I have bent over backwards to play this role. The perfect mom, the perfect wife. I have swept, mopped, dusted, organized, laundered, straightened, ironed, fixed, shopped, cooked my way through the dreariest parts of winter. I have researched, read, taught. I have nursed, changed, bathed, snuggled, kissed, and rocked to sleep. I am tired, and I am ready for a change.
It is time, I think, to say no to a few more invitations and requests, to let the dishes and the laundry sit until I'm ready, to let the kids stay in their pajamas. It is time to stay inside even when I just feel like getting out. It is time to let someone else have the babies for an hour while I sit and write. It is time to let Stella have a bottle, and let someone else give it to her.
It is time to take a week off from elaborate school plans, and just snuggle up on the couch and read books to my babies. It is time to say no to more work, even though I want to be making money so badly.
It is time to shut everyone and everything else out, and write the story I've been thinking about for so many months. It is time to treat my characters like the friends they are, instead of shooing them away so that I can check everything else off my list. It is time to be alone. It is time to enter a new world. It is time to write.
