What It Means to Be a Mommy Author

I like the title of this blog, "Mommy Authors." It clearly states our purpose - we are authors, but we're mommies first. We have kids of varying ages and in different stages of life. On my particular journey, I have a seventeen-year-old, a fifteen-year-old, a twelve-year-old, and a nine-year-old. Plus we homeschool. And I run two businesses from home. And my husband and I are very involved in our church assignments. It's a pretty wild, crazy, and wonderful life.

I well remember the days of being a young mother and juggling a newborn and a toddler at the same time, wondering if I would ever again get the time to write and wondering how to make dinner with a child glued to my leg. The time has gone by so fast, it's like it was yesterday.

Being a mommy author means that you become very good at juggling. Some days, you have a sick child, and so you spend the day cuddling and watching movies and making peppermint tea. Other days, the story won't leave you alone and you spend all day at the computer and make corn dogs for dinner. And other days, you frantically clean, trying to undo the damage from the sick days and the writing days. Then you begin the cycle again.

You stay up late to write, or you wake up early.

You scribble notes to self all over the house because that perfect scene came to your head while you were folding laundry.

You endure well-meaning, yet totally off-the-mark comments from friends, neighbors, mothers, and mothers-in-law who just don't get what you do.

You smile patiently when your husband's boss introduces you to his glamorous wife and says that "She wants to write. Isn't that cute? You know, she has twelve children," and you try to correct him that you really only have six, but they look at you like it's all the same to them.

We go through a lot. We put up with a lot. And you know what ... we wouldn't have it any other way. 

Who would trade in the sloppy kisses or the late-night hugs or the little voices saying, "Mommy, I love you?"

Who would trade in the finally finished chapters and the satisfaction that comes from completing another project?

And who would trade in the glee on our children's faces when we tell them that we wrote another book? They might not totally understand, but they know we're happy, and that makes them happy, and so we can all be happy together.

Being a mommy author is hard. In fact, sometimes I think that quitting writing would make my life so much easier. But I get to fulfill two life-long dreams at the same time, and truly, I wouldn't have it any other way.