A whole day, from start to finish

A day in the life with a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old.

Hi friends! How’s the day going? I hope you’re enjoying the morning. 

When I did my annual blog survey, I got a surprising amount of requests for more “real life” posts around here. I totally get it because I love reading about what my favorite bloggers are up to behind-the-scenes and what a day looks like for them. I’ve done a couple day in the life posts (here and here) and it’s fun to look back to see how much things have changed over time. Here’s what a day looked like recently when the Pilot was flying nights. I used to dread night weeks until I realized that they’re a normal part of our life. (You can fight it or embrace it.)

I use it as a time to enjoy being with just the girls – it reminds me a bit of summer when we played and had adventures all day – and also experiment with some recipes the Pilot may not like. So here we go… a whole day, from start to finish: momming, blogging, teaching, wife-ing, flying by the seat of my pants.

5:00am-ish: P is in her room singing and making noises. I silently pray that she goes back to sleep, and thankfully, she does.

7:05: My alarm goes off. I stumble out of bed and into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I put a flannel on over my pajamas, slip on some shoes, and essentially wear my pajamas for school drop-off. They do curb-side drop-off at Liv’s school, so I don’t have to get dressed like a normal human. It’s the best thing ever.

7:10 Livi comes into our room and is ready to start the day. She gets dressed while I grab her lunch and snacks from the fridge:

(I just heated up the Annie’s mac n’ cheese in the microwave and put it into a Thermos, and packed it up with cut strawberries, seaweed snacks, an apple, and crackers)

and make her waffles for breakfast. We always make extra waffles and pancakes and then freeze them for easy breakfasts.

7:45 I make a quick mug of herbal tea to take with us. Usually, I have to wake up P to head to drop-off – and she gets very sad about it. She usually says, “Mama, you being so rude. Why you wake me up?” – but the Pilot is flying late, so sleeping Pilot stays home with sleeping P while Liv and I drive to school.

8:15 I’m back home and P is waking up, so I make her breakfast (waffles, an egg, blueberries) and grab her clothes for preschool.

Before we get her out of her room, I put on some eyeliner and jeans since I actually have to go inside to drop her off. She has a great breakfast and is being super funny. We help her get dressed, and the Pilot and I drop her off together.

9:26 Back from drop-off and I blitz! I throw some laundry in the washer, put laundry away from the previous day – it’s folded and in stacks – the Pilot empties out the dishwasher, I wipe down counters and run the vacuum (my precious), work on a quick Zumba dance, and soak the lentils for dinner. I have grand plans to film at least one Instagram video, but I don’t end up having time. I make a quick bite before teaching: 1 egg + 3 egg whites, green salsa, a turmeric coconut tortilla (and kind of bummed that I don’t have any sourdough or brown rice tortillas in the freezer), salad with the last of a bottle of Primal Kitchen dressing. 

10:30 Teach a sweaty and fun Zumba class! I NEVER thought I’d be teaching Zumba again… and lost most of my old playlists and donated all of my Zumba clothes… but here I am. It feels good to move and dance again, and class is a blast.

 
I bring my computer to the gym and write in the car for 15 minutes before picking P up from school.

12:15 We’re home, and I make P a quick lunch: PB&J with carrots and pineapple.
I make myself a smoothie:

(Almond milk, 1 scoop vanilla protein, 1 scoop collagen, spinach, frozen cauliflower, Moon Juice dust, almond butter, chia seeds, a pack of Four Sigmatic mushroom hot cacao mix)

We have our snacks together, read books, and I put her down for a nap.

1:10 Blitz #2! I put dinner in the slow cooker,

switch out the laundry, take a quick shower, take photos for an upcoming post, answer emails that will catch fire if I don’t respond to them immediately, send two invoices, and write until it’s time to wake P up.

2:45 We’re back home from picking up Liv. I make the girls a snack of boiled eggs, sliced cheese, almonds and apple slices. I heat myself up a Daily Harvest grain bowl and stir in a can of tuna (no pic because it’s probably the most unattractive meal I’ve ever made, but so delicious), then we head to P’s ballet class!

This has happened a couple of times, but we get to class, and she doesn’t want to go in. The first week, she walked right in and loved it, and the past 3 times, she won’t go in by herself. Her teacher lets Liv and I go in and sit in the front, and P sits on my lap or spins in the corner until we decide it’s time to leave. It’s kind of a hot mess. We keep trying because when we’re NOT at ballet, P constantly says, “Mama, I want to do ballet. I want to go to ballet. I’m a ballerina.” She talks about it all week until the time comes to actually go to class.

I’m going to give it a few more times, but if it doesn’t work out, I think we’ll call it quits for now. (It’s a bummer because I already paid for her recital costume and all of the fees, but if she obviously doesn’t want to do it, I’m not going to make her.)

4:45 We’re home from ballet and the girls play outside while I finish dinner.

I put the rice on the stovetop, add the coconut milk to the lentils, and chop up some cilantro for topping. It’s nice that I can see them from the dining room table, so I fold the laundry from earlier and start dough for cinnamon rolls. 

I realize that I don’t have enough brown sugar for the cinnamon rolls, so we make a quick trip to the grocery store. It’s always an adventure shopping with my tiny impulse-buyers… we end up forgetting the brown sugar and have to wait in line again haha.

5:45 pm: We eat dinner together. Unfortunately, I’m the only one who’s a fan of the lentil creation.

They both eat a lot of their rice, and I give them each a big bowl of strawberries. They also have some chocolate animal cookies that they picked out at the store, and I eat a couple of handfuls while I gather stuff for bath time. 

Bath time! The girls hop in the bathtub with one of their favorite bath bombs, and I sit on the counter and read snippets of this book in between shampooing and watching their mermaid moves.

After baths and getting their hair dried, the girls watch a TV show while I clean the kitchen, feed the dogs, set out clothes for the next day, and make Liv’s lunch and snacks. We play in the playroom together for about 20 minutes before bed.

7:30 The bedtime rituals begin. I read P a couple of books upstairs before lying with her, and then Liv and I do her homework (she has to practice her sight words each night) and read books. I lie in bed with Liv working on this blog post until she falls asleep. The bedtime rituals end up taking a bit longer than usual because Bella starts barking her face off around 8pm and wakes up P. 

8:45 Blitz #3! The girls are crashed, so I finish up a couple of chores (I follow a cleaning schedule, and it’s the day to dust the furniture, which isn’t too bad), finish the cinnamon rolls to set in the fridge overnight.

(For comparison purposes, here’s what they looked like finished! They are THE BEST CINNAMON ROLLS EVER. <— yelling because you need them in your life. I made them for the Pilot to take to work, but the girls and I each had one.)

And by 9:15ish, I can pour a glass of wine, put on The Bachelor and crank through work stuff.

I answer comments, make a new graphic, check in on our Winter Shape Up Facebook group, schedule my post for the next day, and work on an upcoming gift guide.

11:30: Bed! I crawl into bed and read for a few minutes until my eyes start to close.

11:40: Lights out… and ready to do it all over again. [The Pilot comes home around midnight, but I’m apparently completely crashed by then.]

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