Time Flies When You’re Having Fun!

With all the baby excitement going on in my house lately a very important anniversary passed me by without me taking notice. Last week was my one year anniversary of freelance writing full time. I can’t believe it’s been an entire year. It truly feels like just yesterday I quit my full time job. Isn’t it funny how time just flies by when you’re doing something you truly love?!

As many of you who read this blog know it’s been a very good first year and I’ve had some opportunities lately that have made it even better. Here are a few things that I’ve been up to lately on top of my regular client work.

I sold an article!

That’s right, to a real magazine! This is huge for me because I rarely pitch to magazines, as in maybe if I’m lucky I’ll send out three to five pitches a month. That’s certainly not enough – but the best I can do while juggling my clients that keep me busy full time. It’s also a big deal because it’s only the second time I’ve sold an article to a magazine. I was pretty excited! The article doesn’t come out for a while still, so I’m not going to share anymore details until it’s all complete, but I will say it’s for a writer’s magazine.

I’m going to be on the Washington Post blog!

My second huge opportunity is through one of my clients. I got hooked up writing two articles for the Washington Post blog. This is huge to me and I’m so excited to contribute to the legend that is the Washington Post! Both articles focus on back to school, so they should be up in the next month or two. One article I already submitted and once I hear back I’ll start work on the second. I’ll be sure to put the links here when they’re up so you can check them out.

Income wise for my first year things have been pretty good. I’m not making exactly what I was making in my full time office job, but overall I’m making an income I can live off of and it’s very comparable to what I was making.

I’m very proud that in the past year I’ve built up a wonderful list of clients that are happy with my work and keep me very busy most months. Plus I’m very proud that I’ve managed to figure out the business side of things like bookkeeping and setting up my own website.

Overall, this year was a huge success – much more of a success than I thought it would be when I started. I’m truly happy with what I’ve done and how far I’ve come, and I’m completely convinced that this is what I was meant to do with my career.  

Guess What?!?

I’m pregnant. I’ve been putting off this blog post for a while now just because I wanted to make sure our families knew first, but now that the news is spreading it’s time to announce it here. I found out at the end of May and I am currently 11 weeks along. My due date is January 28^th and my husband and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Before you ask, yes we were trying – no accidents here although since it only took a month I am grateful there have never been any accidents before.

Immediately upon finding out there were so many thoughts that started flooding my mind. Names, things we’ll need, how to tell people, what to tell my clients, what we need to do to get our house ready and more. One thing I knew for sure right off the bat was that I was going to keep up my work and all of my client work – I’m not giving up my career that I have worked so hard for, no way.

With everything that there is to think about in terms of preparing for a baby my husband and I are trying really hard not to get overwhelmed. We have taken the attitude that although we have no clue what we’re doing we’ll do the best we can and figure it out along the way and everything will turn out fine. Taking this attitude has made for a so far stress free pregnancy and left plenty of room for us to be completely excited.

I have to say that morning sickness is not fun. For the past two months or so it has been my constant companion, but I’m told that it eases up around 12 weeks. Here’s to hoping it does! Feeling crummy has made me realize how truly blessed I am to have my freelancing business. While I’m still completing the same level and amount of work that I was pre-pregnancy my hours have varied and because I work for myself it’s so easy to work when I feel well and not work when I feel bad. I can’t say enough how much I love what I do and am so thankful for it!

We will find out the sex of the baby – there is no way I could wait on that one! We have picked out some names we like, but we’ll keep them under wraps until we decide for sure.

Aside from baby stuff and the holiday weekend July has been a busy work month so far, stay tuned for my next post to see what I’ve been up to work wise including a few awesome opportunities that have come my way!

Happy Independence Day!

I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a very happy Independence Day and long 4^th of July holiday weekend. While we all enjoy our various cookouts and firework shows, may we be thankful of the wonderful country that we live in and of all the freedoms that we enjoy. Here’s to you America and all of my family and friends. Be safe and enjoy!