 3 or 4 times a month) pop in at Hemingways to lose some money, have a drink or two, and relax. So, what's that? Perhaps 9 hours a month break?

We don't watch tv - no time for that, and none in our bedroom or office anyway. Ok, so we do Stumble a bit, visit YouTube or FaceBook, but it's not for long.

We will also get out a dvd from time to time - perhaps sometimes we overdo it a bit, like 5 in ten days, but then we might go a month or so before watching another one. Our office is tiny, but there's just enough space behind our two chairs at the two computers (next to each other of course) to take a step or two backwards and plop into two lazyboys there, and watch a dvd on the computer. So, that's ten hours of dvd and perhaps 2 hours of YouTube a month = 12 hours a month. How much time each month do you spend watching tv - or playing computer games?

We will also take time out from work to take the boys to movies during the school holidays - you could say we go to the movies with the boys maybe 9 times a year. If the boys have something on at school, or to do with sport, we take time out to support them.

We also take them to karate two evenings a week, and wait there until it's over, walking our jack russell Gilly about 1 and a half kilometres on the fields - or using the time to pop in at the shops.

Then there's school projects and orals that the boys need guidance with, or learning for exams and we spend time asking them questions.

Oh, and then, of course, making meals, eating, showering, sleeping.

It's all a break from work.

And sleeping. That's a break too.

Sounds like a bit fat moan, doesn't it? Well, I guess it is, when one is feeling so tired, and, often, generally always feeling tired. Being alert, awake, fresh and active takes a lot of energy and I guess our batteries are not being recharged enough.

When associates or friends say "have a good weekend!" we know they mean well, but to tell the truth, a lot of our work gets done on the weekends - when the boys have less homework, when there's no sport or school trips, and when we know we don't have to get up at 5.40 am, so we can sleep a tad later in the mornings (if we're not too far behind with our work). But catching up on sleep one or two nights a week, isn't doing the trick. Our batteries need more recharging than that - and we can't just sleep and sleep, or else work (or marketing it) gets behind!

Well, now that my moan is pretty much over, do I feel better? I guess, somewhat, but, gee, I'm still so tired, and so is Tony. Sometimes we can't remember when we last felt really refreshed. Or when we do remember, we remember that it barely lasted.

With life what it is today, we know there are many people who feel the same as we do, each and every day.

Yes, we're a bit jealous of the people who can take time off work for a few days or weeks (and mostly still get paid while they're not working), but do you know what? - we are going to put up with how tired we feel, we're going to continue being available for the boys, we're going to continue working for ourselves, we're going to continue growing our business, building our portfolio and reputation, and, we're going to make it! Our determination is what keeps us awake.

And one day, whenever that may be, we're going to do nothing for ten days, not five, and sleep all we like, and at the end of that break we'll say: "Well, all that hard work was worth it!"

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010