Today, I’m thirty-one. Inspired by Tsh, and linking up with Rebekah, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into one of my days (yesterday).
Just before 7am~ Hallee wakes me up, just a few minutes before my alarm is supposed to go off. We were up late chatting with a friend so I decided to set my alarm around 7:00, even though ideally I’d like to be up earlier. I nurse her and then David takes her to the kitchen to start breakfast while I hop in the shower. Meanwhile, Gigi and Brody wake up and make their way to the kitchen; they are thrilled with their new stainless steel water bottles I left on the kitchen table as Valentine’s gifts.
David cooks us eggs & toast and I go back and forth between eating, packing lunches, and attempting to drink coffee. The first cup goes down the drain after I pour chunky half-n-half into it (gross!). I open my Valentine’s gift, too (new shoes!).
8:00~ David’s off to work and I’m refilling new water bottles, gathering Valentines and getting everyone loaded into the car.
8:35~ I check Gigi in to her preschool class, and make a quick stop at Trader Joe’s on the way home for some Valentine’s Day treat ingredients. It rained last night but now the sun is coming out and the sky is beautiful!
9:00~ I consider throwing a chicken in the crock pot to make some chicken soup for dinner, but then I remember the leftover carne asada and decide we’ll have leftovers instead. I get to baking some sour cream cookies, as a treat for my hubby. Brody watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny while Hallee naps and I bake.
10:00~ Brody has a snack while I nurse Hallee and package up a few cookies for Gigi’s preschool teachers. The two of them play on the floor together for a few minutes.
10:30~ We load up to head out to swim school for Brody’s lesson.
11:00~ My parents meet us at swim school and we exchange Valentine’s Day gifts in the parking lot. They got the kids new Crocs and a book (which both kids were stoked about).
11:10~ Brody has an awesome swimming lesson! Today I even dipped Hallee’s feet in the pool while we watched her big brother. I shower him off and feed him a little lunch snack.
12:00~ Back in the car, we head towards Gigi’s preschool. When we arrive, we deliver the cookies, drop off a bag of books for the Valentine’s Day toy drive, and gather up Gigi and her stuff.
12:45~ We’re back home and are welcomed to our front door by a Valentine’s treat that was left by my friend Melissa‘s family.
1:00~ The kids and gear are unloaded and it’s smoothie time! Thanks to my friend (and fellow SLM editor) Kara for inspring the daily smoothie rhythm which my kids have come to look forward to, and which has smoothed out our post-lunch transitions. Today’s smoothie is pink (strawberries, banana, whole yogurt, OJ & almond milk) for Valentine’s Day, and they get a small heart cookie, too.
2:00~ Brody’s napping, Gigi’s in her room for Quiet Play Time, and I nurse Hallee (and read my overdue library book for a few minutes) and put her down for a nap.
I take some clothes out of the dryer (that have been chillin’ in there since yesterday) and put a wet load in the dryer (it’s also from yesterday; I drop a couple drops of lemon essential oil onto a wet sock to freshen the load a bit as it dries).
Finally I eat some leftovers for a late lunch (in peace!) and check a few emails.
Since Hallee started really eating, she has struggled a bit with digestion; she’ll often have several diapers with a tiny bit of poop in them before she’ll finally get it all out. That makes for a lot of dirty diapers. Usually David will spray them off when he gets home, but hey, it’s Valentine’s Day so I suck it up and do it myself, tackling the pile of that’s waiting in the bathroom, and then start a load of diapers.
I sit down for a few moments and write David a love letter. 🙂
3:00~ I hear Gigi’s timer (it’s a duck quacking on our old iPod Touch, which she uses to listen to audio stories during her quiet time). It quacks for a while but I hear don’t hear her.
I have an inkling and sure enough I open her door and find her asleep in bed. This is a rare catnap for her. I take advantage of the time and wash some dishes– I’ve got quite a pile from breakfast, snacks, smoothies, and my baking– yikes.
3:15~ Gigi wakes up and comes out, a bit refreshed and thankfully not cranky.
We head to the bathroom where I let her relax in the bath while we do her daily reading lesson. After her bath she practices some letter writing at the table and calls my parents to thank them for her gift that we brought home from swim school.
4:15~ Brody wakes up and Hallee follows shortly thereafter. I give Gigi and Brody a quick snack– a little bowl of “bunny crackers.” We head out to the play room.
4:30~ It’s the witching hour around here. Gigi is bouncing off the walls a bit, I try to clean up a few things in the playroom while Hallee plays on a quilt. Brody gives her some papers which she happily crinkles. Brody starts playing a bit rough with his trains and ends up with a time out in his crib.
Daddy calls to say he’s on his way home and I retreat to the couch with a couple of books to try to calm the natives. Gigi is thrilled when I ask her to grab my phone and take a photo of me and the babies reading on the couch. 😉
5:00~ Daddy’s home!! The kids welcome David at the door, excited to show off their new shoes. I pass off the baby who does not want to be set down and make dinner.
5:30~ Leftover carne asada and huge tortillas from last night get made into quesadillas, along with leftover beans & homemade spanish rice.
Hallee didn’t eat much earlier, probably because her tummy needed a little relief, but now that’s she’s had a big ol’ diaper, she’s devouring whatever we give her! I usually nurse her in the late afternoon but tonight I got distracted and forgot and she seems content with table food.
6:00~ Gigi helps me make a not-so-healthy but delicious frosting for our cookies. I salvage it by using raspberry juice to turn it pink rather than food coloring. Everyone gets a cookie for dessert (well, everyone but Hallee)!
6:45~ Time for jammies, teeth brushing and bedtime. We usually read the Bible after dinner, but tonight we got distracted by the excitement of cookies. Daddy puts Brody to bed and then Gigi, while I chill with Hallee for a bit.
7:15~ I nurse and change Hallee and she goes down in our room in the Pack’n’Play. We’ll move her to her crib in the girls’ room later after Gigi’s really out. David cleans up the kitchen (love that man).
8:00~ I’m working on some photo importing and blogging while David works on our budget and watches a baseball trivia show.
8:30~ I realize I made a cup of decaf a half hour ago and promptly forgot about it. I reheat it and finish up my work. Such is the life of a multitasking mom!
9:30~ My push-up alarm on my phone goes off and I can’t believe how late it is already. We were going to (finally) relax on the couch with a movie–oh yeah, and fold some laundry– so we better start it now. It’s been a long day!
If you’d like to see the rest of the photos of my day, you can view them here.
Our days are definitely not routinely the same, but throughout the week we have a certain amount of rhythm and repetition as well–especially in the afternoons. Mondays and Fridays are pretty free; we usually have a playdate in the morning or go on an outing; Tuesdays and Thursdays are preschool and swim school days; Wednesday mornings are usually Bible study. I try to go out to a coffee shop one night a week to work, otherwise I squeeze it in during naptime or more often at night. Thursday nights are our Community group night. Fridays I try to make homemade pizza, Sunday mornings are for church, and one Sunday night a month we host an open house (I’ll tell you more about that next month).
As we peek into my life today on my birthday, feel free to ask me anything you’d like to know about me and my daily life! 🙂 I’d love to hear about your daily/weekly routine and rhythm as well!
