Routines & Rhythms Saving my Life This Summer: Gretchen Saffles of Well Watered Women

Edition 1/4: How a ministry founder and writer balances motherhood + work in the Summertime

(the background photo was taken in during a trip to Chicago in the summertime)

I “met” Gretchen online years ago but had the true privilege of getting to spend time with her face to face on a “Girl’s Trip” to Austin with a handful of fellow writers, bloggers and ministry founders and it was friendship love at first sight. I felt so bonded to her immediately that trip and am so thankful for many hours of Voxer since. Gretchen is unique in that while her company certainly has quite a massive online presence and her book is wildly successful, she makes the very intentional choice to stay more private and quiet in her own space. She shows up to speak, encourage, uplift and inspire without desiring any of the spotlight for herself which is incredibly rare. I’m eternally inspired by her and grateful for her. Take it away, friend!

---

1. Can you introduce yourself for anyone unfamiliar with you? Your elevator pitch, if you will. (Where do you live? Who do you live with/do you have children/what are their ages? What do you do for work? How long have you done it…anything you want to say about your profession or career.)

Hi friends! I’m Gretchen Saffles—wife to my husband of ten years, Greg, and mom to Nolan (8), Haddon (almost 5), and Emelyn (15 months). Our family currently lives south of Atlanta in Newnan, Georgia. I am the founder of an online ministry called Well-Watered Women where we create engaging and theologically-rich resources to grow women’s love for God and his Word. I am also an author with Tyndale House Publishers. In 2021 I released my first trade book, The Well-Watered Woman, and am currently finishing the manuscript for my next book releasing in 2024!

2. Where do you actually do the bulk of your work and what are the benefits and challenges of that?

Where I work changes quite often. I have an “office” in our upstairs playroom, which is basically a corner of the room with floral wildflower wallpaper to designate mom’s office. I often bounce around to different locations in our home depending on my mood and the lighting. The morning light filters through the window by my desk in the early hours, but by afternoon it feels dark in that space, so I often move to the couch, the kitchen table, our front porch rocker, or our back porch (but never my bed! I have a hard and fast rule that I don’t bring a computer to bed).

Most days I dodge Legos and toy cars on my commute to my desk. Most of the time I step on said Legos once or twice that are camouflaged into the carpet. The bathroom I use is splattered in blue toothpaste, and I have to wipe the toilet seat every single day to make it usable (#boymom). 

Working from home is convenient, but it’s also incredibly hard to take off my keeper of the home hat and wear my work hat when I have childcare. Most of the time I wear multiple hats at once and multitask more than I should—picking up a small space here and there, starting a load of laundry in between meetings, cutting veggies for dinner prep while on a phone call. There are days when working from home comes naturally, but in busy seasons, the state of my home has a direct impact on the effectiveness of my work. On those days, I try to carve out time to pick up one area that will ease my stress level, or I just leave my house and head to a coffee shop for a change of scenery.

This year we invested in a standing desk and a walking pad, and I’m happy to say I’ve mastered typing on my computer while walking at 3 miles per hour without stumbling (well, most of the time). 

3. What does childcare look like for you in the summer?

Each year my husband and I start earlier than the year before in scheduling our summer child care (we’ve learned this the hard way!). With varying work hours and responsibilities as well as three children with different schedules and needs, this feels like piecing together an impossible tetris puzzle. No summer has been the same thus far, but here’s what’s working for us this summer—