Friday Focus: Personal Space

I don't have personal space in my house. 

I think that to truly have personal space, I'd need to have a studio of some sort, or at least a room

where I could cut, sew, draft, knit, blog, write, make videos, tutorials, and store my handmade stock . . . 

. . . and not have to clean up after myself every single time I did anything

. . . and not be distracted by the cry of a toddler or the buzz of a dryer saying "pick me up, pleeeease!" and "it's time to fold me - hurry up and do it before the next load is dry!"

Personal space? Yeah. . . my space is limited, and it's not so personal.

When I sew or blog or work, the children are usually playing not even a few feet behind me. 

Toys and books scatter the floor upstairs leading from the children's bedrooms to ours. 

I always find random children's items sandwiched, trapped, between the sheets of our martial/family bed.

. . . right now, I've got a few minutes to do a bit of work - but I hear my preschooler singing in the background, and my toddler starting to transition out of the task at hand.

and soon, I'll have to abandon whatever I'm doing work-wise to scoop up those bundles of giggles and mean-mugs and constant gimme gimme hands, and get them down for naps.

(will that be easy or difficult today, I wonder!?)

and when I get back to work? Um. . . wait, now, what was I doing before?

Yeah, you get the picture. 

And seemingly a few minutes later, as soon as I achieve a groove, the kids wake up

and it's time to make dinner.

and I give baths, read stories, and get babies to sleep for the night. 

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Don't get me wrong. . . I love being with my children. Mothering is a blessing.

I don't want always want to be away from them to work. 

But this mommy has ideas

this mommy is creative

this mommy is passionate about sewing and knitting and creating for the home and writing about life

and it's so hard to do anything 

or get anything actually done

when an actual fully-wakeful, devoted time and place for doing my creative work - is impossible. 

It's more about being able to have my mind on my work instead of my mind 80% on my family and 20% on my creative or advocacy work.

Hopefully, the next time that we move, there will be a space where I can close the door and hang up a sign and say, "I am busy. I love you, but I will see you when I'm done with my work"

Photos from DesignsbySICK's blog

The children will be old enough by then to understand a bit about personal space.

It really truly exciting for me to dream about a sewing and writing space that is truly mine and truly personal. . . 

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Do you have a personal workspace or devoted me-time space in your home?

How do you create time and space for yourself, especially if you don't have a physical space in which to retreat?