you have to mean not to

One of the hardest things for me is juggling my time, wisely. I have my priorities - God, family, art, my business/websites. The first two priorities are set in stone as first and second, the last two seem to get juggled around.

Ideally I would like "art" to remain my third priority, but when the house is a mess, the kids need something, I'm blessed with lots of orders, or am working on a marketing project or gearing up for some kind of sale, my art priority gets pushed out of the way, sometimes for a week at a time.

That's bad! Especially if I'm going to call myself an artist.

I think I may have found a solution. When I was gliding around the internet during half time yesterday (go Packers!), I happened upon a blog article written by another busy "mom" artist who found that dedicating Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to her art was the solution that finally worked for her. Weekends were devoted to family, church, etc. and Monday and Fridays were devoted to cleaning the house, laundry, errands, making appointments, and so on.

I think this will work for me. Today I'm busy cleaning up all traces of our active weekend, making phone calls, answering emails, tackling ALL of the laundry, and doing some tedious book work I've neglected. I'm also going to try to reschedule a Wed. meeting to Friday, and hopefully I'll also squeeze in some quick paper making, so I have a few more large sheets of handmade paper ready to use. Then, if all goes according to plan, I will have three glorious uninterrupted days (8:00-3:30 when the kids are in school) of art making.

I don't really mean to have neglected my art, but as a friend of mine says, I have to mean not to.