Time Thieves

I was discussing with a writing friend how little writing I have managed to do lately. She was having similar problems, so we worked out all the feasible hours we had during a reasonably regular week. From this we removed time to do home and family stuff. It turned out we should have between 15 and 20 hours per week with which to write. IT"S NOT HAPPENING I TELLS YA!
We also wrote a list of known time thieves eg e-mails, phone calls, Internet trawling, kids being lazy, blogging (!) etc. To these time thieves we allocated a distinct time so we could rest assured they would get done but not spend too much time doing them nor do them multiple unnecessary times. So from today I will only blog weekends, jotting a note to myself in between if there's anything I might want to add. Those hours that remain to write are very precious and those who love you will have to understand. For example:
I was telling a friend on Saturday that I had sent my husband to work to make up for hours he took off for a funeral. I was making a joke pretending to be Whipmistress. I'd like to add here that my husband does contract work and if he takes time off we simply don't get paid and secondly that the deceased was a a school mate that my husband had not seen in many years. Anyway my friend (who goes out to work) smiled but said "Oh, that's mean. Why don't you go out and get a job. " Well, of course I was wrong to joke about my good hubby making up the work time but that comment stabbed me right in the gut's. It made me think about going out and doing just that. Of course it played on my guilt and fear but mostly I think because I really am not working- I'm not claiming my 15 hours a week to myself. If I were I could have smiled back and said " Piss Off- I do work!"