Alright, I have another great Author feature post for you. Today I have Author Joanne Kershaw sharing what her day is like. Enjoy!!!
My name is Joanne Kershaw and I’m addicted to my crazy
life.
I am a full time mother of four children (aged 10, 8, 5
and 3), a full time teacher and a soon-to-be published author with Xchyler
Publishing. ‘How do you do all that?’ I hear you ask. This is how:
Monday morning.
6:30am Alarm goes off. Dreadful tinny music
on a badly tuned radio. Hit snooze.
6:40am Alarm goes off. Music is now an
advert for double glazing. Hit snooze.
6:50am Alarm goes off again. This time Only
Son—aged five—who has crawled into bed with me, offers to turn it off for me.
So this time, he hits snooze.
7:04am Daughter Number One, aged ten, sticks
her head round the bedroom door and says, rather pointedly, “We’re all going to
be late, don’t you think you should get up?” I send Only Son to get dressed. I
allow myself a few more minutes.
7:22am Leap out of bed, turn on the light
because it is still pitch black outside, and throw a cushion at my husband.
Blame him for us being late and get dressed in a rush.
7:35am Stumble downstairs to find Daughter
Number One has made breakfast for herself and her three siblings who are nearly
all dressed in their school uniform. Blame her for letting us sleep in. She
shrugs and pretends I’m not there—which is probably the best idea.
7:48am Half eat a bowl of bran flakes—part
of my new healthy eating regime—and gulp down a half-cold coffee. Tie up Daughter
Number Three’s hair; she’s almost four, over tired and not happy. There are
tears, a few sharp words, and then it’s over. As is the last three minutes that
I had spare.
7:53am I get to my car, throw in my bag and
laptop, change the CD to something loud and happy and drive to work. I’m a
primary school teacher. I work mostly with children who find learning difficult
and I help them to find it easier. I love that, it’s the best part of my job. I
get to watch a child who has struggled for a long time finally grasp something.
It’s like a little bit of magic!
8:02am Get to school. I am really happy to
be back because I truly love my job. That is, I am happy until I get out of the
car. I’m greeted by a member of staff who promptly tells me that two other
members of staff are off sick. So my whole day, which was planned out all neat
and tidy, is now undone.
8:36am Now I know what I’m doing today. Yay!
8:48am I check my emails quickly. I have
several from the team at Xchyler publishing. My content editor, a fabulous lady
named Caitlin who has been an endless font of knowledge and support, has
returned a couple of chapters which need a little tidying up. My line editor,
McKenna, has also returned a chapter and I also have an email from Dale, the
wonderful chap who is going to bring my book cover to life. Honestly, it’s not
even time to open the doors yet and I am absolutely exhausted!
10:40am Playtime. I meet up with my Young
Voices choir. Young Voices is a Youth choir which runs throughout the UK. Children
learn songs and then perform them with around 7000 other children in a huge
arena. Our concert is in less than three weeks and we are woefully
underprepared. I add extra rehearsals over the next two weeks, this is on top
of the hour we already do after school every week. I manage to grab a very
healthy chocolate biscuit and a coffee before I have to be back in class.
12:00pm I’ve managed to get through the morning.
I do ten minutes marking and then grab a bowl of cereal for lunch—guess that’s
my healthy eating regime over then. I open one of my chapters for editing and
get on with it.
12:48pm Bell
for afternoon classes rings and catches me unawares. I grab my purple pen—the
best colour for marking—and jog down the hall at school and into my next class.
Two hours of guided reading to go!
3:15pm End of the day! Well, my working day.
I have fifteen minutes to get up the road to the school my children go to as
they need collecting.
3:26pm I’m in the car. As I drive I’m
singing to Demi Lovato at the top of my voice. If nothing else, it keeps me
awake.
3:31pm I collect Daughter Number 3 from her
wrap around carer. She’s been a madam today so she is wailing at my knees whilst
we wait for her older brother and sisters. I know she’s tired and she’s been
nursing a chesty cough which has kept her (and me) awake, but I’m still pretty
upset with her.
3:40pm I finally have all four children in
tow. With Daughter Number 3 still wailing and Daughter Number Two trying to
help her keep pace, we painstakingly make our way to the car.
4:05pm Home! Hooray! We burst through the
door: hang up coats, put away shoes, put book bags on the hook, get changed out
of uniform. When all those jobs are done we flake out on the sofa for half an
hour and watch some dreadful children’s TV programme. It’s loud, it’s brash,
it’s colourful and it’s blurry. I am not a huge fan of kids TV, unlike my
husband, but it keeps us all quiet for a bit so we can recharge our batteries.
4:45pm Stare into the freezer. I have no
idea what to make for tea. I give up and resort to a good old favourite.
Daughters One and Two and Only Son have porridge, Daughter Number Three has
chocolate spread on toast and I have sausage sandwiches. I at least make them
eat fruit, so I get at one tick on the Super-Mum check list.
6:18pm Start to get the youngest two ready
for bed. PJs on, teeth brushed, and tucked in by 6:28pm.
6:30pm I spend an hour on homework, reading
and general housekeeping with my oldest two daughters.
7:42pm I am parked on the sofa with a large
mug of coffee, my laptop and a slab of fruit cake. (It’s healthy honest!) I
load up a chapter for editing and get to work. It’s peaceful. Out cat, who we
love to death but who hates us passionately, is sleeping in her bed next to me.(Just as a side note,
we called her Dipstick. Her hating us makes sense now, doesn’t it? Though it
backfired on us! Have you any idea how ridiculous we sound shouting her name
when we want her to come inside. I bet our neighbours think we’re crazy!)
8:17pm The phone rings. My mum. We chat for
nearly forty minutes whilst I answer emails and update facebook and twitter.
9:14pm I’ve been working for all of about
twenty minutes when the phone rings—again. This time it’s my mother in law. She
wants to sort out visiting for Only Son’s sixth birthday in three weeks. For
some reason I cannot fathom, this conversation takes half an hour. We don’t
have much to talk about! Maybe, secretly, I am procrastinating?
10:28pm This is getting ridiculous now. My
husband calls me. He never calls me but the pub he works in is so quiet that he
has nothing else to do. He spends fifteen minutes telling me all of the things
he’s done in the last two hours and I try to listen, I really do. He eventually
asks what I’m doing and, when he realises he’s disturbed me, he lets me get
back to work. How very generous! He started work at 1pm and will finish at 1am,
so hopefully he’ll be home around 2am. Then he’s really lucky because he gets
to wake up at 6:30am tomorrow and do it all over again!
12:39am I’ve finished the chapter I was working
on and I email it on. My eyes itch and my back is hurting but at least I’m
done. I turn my laptop off and tuck it away for a few hours. I briefly wonder
if you can overuse a laptop but I’m so tired the thought barely sticks.
1:08am I am finally getting into bed.
Upside: it’s about time and my bed’s really comfy. Downside: my brain is wide
awake. I end up putting on a DVD to fall asleep to. I hear my husband come home
but manage to fall asleep before he comes to bed and his snoring can keep me awake.
6:30am Alarm goes off. Dreadful tinny music
on badly tuned radio. Hit snooze.
6:40am Alarm goes off. Music is now an
advert for double glazing. Hit snooze.
Well . . . I
think you get the point!
Joanne’s book, a paranormal Young Adult adventure romance
drama, is currently due for release in the spring. To find out more information
check her out at Kershaw_Joanne on twitter or search Joanne Kershaw – Author on
facebook!
WOW!!! You are nonstop. Joanne, Thanks so much for sharing your day with us!!!
