First things first, are you wearing a cute “Casual Friday” outfit today? Take a picture and send it to me for an upcoming Workplace Fashion post!
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I meant to get this post up yesterday but never got time! How people manage to blog multiple times a day, I’ll never know.
Anyways, before I move onto the main topic of this post, I want to share the amazing salad I had on Wednesday night. It had cherry tomatoes on it that I grew myself!
This summer I managed to successfully keep alive a strawberry plant and a tomato plant. This is a HUGE feat for me. I think that next summer I will attempt a full garden! OK, 1/2 a garden…
I didn’t get a ton of tomatoes off my little plant, but it was enough to complete my salad for dinner!
OK, moving onto todays topics.
Wednesdays
I’ve briefly mentioned before that I work a semi-full-time schedule. I work 30 hours a week, and four days a week, in the office. I’ve chosen to take Wednesdays as my day off because it breaks up the week nicely but occasionally I will take Monday or Friday off instead so I can have a long weekend.
Contrary to popular belief, I do not sleep-in and have restful relaxing days lying around reading and napping and blogging. But boy, that would be nice! I am always up by 5 or 6 am to get my medium-long run in and then I usually spend anywhere from 5-10 hours working on freelance articles and projects. This is what my Saturdays look like as well, minus the running.
I need the extra income that comes from freelance projects, so doing extra work on those days is not an option for me, it’s necessary.
The other day I posted about having trouble relaxing at night because I tend to spend most of the evening on my computer. Even though I don’t consider blogging and everything that goes along with it – social networking/emailing/reading and commenting on blogs – to be work, it tends to tie in so closely with my freelance projects that it can be difficult to distinguish the two. For example, I took a break from writing a freelance article to write this blog post. See what I mean?
To be honest, I do some kind of “work” 6-7 days per week most weeks. Whether it’s for 1/2 hour or 8 hours.
Good thing I enjoy what I do!
Any other freelancers out there? How do you find a balance between “days off” and “work-at-home days”? And anyone else grow veggies (or attempt to) in your backyard or on your patio summer?
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I’m on the computer all day–at work from about 6am to 2:30pm … and then when I get home until I go to bed. ESPECIALLY during the fall and spring semesters because all of my classes are online. It’s hard to distinguish “fun time” on the computer (blogging, twittering, etc…) from the “work time.” Last night, I was beyond overwhelmed with the entire idea of the computer, so at 6pm, I shut it down. After that, I spent some time cleaning my kitchen, cooking dinner, and reading. Then, I went to bed a little after nine. It was so good to be unplugged for that amount of time, and I plan on doing it more often soon.
I freelanced one summer and had a really hard time budgeting my time (and not slacking off). I think I need the office environment and structure to keep me motivated. This sort of sucks that I’ll never be able to do work-at-home, but at least I recognize my weakness! lol
Every year I say I am going to start small and grow cherry tomatoes and herbs but have yet to get around to it. *sigh* Maybe next year….
i have tomato plants on my balcony – for some reason mine do NOT thrive. Hmmph. I also have pepper plants – these are easy cheesy to grow. though i will say — the same peppers from the batch, i gave some to my parents’ and theirs thrive so much more! but it’s in the ground!
also have basil, oregano, and thyme. and leeks!
Those tomatoes look awesome – good job on keeping two plants alive – way more than I could do!
I’m definitely still finding a balance between freelancing, my normal job, my creative projects & having down time. Over the past month I’ve been working 7 days a week, I really love what I’m doing so it’s been good, but lately I’ve been getting really tired
The biggest thing that’s helped me is designating Sunday afternoon as “do nothing” time, that’s my favourite time to read a book or nap or just chill out. And Saturday evenings are officially date nights, while I don’t like the idea of having to designate time for Jesse & I it does help me give myself ‘permission’ to switch off from work mode.
And while I love blogging, both blogging & commenting fall into the “work” category for me. Right now, anything that’s at the computer means I’m in work mode
Yep! I’m on the computer all day, either blogging, working on my book, completing freelance projects, or at my day job. It’s very hard to unwind, and it’s not much of a differentiation – I love to write, but when you write for 14 hours of the day, even on different projects, it’s easy to get burned out. But still – I love what I do! And wouldn’t have it any other way!
the last time i tried to grow any plants, the deer & rabbits in my neighborhood ate them. Glad I could provide them with sustenance but also a little bit frustrating =)
That salad looks delicious!! I am so so so envious of your tomato plant. I really should try growing one next summer. I so do not have a green thumb, though!
Happy Weekend, Friend!!
Nice work on the tomatoes! It hasn’t been warm enough here so my tomatoes probably won’t be ready to pick for another month or so. I do spend a lot of extra time on blogging/commenting/emailing, but I don’t freelance. Sometimes blogging feels like a 1/2 time job, but I enjoy it!
It’s all about finding the balance and not wasting our time, I suppose. I’ve had days where I completely wasted my time & felt like crap for not getting anything done. I work 8 hours a day and usually don’t have time to read blogs & comment at work but work has been slow the past few weeks so yup, I got time now!
i’m trying to freelance — so once i get there, i’ll let you know how/when/if i am able to balance it all.
those tomatoes look awesome! yum.
I wish we had outdoor space to start a garden. Someday, I want to try growing corn. I love the idea of having a mini corn field outside my house.
My job can be really 24/7 online if I let it, and between that, a blog and some freelancing, it’s overwhelming.
Btw, Amber, where do you find your freelance work? I’m looking for one more gig and you obviously seem to know where it’s at
mmmm those baby tomatoes look tasty!!!
Your plants look great! I did tomatoes this year on our north-facing patio… it hasn’t gone very well. They’re very sad looking tomatoes
So neat that you have strawberries! I’ll have to try those next year 
The reason why I kinda love my job is that it is SUCH a break from my “real life” of interning, school, blogging, writing, etc. I’m all about being silly, playing games, listening to Dora the Explorer, changing diapers… it’s so different. Eventually, I’ll graduate and have to do a job where I am more involved with computers but for now, it’s nice.
I kind of killed my tomato plants this summer. It wound up raining so much, that they drowned in all the water. Although next year I’d rather do move of a cherry tomato plant. And I might have to plant a strawberry plant as well, because they look delicious!
My hubby has that working 7 days a week at something problem. He works full-time and then works on his own business at night and weekends. We were on vacation Wednesday-Saturday and he had worked all day Sunday, Monday and over night, and all day Tuesday at his real job (server went down) and then on the computer the whole drive out Wednesday. In the end, he took no vacation time. We got home today and he has already called back 3 people to work on their computers and had one delivered to our house today. And another call just came in. Good for us money wise but sucks for him sanity wise! We had our own garden again this year but it the only thing we had much success with were the tomatoes and sugar snap peas. The corn did not work out, strawberries only got 1 to try, and cucumbers and green peppers did not come up. We don’t weed though haha.
I tried to grow green peppers and tomatoes this year but they are not doing so well … we have had WAY too much rain!