Work, what work?

My work calendar has cleared up significantly in the past week, for which I am grateful. A project I've been working on for about 18 months at the textbook company I work for is finally nearing completion. We're in our final round of approvals, and the product should be going live within a few weeks. I should only have one more set of edits to proof, and then I'll be completely finished with it. Halleluah.

I picked up another quickie project from the textbook company last week and was able to bill a quick 10 hours. It was a relief to work on something that had such a short turnaround time and quick completion date.

Things have also slowed down with my other client, for whom I do a fair amount of writing. All of my drafts are either being reviewed by the experts or are in the process of going live.

Now, ordinarily, I'd be a bit panicked at not having any work on the horizon; it's a freelancer's worst nightmare. But I'm not. In fact I'm kind of hoping nothing else comes along for a week or two. It was such a long summer of trying to balance working at home with kids who were home and cramming work hours wherever I could. It wore me out.

I'm looking forward to taking guilt-free naps in the afternoons while Campbell rests. When I have projects going, I have to use that quiet time to get stuff done. I'm also looking forward to doing whatever I want during the two mornings a week Campbell is at school. I can run errands or get my hair cut or go to the dentist (or not) without having to hire a sitter or drag a reluctant toddler along. I have a limited number of those mornings left before Baby Bee arrives, so I want to take advantage of them while I can.

So I'm going to enjoy this lull, knowing from more than five years' worth of freelancing that it will be short-lived.

Right now, I'm going work on finishing a pair of socks that are taking me forever to knit.