a day in the life…
A couple of magazines that I subscribe to have the same feature at the front of each issue; a day in the life of someone. That someone could be a celebrity, a mom, an author, a fitness fanatic and I’m always intrigued by what other people’s lives look like from day to day. So, I thought I would share a typical day in my world!
5:45 a.m. My alarm goes off. Some mornings I am able to pop right out of bed and get going. I love those mornings! But, there are also times I just have to hit snooze once or twice before I can motivate myself to get out of my layers of sheets and blankets. The first thing I do is lay in bed and say a prayer for the day then I throw on some workout clothes, brush my teeth and head down to the kitchen.
6:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. I fill water bottles for the kid’s backpacks, pull their lunches out of the refrigerator and put everyone’s sandwiches/fruits/veggies/yogurt, etc. in their lunch bags. I start making breakfast for Nia (my second grader) because she is the first one that has to get up and out the door for school. Breakfast for her is usually waffles, sausage and fruit or something similar. If I’m feeling extra energetic I will bake a batch of blueberry muffins or cinnamon rolls for everyone (this usually happens once or twice a week).
6:30 a.m. Wake up Nia. This is about a 15 minute task that includes lots of whining and moaning and “I hate school” (from both of us…) before she finally rolls out of bed, her blonde curls a wild mess on her head. On particularly rough mornings I dress her while she is still sleeping which is getting to be a difficult task since she is not so little anymore! While she brushes her teeth and hair, I head back down to the kitchen to make coffee.
6:45 to 7:00 a.m. Usually Allan has set the Keurig for me the night before with a k-cup in the dispenser and an empty mug on the tray but, if he forgets, I stick a k-cup in my Keurig and brew a fresh cup. I absolutely love my Keurig and my morning routine of coffee and carpool, this is one of my favorite times of the day. My favorite coffee is Breakfast in Bed by Wolfgang Puck and to this I add a scoop of Beyond Collagen. While my coffee is brewing I take my vitamins (A, C, D, zinc, quercetin and a collagen gummy), grab a bar to eat in the car and serve Nia her breakfast.
7:00 a.m. I run upstairs to wake up Eva and Erin (8th grade) and Nia and I are out the door, coffee in my hand and backpack on her back.
7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. When I get back home from dropping off Nia, I wake up Zoe (6th grade) and Charlie (6th grade) is watching TV, waiting for his breakfast. I put together four plates of whatever I have made for breakfast (although, on Tuesday and Thursday we do cereal or oatmeal and the kids serve themselves). While they are eating I am french braiding their hair or chatting with them about what their day looks like. Then the five of us head out the door to the middle school (except on Tuesdays when we have to leave even earlier to get Zoe to Drama Club).
8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Middle school drop off complete and now I have a few hours to fill until I have to pick Nia up at 2:00 p.m. This is when I do a workout of some sort (walk the dog a couple of miles, yoga, a HIIT class, or some other workout that I have subscribed to on my treadmill or TV). After my workout I grab a protein shake and a shower.
9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. After my shower/blow dry (if I’m actually taking the time to do that)/make up and clothes routine I throw in a load of laundry. With 7 of us in the house most of the time I do up to four loads of laundry throughout the day. I don’t think our washer and dryer is silent for long!
10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is the variable time of my day. Sometimes I don’t have much on my plate and I can catch up on housework, read my devotionals (I love this one by Joyce Meyer and the Living Room series by Kelly Minter) and run errands, which usually includes a stop at Harris Teeter or Target for more groceries. Other days I am so busy that I’m stressing about just not having enough time to get it all done. I might have a new client consult or a Zoom meeting with my bookkeeper or have a project for which I need to be selecting furnishings and decor. Or, I could have a meeting at our church in Winston Salem (40 minutes from our house), a PTA meeting or some other meeting or appointment. I also use a lot of this time to respond to emails, return or make phone calls, tidy up my Quickbooks accounts, open new Trade Accounts and to do paperwork both for the house (bills) and for Blue Nest.
2:00 p.m. I make a second cup of coffee or a cup of tea (Constant Comment by Bigelow is my favorite because it reminds me of growing up in England) and I get in the car to get Nia from school.
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. This is “Nia” time. We might run an errand together or stop by our local frozen yogurt place for a cup of fro-yo. Sometimes, if the weather is nice, we go to the park by our house or take a bike ride together. We also use this time to do her homework and spelling words together.
4:00 p.m. This is when the party begins and the middle schoolers walk in the front door from their bus ride home. The noise level goes from nonexistent to through the roof in about 2.4 seconds once they open the door. I make some sort of snack for all of them (veggie tray with crackers and cheese or I bake a tray of chicken nuggets and cut up some fruit) and we talk about their day. Well, the girls whine about their day and their teachers or tell me a funny thing that happened or show me a new dance they learned while Charlie just says, “it was good”. But, every now and then he will come home grinning from ear to ear because something happened at school and he couldn’t wait to tell me. I love those days.
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. If the middle school kids have homework then they start to tackle it while I’m folding another load of laundry. If they need help with math problems or Spanish or vocabulary words then I work through those things with them before I have to start making dinner. This is also the time I run out to grab whoever is doing whatever after school activity that usually ends at 5:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. I love to cook. I used to love it a lot more when my kids were younger and would eat just about anything I made and thought it was the best thing ever. Now that our family has grown to five kids it is trickier to come up with crowd pleasing recipes. I make a martini or pour a glass of red wine and start getting out the ingredients for whatever I will be making. Allan usually walks in from work at some point and his comment is always the same as the smells of dinner fill the air, “Our house smells like ‘home’, baby”. We are all home, all together and everyone is peaceful…this is my second favorite time of day!
6:00 p.m. Dinner time. Most nights we sit at the dining room table for dinner. On occasion, we gather around our island and eat there. Everyone has something to say so, after we pray, the conversation doesn’t stop. Then, we all pitch in to clean up and everyone does their own thing for a while.
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Allan and I spend some time together either chatting about the day or watching Wheel of Fortune (my grandmother turned me onto this show when I was little and it gives me so much comfort to watch it now) or we have to use this time to take someone to practice somewhere. I will often go ahead and make lunches for the kids for the next day so I can officially close the kitchen for the night.
7:30 p.m. Time for Nia’s bedtime routine. It usually includes a shower or bath, teeth brushing, and book reading. Then I lay with her and say prayers and rub her back or her foot until she drifts off to sleep. Her request for music on her Alexa is always the same “Brett Eldredge Radio” and when I know she is really sound asleep, I slide out of her bed as carefully as possible.
8:00 p.m. This is when I get ready for bed. Wash my face, sometimes take a quick shower if I just feel “yuck” from the day, get my pajamas on.
8:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Allan and I spend time with our middle schoolers during this time. We will often pile on the sectional in our family room and watch a show together. We hear great stories from them about this friend or that friend. Then, we make sure they have all plugged their devices in on the wet bar and kiss them all goodnight. Allan usually lays with Charlie, talking sports or re-telling stories from his college days when he played basketball while I go upstairs and tuck the three girls in.
9:45 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. This is the time that Allan and I just do nothing. Sometimes I’ll quickly finish folding another load of laundry and then we watch whatever show we are into that day; Outlander, Ghosts, You, New Girl.
11:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. I’m out.
