I have been asking my followers on Instagram (if you’re not hanging out with me there you should be!) what they’d like to see on the blog and the BIGGEST thing people said they were wanting was a Day In The Life Post…so here it is!
This is a random day in our lives – Tuesday March 19th, 2019 to be exact.
It honestly ended up being a super cluster of a day. Which requires a bit of back story…
I am taking birth control (yes, Zach is snipped) due to female issues I have. And my OB and I are trying out skipping my period and only having a cycle once a quarter.
It’s honestly a pretty big pain to remember to take my pills
Well I accidentally forgot to take my pill: 3 days in a row. Oops.
And like an IDIOT I swallowed all three pills at one time to catch up. So. DUMB.
This took place on Monday and I’d planned to do the day in the life for Tuesday. The pills ended up hitting me HARD on Tuesday and I was completely and totally not myself and not feeling well all day.
But as we all know mama’s don’t get no off day!
A big thing I’ve been doing is waking up early in the mornings to have some me-time. During this time I get ready for the day, spend time in God’s Word, and write out the 10 things I’m thankful for that day.
Having this gratitude journal has made a HUGE impact in my outlook and attitude and I can tell a difference in the flow of my day when I take this time and when I don’t.
I’m really aiming for a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night and I got exactly that the night prior!
My morning routine goes like this:
- Get up and brush my teeth then wash my face
- Go through my skincare routine: face wash (I use Mary Kay), toner wipes (Obagi),
melamin (Obagi), Eye Cream (Amazon), Vitamin C (Amazon) and Sunscreen (I’m showing my “winter” one but will also link my summer one too that offers a bit more hardcore protection). - Then I go ahead and do phase one of my makeup routine. Since my hair is already pulled back and off my face I got ahead and do all the face portion of the makeup.
- I use two undereye creams, a foundation, bronzer, and blush. I also apply an eye primer for my eyeshadow.
- Usually, I then go ahead and fix my hair, either straighten it or curl it.
- While I wait for the tool to heat up and in between sections I do my eye makeup.
On this particular
So I waited to do my hair and eye
Want to Shop My Morning Routine? Here’s Everything I Love and Use Every Day:
I got dressed for the day wearing a few of my favs! I ADORE this cardigan and these shoes!
I checked in on Facebook and saw that on March 29th I started potty training Britt when she was the same age Spear is. So…that means the time is near for me to go through potty training one last time. UGH. Exciting but also SO NOT haha!
On days when the kids need to ride the bus I have to be out in the kitchen area by 6:20 in order to get them fed and out the door in time!
My morning routine is to always go straight for the dishwasher. We basically re-use the same breakfast plates each morning. I’m hardcore about running the dishwasher every single night, even if it’s not full.
For Breakfast Each Morning My Kids Eat:
- A piece of banana
- A cut up prune
- Cheerios
- Granola Bar, Oatmeal or Cereal depending on the time
While they eat breakfast I pack their lunch for the day. I love, love, LOVE these lunch containers! They make packing lunch a breeze and the kids are in the routine of cleaning them out each afternoon and we run them in the dishwasher at night so they are good to go the next morning.
A SUPER easy lunch item I like to make for the kids are peanut butter and jelly roll-ups. You simply take the crust off of two pieces of
I wrap cling wrap around the roll up and freeze overnight. The next morning it’s super easy to slice into pieces and they thaw by lunch!
I have really had a transition over the last year or so from a full time stay at home mom with a blogging hobby to a work from home mom blogger.
Blogging isn’t easy. It takes up a LOT of time, energy, effort and WORK.
But I am really loving it! It’s been a tough transition and it’s taking time to find that balance but I’m figuring it out!
Once the kids are on the bus I finish getting ready and am usually able to post my daily post on Instagram before waking up Tess and Spear.
I always wake up Tessie first (Kye and Britt both have alarms and wake themselves up and get dressed before coming downstairs). Tess takes some time to ease into waking up. She’s not a morning person 😉
She gets herself dressed but I always fix her hair for her. I then wake up Spear! He’s usually also sleeping pretty hard in the mornings.
Tess and Spear also eat the same breakfast as Britt and Kye, and I get the majority of it prepared when I’m preparing
Spear has the same things but also has his morning oatmeal. He LOVES it and it’s such a healthy way to start the day for him:
I don’t eat breakfast. My goal in the mornings is to drink ½ my weight in water. I chug it in three separate water bottles that I fill each morning with room temperature water. I don’t eat until lunchtime…I’ve just found this works well for me and helps me avoid being bloated!
While the two littles eat breakfast I clean up the kitchen, unload the dishwasher (on days when the big two ride the bus…when Zach is home he drives them to school and they have time to unload it) and run the laundry if needed.
We head for Tess’s school a little after 8! When Zach is home and he’s able to take her Spear is able to have his independent playtime before his morning nap.
Both Tess and Spear are REAR FACING. This picture kinda looks like they are forward facing. But I’m really hardcore about car seat safety and do extended rear facing for as long as possible.
On our way to
We were also able to check in with Daddy on the way too!
By this point I was STRUGGLING. I felt OFF and knew it was the mega dose of birth control.
It was funny because I shared about it on my IG Stories and someone suggested to chug water…my response? I got an Egg McMuffin from McDonald’s instead ha!
I LOVE egg McMuffins and they are actually one of the least bad for you foods you can get! I figured the combo of protein and carbs could help digest things and make me feel a little better. At least that’s what I told myself 😉
Spear and I get back home between 8:45-8:50 and I just take him straight to bed for his morning nap. We get some sweet snuggles before he goes down!
The morning nap
There is a LOT that goes into blogging, especially now with Instagram added into the mix and with me learning SO many new things.
So it’s not as simple as “edit pics, write post” anymore and that means a LOT more of my time is needed to be able to do all the blog tasks I’ve normally done PLUS all the new things too.
It’s tricky. Because my purpose for blogging has been, and always will be, a way to store memories for our family. But those personal posts? Take. FOREVER.
I’m trying to work on ways to minimize that
Most bloggers at my stage of blogging (10 years now!) only post new content once or twice a week. Since my blog is personal in nature I’m still posting 4-7 times a week. Which is a LOT of work!
I’m really trying to figure out the best balance that works for me and allows me to truly enjoy the work and effort I am putting into it!
Spear has been taking Survival Swim lessons and that means his morning nap was cut short on swim days. I had to go in and wake him up at 10:30 so we could get to swim on time!
While Spear did his swim I did a little more work from my phone. When my post goes live for the day I usually try to do my Instagram post to go along with the blog post, I add it to my IG Stories as a swipe up, and I pin all the pins I’ve made for the post onto Pinterest!
I am SO SO sad that Tiny Bubbles (where ALL my babies have taken survival swim courses and have learned how to swim) is closing but I’m SO SO thankful that Spear was able to take his survival
We ADORE her and Spear has done SO well with his lessons! He doesn’t swallow any water and was about a week out from graduation on this day!
After swim we go straight to pick up Tess from school and then head home for lunch!
I love our lunchtimes together and when the day comes that all my kids are in school, lunch will be the hardest time of the day for me. I will have to plan lots of lunch dates with friends and Zach 😉
Tessie loves a peanut butter sandwich and yogurt for lunch. Those are her two favs!
While they were eating I tossed clothes in the dryer and made my lunch too.
I’m currently doing a new Advocare Challenge and I am LOVING it! I am able to make it work with my normal eating routine and it’s been really awesome and I’m seeing great results.
For my lunch I drink a Meal Replacement Shake and take the rest of my pill packs for the day (I take one of them 30 min before lunch).
Want to learn more about the Slim and Trim Challenge Zach and I are doing? Check it out here!
Tessie LOVES to check the front porch for packages. I’ve been killing it this year with NOT SPENDING. I haven’t taken part in any deals or Amazon finds and haven’t even bought myself anything!
But somehow we still always end up with packages on our doorstep ha!
Mrs. Charlotte had kept Spear for us and his sippy cup had gotten left over at her house so I decided to just order some new ones and let her keep that one to avoid packing one
When I went to purchase the cups I saw they also make lids for them which I was super pumped about!
You can see my FAVORITE sippy cup here and the lids here!
Advocare recently stopped making their chewable vitamins that my kids eat every single day. So I’m on the hunt for replacements and ordered these to help them get their vitamin c!
After lunch it’s nap time!
I’ve really been focusing on sitting with Spear and reading a story when tucking him in. But sometimes he’s just not having it.
Swim wears him OUT and he was VERY fussy and just needing to get in the bed so I didn’t fight him on it!
While I’m changing Spear’s diaper and getting him down, Tess goes potty and changes into pjs.
She’s always so cute laying out her clothes at nap time. We snuggle a bit and I sing her song to her before she goes down for her nap!
She is 4.5 years old and sometimes she sleeps solid at nap, sometimes she doesn’t sleep at all, and sometimes she falls asleep midway through.
I’m fine with any of these options. She keeps a basket beside her bed with books to read and is allowed to read if she desires!
With having eaten the Egg McMuffin that morning I wasn’t hungry at lunchtime with the kids so I decided to wait to drink my Advocare Meal Replacement Shake until they were down for naps.
I enjoyed reading my monthly book for Book Club (this month we read Where The Crawdad Sings) and having a bit of quiet time before hitting the computer for blog work!
During naps I work on writing my blog post for the next day. My aim is to write posts Mon-Thur then on Fridays I work on scheduling things, making new pins, etc and over the weekend I write a post for Monday.
Since we travel so often I also have to work extra hard to get content written to schedule when we’re away.
I’ve worked SO HARD to be caught up to real time but it also takes a lot of work to stay caught up too 😉
I busted out my post as quickly as I could and rewarded myself with a nap. I RARELY nap but I felt SO WEIRD due to the birth control situation that I just couldn’t really function.
Zach had also been out of town and I tend not to sleep well with him away so sometimes when he’s gone I have to get a little power nap in in order to make it through the remainder of the day!
I have found WHEN I nap that I shouldn’t nap over 45 minutes. It’s that sweet spot!
Before I napped I realized I was supposed to schedule fast passes for an upcoming Disney trip so I went ahead and did that and then got myself a little
I woke up to both big kids and Zach greeting me! He’d made it home early and got the kids off the bus!
I’ve been really proud of Kye and how much he’s been saving up for an iPad. It’s a BIG purchase and he worked hard and saved a long time for it and it arrived!
I got Tess up from nap and gave her some
The kids are allowed an
I’d recently done a collaboration with a company on Instagram and they had sent us some chocolate so I let the kids eat them as their snack!
Kye was eager to get rolling with his iPad and I was still struggling with a headache and didn’t feel like doing ANYTHING so setting up an iPad sounded good to me 😉
I drank my afternoon mix as part of the Slim and Trim Challenge (I don’t personally enjoy it as much as Spark but it gets the job done) and sat with Kye!
I have a LOT of meals frozen which comes in so handy. Not only when you have a new baby at home…but especially on days when you just don’t feel like cooking 😉 I defrosted some chili for dinner while the big guys worked outside in the yard!
Got this cutie up and had him do some independent playtime. Spear is a mad crier. He cries every single time I lay him down to sleep and every single time that I put him in independent playtime.
Yet as soon as I leave the room/pack and play area he calms down and is happy and content!
We have super sweet neighbors who also happen to be church friends and they’ve been wanting Britt to
Dinner Time!
When I do laundry I have a good system down. I wash Kye’s and Tess’s loads together, Britt’s and Spear’s together, then mine and Zach’s each separately.
It makes sorting a BREEZE. Each person has their own basket and I just toss the clean clothes in as I pull them out of the dryer.
Then everyone is in charge of their own basket. The kids do a great job of putting their laundry away each week. I have to help with the hanging up but that’s it!
After dinner the girls bathe together and then Spear takes a bath solo. We’ve tried them all bathing together but WHEW it’s CRAZY.
My sweet blog friend, GiGi, sent the kids a PRECIOUS care package. They loved all the goodies and the girls especially love their towel caps!
GiGi, we all appreciate you and I’ve always appreciated your constant support over the many years of the blog…I promise we put together thank you cards for you…I just have to get around to sending them ha!
Just like at nap time Spear was NOT feeling the bedtime story! When he’s teething he can be extra fussy and this was def one of those days.
He’s ALWAYS down for some bedtime kisses though!
Tess is always the most eager to put away her clean laundry. She and Britt both lay their hang up items on their chairs and I hang them up. Kye puts his on the hangers but then I hang them as he can’t quite reach yet.
The girls and I read a bedtime story together. I love reading books from my childhood. The book of choice this night was Grandfather Twilight. Britt wanted to read it to us and did a great job!
With Zach being home it was nice to have a family dinner and big kid game time before bed! We enjoy playing games as a family but as life gets busy this is the thing that most often gets missed out on. It makes it even more fun when we’re able to do it!
We played Frozen Trouble and I was so so proud of Britt how well she did handling losing. Our kids are SO competitive and get easily upset when they don’t win!
Our nightly routine with tuck-in time is my favorite part of the day with my kids. I take time with each of them to talk and share our hearts and sing my special song with them too.
When I go into each of their rooms we pick out their clothes for the next day prior to having our snuggle time!
You can read all about our nightly routine and why I think it’s so important here!
Typically after the kids go to bed I work out and then take a shower. I’ve been doing Bikini Body Mommy workouts and really love them! She’s VERY inspiring as she’s a REAL mom with a REAL mom body!
I don’t know about you but I just don’t get motivated by work out videos where the girl in the video is mega buff haha.
But with my weird birth control vibes situation going on and the mega headache I was nursing, I just wanted to CHILL.
So I finished up the details for my blog post the next day (had to make a few pins and get them
Once I finished up Zach and I just hung out and watched Game of Thrones. I’m newer to the series and am trying to get fully caught up before the newest/last season starts! I’m LOVING it and Zach is loving watching it together.
I also had to finish up the book club book before our meeting a few nights later so I stayed up a little after Zach went to bed to read as much of it as I could before I headed to bed early enough to make sure I could get my full 7 hours of sleep to start the whole process over again the next day!
I hate that my day in
But some days are like that. And it’s important to me to always be authentic and transparent and I think it’s okay to showcase a not-so-normal day!
Sometimes motherhood is fulfilling. It’s joyful. Rewarding. Fun.
And sometimes it’s draining. It’s going through the motions. It’s survival.
This day was more of a survival type day but we got through it and I’m thankful that the GOOD days far outway the tougher ones 🙂
You can also read my last day in the life post…from March 2016 here!
Whew girl!!!! Just reading that made me tired. I don’t see how you organize and do all you do…the laundry would be a daily task for a family of 6. Getting up and getting started and I so admire you for the extra time you are taking to meditate and do the thankful journal.. I want to try that this next year. I guess I could start this year (a half year is better than nothing right?) I am so in awe of you!!! I had just two of my grands during spring break and it was so busy and so fast that I feel I did not do them justice. Our 5 year old and 10 year old came and stayed a couple of days, the 5 year old more. She and I went shopping one morning and that alone wore us both out and it was only grocery shopping for me and a toy for her (Nana is a push over at times) Jajrrod Lee just enjoys eating out and playing and deserts!!! We are picking them up for church in the morning but I cannot sleep very well. Paul and I are “keto-ing” and while it has been a challenge, it works for us, but usually by 11 or so I can no longer keep my eyes open.. So for now I am playing catch up on my reading (so early this morning too)
Thank you so much for recognizing me on the blog. I feel so badly that I have misplaced the book I ordered for Kye. I LOOKED high and low for that thing and it still has not turned up. I think I may have thrown it away in all my cleaning. I just do not know how though..i put it in the box I was going to mail!!!I am glad the girls are enjoying the little caps and I hope they do all summer.
I cannot explain it and I know the Lord works in mysterious ways, but I just feel close to your family and those kiddos. I have prayed for yall and rejoiced with yall and just I really feel a connection especially with you.
Take care my friend and one of these days we shall meet!!! Hugs.