When I’ve got several articles to write and even more to edit and traffic was ridiculous and the baby is screaming and the big kids are arguing and dinner’s not ready yet and there’s a bill from the orthodontist waiting at home with more than two zeros before the decimal point, I look at the chaos and think, “Man, this might make for a good story.”

The thing about being a journalist is that you tend to be on the look out for story ideas all the time, everywhere. And when you do get around to writing them all up, not everything in your notebook ends up in your story. And then, once your editor has gotten a hold of it, you’ll find that not everything you put in your story ends up in the published version (I’m a newspaper editor in real life, so I can vouch for this — I do a lot of trimming). What are you supposed to do with all of those ideas that you don’t have time to work on yet?

If you’re freelancing in addition to your full-time job, like I am, you run into another problem: How do you get the word out and promote yourself when, as a working mother, you barely have time to get all your work done?

Blog it.

I have a personal blog, but it’s not really personal. (My truly personal blog is a notebook and a pen.) I use it as a virtual clip file — it’s an electronic version of that old manila folder that reporters keep stashed in their desks, crammed with copies of their most-recent bylines. It also my virtual marketing department — my name and my work is always out there. It’s my stash of ideas. It’s my professional to-do list.

Added bonus: I can keep links to my online networking profiles there for easy reference, I have a handy URL to send to anyone who asks, “So, what are you working on right now?,” and my mom never says, “You didn’t tell me you wrote that” anymore.

But, since potential clients and current employers can see it just as easily as my mom can, I avoid airing my dirty laundry there. They don’t need to know that stuff anyway. (Not that I’m not tempted to hang a little bit of my wash out to dry. Especially with so many interesting stories all around.)

OK, enough blogging. Back to the chaos.