Biting off more than I can chew?

So, in my mind I'm thinking about the six story deadlines looming. I've committed to six stories in one month, and fear that this might be, what should I say, A TAD TOO MUCH?!

I mean, what is wrong with me? I made a conscious decision months ago to only take the assignments I want, so that I have time for other things, like going for long runs, adding extra intervals to the bike workouts, running the dogs for entire afternoons. Things like doing laundry and dishes and cooking inspired meals that will make my children smile.

The thing is, I sort of want all these assignments. Each one seems like a challenge, some easier than others, but still.

So instead of actually sitting down and working on these stories, here I am, calculating the math of how much time I have for each one. Let's see: 26 more days, divided by 6 stories gives me about four days for each, at 8 hours a day (OK, 4 hours if I'm really honest with myself) - wait, that's only 16 hours per story.

That's not much time.

But then I get to thinking about pay. Some of these things only pay $200 per story, and at 16 hours per story, that's a paltry $12 or so. I might as well work at McDonalds. Maybe I DO have time to go skiing, dog mushing and running after all. I'll take the $600 stories seriously, but $200? Come on now.

See? This is looking up already. Freelancing can be such a manic way to live. I've been doing it, at varying levels of intensity, for more than 10 years now, and it still doesn't get any simpler. There's the constant job searching, the careful negotiating, the endless waiting -- for an assignment, a paycheck, an answer from those faraway editors who don't seem to think we writers have lives and schedules, too.

You know what? Forget this computer. I have plenty of hours left in January. The sun is out, the temperature has finally climbed to a whopping 3 degrees below 0.

I'm going mushing.