I started writing Conversations With Colton seven years ago. I didn’t write it conventionally, like you may be thinking. Instead, I started posting on Facebook about my interactions with my son using the hashtag #conversationswithcolton. Get it? Conversations with Colton!
It was crazy. I went back and looked at my very first conversation with Colton, and it occurred when he was just two months old. It was a video of him babbling into the camera, using his hands while he talked. I made a joke and threw up the caption: “Conversations with Colton, look at my Italian Boy already talking with his hands.” I’m 100% Italian, and it’s true, we do talk with our hands. Colton is only 50 percent Italian, but it still counts. I had no recollection of that post until researching for this book.
Somehow, my conversations with Colton became regular Facebook posts. The older he got, the more in-depth our conversations grew. The older he grew, the more interesting our conversations got! The more interesting our conversations got, the more I started to pray for patience. But I digress. When I started writing this book, compiling our conversations wasn’t hard, but it was on my mind all the time! I couldn’t turn it off in my brain. So much so that I would dream of transitions while I slept and play possible segue scenarios in my mind while I went about my day.
One day I was out running errands and of course, the book was on my mind. I stopped to get gas and a snack and was “arguing” with myself in my head.
The thing is I set out to write a fun comedic account of conversations with a miracle baby.
What I was writing was an exploration of faith with conversations weaved in and this was not what I originally intended. I was having a hard time letting my original expectations go. My head was somewhere else. So I grabbed my snack and needed to take the gas pump out of my car and go on about my day. I walked out of the gas station with authority. Right up to a white SUV, took the gas nozzle out of the car, opened the driver’s side door to get in, and let out the loudest scream. You see it wasn’t my car, it looked like my car but the man sitting in the driver’s seat wasn’t thrilled. I explained my mistake, he laughed, and I found my car and left, embarrassed beyond belief!
What this taught me was to hold myself accountable for thinking and writing my book when it was designated writing time, in my office, at my desk. I clearly couldn’t control my dreams, but I could control my thoughts while I was awake. I was becoming obsessed, and I needed to gain some control. This approach worked for the most part once I came to terms with accepting that Conversations with Colton was going to be the book I hadn’t originally planned to write. My #1 tip for being a busy mom is to SHUT your brain off when you aren’t working. Be in the moment and be present, the other stuff can wait until you are “sitting at your desk.”
So, shut off your brain when it’s time to focus, be present in the moment, and tackle each task with determination and purpose. You’ve got this!
