My daughter went to her first-ever day of kindergarten today. It’s actually a sort of kindergarten orientation — two weeks of mandatory summer attendance where the kids get accustomed to their teachers, their classrooms and the routine, before jumping into school when it starts in August.

But it sure felt like real kindergarten this morning, as I walked her into that bright, cheery and busy classroom, and we put her change of clothes and sleeping blanket in her cubby, and learned where her box was for messages from the school. 

“Hi!” said her friend Mikayla, who had been in preschool with her, and it was nice to see a familiar face. 

As I talked to the teacher, my daughter looked around with a grin on her face. I looked back at her once and she was looking at me like, “Can I? Huh? Can I go play?” “Yes, go play!” I said.

While it was a big, exciting transition for my daughter, it was for me, too–because my daughter was starting kindergarten, and for other reasons as well.

I have built up this day to mythic proportions. Once she’s in kindergarten, I’ve told myself for five years now, I will have more time for my work. Enough time. I’ll be able to get it all done without staying up late at night. I’ll work while she’s in school and then I’ll put it away and be present at home, instead of always trying to do a little bit more, catch up.

I wouldn’t have missed a minute of being with her in her first five years, truly. Being home with my wonderful daughter, instead of having to be away at a job from 9-5, has been a luxury. I have been so fortunate.

It is just a fact, though, that it is very tricky trying to freelance when you have a child at home. Although it got marginally easier as she got older, the phrase “5-year-old” does not go well with the phrase “freelance writer.” Neither did 4-year-old, 3-year-old, 2-year-old or 1-year-old.

So today, I have dropped her off at kindergarten and am sitting in my new, out-of-the-home office. I have set up an office in a room of my cousin’s home, which is closer to the school than is our house.

I have my yellow pad next to me, with a list of everything I want to get done today before I go back and pick up my daughter. 

I am planning to be a focused, freelancing MACHINE. Here I go!