Work Work Work

Normally, I like to have about eight open jobs. Five short quick no brainers like editing. One creative, one long cheap job (usually for Johnny5) and one long nice job (usually for the publishing company that does Need To Know books in the U.K.).
This past week has been crazy. Yes, I earned a lot of money. However, I find myself on Friday needing to add 75 pages to a non-fiction book by bedtime tonight (usually 1 AM, but 3AM as of late) and about 12,500 words to a confidential project by tomorrow at the same time. This is not to mention the fact that I am also throwing a birthday party for my son.
In part, one of my repeat translation customers asked to contract me for the rest of 2013. This means I received a new translation project 3 of the 5 business days this past week. Aside from these two projects, I also had a small editing job. I also have to write a book for said nice publisher, two for Johnny5 (although he is only supposed to end me 1 at a time), and expand a book for another person from 10,000 to 40,000 words.
So, I caved in. I have a children's book I wrote that I personally think is awesome despite the fact that its many years worth of rejection letters would make people think otherwise. And I have been wanting to get it illustrated for some time so I can self publish it. Why not kill to birds with one stone and become an employer as well as a freelancer. Setting up an employer account was actually quicker and easier than a freelancer account (this would explain how some of my employers were able to post jobs)
I posted the job for the illustrator, which got so many wonderful responses, I now have five people who I will probably have to pay for samples to see who gets it. I then reposted one of Johnny5s jobs which I am willing to lose money on just to get it done. This particular job is one I have almost finished but was asked to boost the word count and informational content. I really do not have time to be research the topic, which I hate with a passion (why in the world did he give me this?)
So I stated in my post that as long as the writers gave references they could cut and paste because all I need is research. First, this project was bounced back to me - 'we cannot post projects that are potentially illegal.' Really! So I had to clearly state in my project that I would rewrite it. Then, I only got two people who applied. One of them looks like a match, but wants a little more than what I want to pay. Although... I really want to be done with this.