It dawned on me recently that most of the people currently reading this blog are not actor/writer/stay-at-home moms. (Of course they aren’t. That’s friggin’ specific!) My closest mommy friends consist of women who stay home full time with baby or work full time. My situation is in some weird limbo in between that has a few of the problems and advantages from each of those. So I thought I’d share what a busy day in our house looks like.

7:30 am BabyABC wakes up and comes to bed with us to nurse and play. This is one of the glorious things about both my husband and I being freelancers. Many mornings, we get to hang around in bed together as a family before we start the day.

8:30 am Production meeting with a group of women via Google Hangouts. We’re trying to produce some scenes we’ve written to use for our drama reels. BabyABC waves and grins as I head upstairs to the office and then proceeds to shriek and babble up at me throughout the call.

9am: Breakfast as a family; I move over to makeup table to prep for the day as Joe cleans up BabyABC. Teamwork!

10 am: I put BabyABC down for a nap just as my sketch group arrives. We have about 90 minutes tops to set up and shoot a scene for a sketch I’m producing in our living room before she wakes up. Luck smiles on us and BabyABC stays quiet and asleep. After we get the shot, we sit down for a planning meeting.

11:30 BabyABC wakes, so I step out of the meeting to get her up. I pull out her lunch and set her up in her highchair in the circle with us. She munches and observes while we meet. When she’s done, I wipe her down and get her dressed while trying to give productive notes on a sketch pitch. BabyABC plays on the floor with me.

12: 30 pm Our lovely sitter comes (teamwork!) and takes BabyABC out to the park. There is a brief break in the meeting as ABC has a meltdown about leaving Mommy. We wrap up the meeting and everyone heads out.

1:15 pm I eat lunch in front of the computer as I gather some info that my new manager requested.

2:15 I go downstairs for a quick baby snuggle before I put ABC down for second nap. I gather my things for the rest of the day, thank the sitter, and get on the road for an evening shoot. I’ve been hired to simply show up and act on a project. What a treat! 🙂 I have a lovely time on set and am invigorated, being in my element, doing what lights me up.

9 pm On this particular day, I get home after ABC is bed. Many nights I get to be there for dinner and bedtime. For example, the next night, we have dinner as a family, go for a short walk and are both home for bedtime. Then I head up to the office again for a writer’s meeting (a half hour comedy I’m working on with 2 other mommies) that goes until about 10:30pm.

Every single day in our house is different. Freelance comes with a lot of benefits but it also means we don’t have a predictable start and end time to our day. Joe and I do our best to keep BabyABC on a schedule despite Mommy and Daddy’s lives being so changeable. It’s hard some days (many days). There is no balance, no perfect schedule. It’s like the tides, flowing in work and flowing out family. But I love my job and my time with my family so I’m holding on tight to both and making it work (mostly) one day at a time.