A glimpse of my busy life
A typical day in my life right now is drastically different than it was a couple of months ago, and different than it will be a month from now.
See, I’m on maternity leave. So a typical day right now usually means I’m surrounded by my awesome kids all day. I’m waking up when my daughter comes barreling in around 8am. If I’m lucky I can give her a bagel and my iPhone and snooze for an extra half hour or so before the baby wakes up to eat.
He sleeps on and off in the morning, and I get some time to myself—Well sorta—Alone with the baby, while my husband takes our girl out to the gym. I use that time to write or catch up on freelance work and scarf down a simple breakfast.
We spend time all four of us together until my husband goes to work, then we’ll head out to either play with friends, shop, go swimming, anything to get out of the house for a bit. I’ll usually try to squeeze a nap in somewhere if I was up late the night before. The kids and I will crash on the couch or my bed.
Late afternoon is dinnertime and usually make pasta or pancakes or grilled cheese, or hot dogs.—Something easy and typically unhealthy (I’m working on that). Then it’s bath, and a couple episodes of something on Nick Jr. or PBS, and it’s bedtime. Bedtime consist of prepping my daughter’s hair, reading 1-3 books and a prayer, sometimes some back rubs and a song.
By that time it’s usually a little after 9pm. I sit down and eat something for myself and rock the baby to sleep. He usually doses off around 10pm. Then from 10pm to about 2am (or 4am or 6am this week) I get “me time” to write, edit photos I took during the day, sew, clean, or do whatever else I have a hard time doing during the day when I’m a (willing) slave to my children. The last few nights I’ve been sewing ’til the sun comes up. I’ve realized an afternoon power nap does wonders for me, and I’d rather get less sleep and cross things off my to-do list than sleep my hours of productivity away.
The baby is waking up to eat a couple times a night, so I feed him then go back to sleep. Or if I’m still up working I feed him then put him back to bed.
In another month when I’m back at work it’s pretty much the same routine except you can add in waking up a little earlier, getting kids ready for school, packing lunches, and working 8 hours in between. I also won’t stay up quite as late since I need to be a presentable functioning adult. On weekends I’m at work just after 4am so I can anchor the morning show, and I try to pre-plan fun stuff in the afternoon or evening with my kiddos.
It’s a busy life that’s for sure. But I love it.
This was Day 12 of the installment of 30 Things my kids should know about me.
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Tags: 30 things, 30 things kids should know about mom, 30 things list, 30 things my kids should know about me, blogging, journaling
You are such a great mom!!! Your kids are adorable! I’m a long time follower, first time commenting . I just created a blog myself, I will soon be transitioning from being a full time working mom of 2 to a stay at home mom, my kiddos are 3 and 1yr old, so if you or anyone can stop by and give me some pointers I will really appreciate. Keep up the good work, although its crazy we will sure miss this 🙂
Hot dogs are questionable, but the other things you mentioned sounds pretty healthy to me. I’m so exhausted, I think I’m gonna make it a pasta night. Simple, quick, and healthy (we eat whole grain). lol
I should add that the hot dogs are for me, not for her. She doesn’t care for them. Haha.
Part of me actually envies your unhealthy dinners! It sounds so easy. We haven’t had pasta in a while and are mostly grain free right now and ever since having kids I find myself spending at least 2 hours a day in the kitchen making omelettes, stews, soups… Our ‘fast food’ is a can of wild salmon with either potatoes I throw in the oven or quinoa because it cooks fairly fast. I also do a lot of throwing chicken in the toaster oven so that it is ready by a certain time. I want some pasta! 🙂
So funny! You know, I sometimes beat myself up about the easy not-so-healthy dinners but then I remember that my kid is 2, and she doesn’t eat half of what’s on her plate anyway. I figure I have lots of time to get better at cooking and work on the health-food thing, and by the time I get it down I’ll be able to boss her around and make her eat what I cook. Her stomach will be a lot bigger then too 😉
Good point! Although we actually mostly haven’t dealt with any pickiness from either of the kids (they are 4.5 y.o. and 18 mo) and I think that’s because from the very start they’ve just been eating what we eat, which is usually simple meals of salad and chicken with a side of some sort. I always keep it simple, as long as it is real food. We’ve had certain times when our older daughter refused to eat things, but I never made separate meals for her. If she didn’t want it, I didn’t force her – and 95% she would eat that again at a different meal. Seems like she was just testing my limits on what she can get away with! 🙂 I’m just trying to say that kids habits are easier to reverse when they are younger than when they are older, but maybe that’s just me.
Oh I totally agree. It’s just what I tell myself while I learn to cook 😉
She doesnt get special easy meals, I still eat like I’m in college. haha. To my defense she always has fruits and veggies with her non-glamorous main dish, and she loves them. So if shes not into something new she’ll still eat her carrots and berries (for example).
Chicken is a good easy meat though. Maybe I’ll work on quick chicken recipes to add into our easy dinner repertoire.
That’s great! One of my favorite ways to make make chicken with minimal prep time is to throw it in the toaster oven for 1 hour with just some salt and pepper on it. Plain but still yummy and doesn’t require me to be in the kitchen more than 5 minutes 🙂 I often do that just so I have chicken on hand to make sandwiches.