I think it’s time to get my act together again.

Ever since we got Midnight, our Labrador Retriever puppy, I’ve slowed down on blogging and that has unfortunately resulted in a drastically reduced income! Our spending has gone up since we got her too since we had to pay for oh, 6 vet bills since she’s been sick since the day we got her, and we also had to get doggy supplies (training crate, toys, puppy training classes, more toys) and so on.

It also doesn’t help that I feel quite ill most of the time. My Crohn’s has been acting up for close to three years and in the last few months it seems to be worse than ever.

Time to suck it up and get back to work no matter what.

I had a shocking reality check last night. I finally got on my desktop computer.

I hadn’t used that computer since around the end of December and I was probably only on it about four times that month in total. Since we got the puppy at the end of November I’ve spent most of my computer time on my laptop. The laptop is on the living room coffee table and it’s not easy to work on when the puppy is out and demanding attention, hence the big decrease in blog posts across all my sites. My husbands sites have been affected too as he’s barely making blog posts either.

Last night I got on my desktop computer to access our bank accounts in order to pay all of our bills. Yes, one or two were a little overdue. I was shocked to discover that I only had a little over $100 in my account! Ahhh! Many of our expenses are taken out of my account automatically. I knew my account was probably getting low, but I didn’t think it would be that low!

Luckily I had quite a bit of money in my Paypal account so I quickly set about transferring some funds to my bank account. Too bad the money won’t get to my account until sometime early next week! Chris and I also have accounts in another bank that we use mostly for savings and our RSPs so I accessed those accounts (not the RSP’s) and transferred some money to my main bank account. Hopefully that money will make it to my account by Friday.

I paid our bills using Chris’ bank account instead of mine as I usually do.

Sigh of relief. The bills are paid and we still have some money that we can access over the next day or two until all the funds I transferred from Paypal and my other account arrives in my main bank account. We’re ok.

We won’t be ok though if I don’t start working on my sites again like I used to! A few months ago when things were going very well and I was working hard to make money through blogging and my other sites I was making pretty good money. Enough that I was transferring money from my Paypal account weekly. I knew I’d slowed down quite a bit when the gap between money transfers went from once a week to once every three or four weeks.

I’ve got to try to get back into my old work habit. It won’t be easy with the puppy wanting my attention during all her waking hours, but I’ll try!

In the past I’d start out each day working on my desktop computer. I find that I get more work done there than when I’m using the laptop. The laptop makes me lazy. I can lie on my side on the couch or prop the computer on my legs as I watch TV. Work slows down. A lot! Now with the puppy wanting to play ball or jumping in my lap to get me to pull on her squeaky toy working on the laptop is almost impossible too. Even checking email as it comes in takes forever.

Before she arrived in my life I’d work during the day on the desktop computer. My husband was at work and I’d could get my work done in peace. I’d write up posts to be saved as drafts or to be published right away throughout the day. I’d often still have some work to do in the evenings, but I could do it at a slower more relaxed pace on the laptop while my husband and I spent some time together. If I had a bad day due to my Crohn’s that was usually ok as I had posts stored up to use on my off days.

We have a training crate for our puppy. She has a nap or two in it during the day and sleeps in it at night. I think that in order for me to get more work done she’s going to have to spend a little more time in it each day. At least until she calms a little and is more willing to play with her toys on her own.

I guess having the puppy around demanding my attention is a bit like having a toddler in the home. How do those of you with young children or perhaps puppies as well cope with getting your computer work done at home?

I think what I’ll do is take care of the puppy early in the morning – feed her, walk her and have a short play time, then I’ll put her in her crate for a couple of hours and get to work on my desktop computer. She usually has her second meal of the day between noon and 1 pm then we go for a good walk and play in the house for a while. We’ll still do that, but now when she settles down in the late afternoon for a nap I’ll be sure to put her in her crate and get back on the desktop computer for some productive work time. When Chris is home in the evening he can play with her and I’ll keep working if I need to, then I’ll switch to the laptop to keep an eye on things as the evening wears on.

Maybe that will work.

I just need a little more structure in my day no matter how guilty I feel about ignoring the puppy for a couple hours here and there. Hey I’ve got to keep working if I want to keep a roof over our heads, the bills paid and have some extra cash so we can keep on having fun right?