A Day in the Life...

I thought it sounded fun to jump on board with Kelly's Korner and participate in her "Day in the Life" link-up. I'm still not convinced that people care about these minute details of our day-to-day lives but I've enjoyed reading other participant's entries and it really has been fun to think through what my days are like at this phase. Here goes!!

5:50AM: Wake up to Reese fussing. Upon entering her room, she is sitting up in her bed, ready for her {first} breakfast. She snuggles right back into her bed when she's done and will sleep for another 2-3 hours usually. I'm very lucky that on most normal days Matt does the drop-off and I do the pick-up. That keeps the kids' day a little shorter at the sitter and allows Matt time to be with the kids in the morning since his evenings are usually busy this time of year.

6:05AM: Hop in the shower and as quietly as possible make myself presentable to the outside world without waking up Matt, Cade, and Reese.

6:50AM: Head downstairs to grab my standard winter breakfast: oatmeal, banana, and a travel mug of caffeine-free mint tea. {I will gladly welcome caffeine back into my life again when I'm not nursing or pregnant as I have been for pretty much the past 4 years.} I pack my lunch--usually just leftovers--and load my school bag, lunch, and breastpump into the car.

7:05AM: Set out on my 30-minute trek to work in which I try to make the most of my commute. I eat my breakfast, finish my make-up, and listen to the daily reading from Through The Word on my way to school. If I'm lucky I get there before the rush of parents doing drop-off and can avoid the car-loop line. MANY mornings, I am not lucky.

7:55AM: The school day begins! I teach 6th, 7th, & 8th grade Family & Consumer Sciences (FACS) classes which involve cooking labs, sewing projects, and lifeskills lessons about money management, nutrition, family life, etc. Yes, it is fun. Yes, it is busy.

View at part of my desk

10:55AM: Lunch time. Yes, lunch. I now get 22 minutes to multi-task: eating lunch, reading blogs on my phone, and pumping milk for Reese. It's a glamorous life. A mama's gotta do what a mama's gotta do but I'll be thrilled when I can spend my 22-minute lunch with other adults again. I miss my lunch buddies this year!

3:00PM: The school-day ends. I set my timer for when I need to leave to get to the sitter on time to pick up my kids. If I don't set my timer, I will be late to get them. It's like a law of nature. I return emails, make trips to and from the copier, grade papers and enter grades in grade book, update my boards, and make final plans and preparations for upcoming lessons. I try to grocery shop {for supplies for cooking labs} in the mornings before school a few days a week so I make sure my list is ready and IN MY BAG to go home. A few blocks away from school I hook my pump up{again trying to make the most of the commute}and pump more milk for Reese since I'm due to feed her now but she won't need me until her feeding right before bed at 8:00PM. TMI? Isn't that what this is all about?!

4:15ish: Pick up kids from our AMAZING sitter. It's always a hectic exchange with the kids mauling me but I do enjoy chatting with our sitter and often wish we had more time to talk.

5:00ish: Get home and make about 4 trips bringing everything and everyone inside. We try to make the most of our evening time together by playing with toys, reading books, and convincing Cade that we are NOT going to watch TV or play on my phone now. I always thought that once he is in school {with homework and evening activities} we'll have to make a rule against week-night TV and technology. I did not think we'd need to instigate this rule when he was only 2 years old! It's hard to balance the time with he and Reese and feel like I get good evening time with both of them.

6:30ish: Sit down to supper. I've tried to plan ahead for meals by using my menu board and doing most of the prep work on Sunday afternoons. I try to have everything ready so I just have to throw something in the oven or take something out of the crock pot. Meal time is hectic...bargaining with Cade to stay in his seat and eat more and working fast enough to keep the bites of baby food coming for Reese! They are polar opposites when it comes to eating. Someday they will team up and use this against us. If Matt doesn't have evening responsibilities he usually gets home around 7PM.

Matt's evenings have been very busy...'tis the season! He has master's classes on Monday nights, recruiting on many Tuesday and Friday nights, and his own games on Thursday and Saturday nights. We have small group at church on Sunday nights and I'll have MOPS every other Tuesday and G-Phi dinner monthly on Wednesdays. So it's definitely been "See you in April" around here...since November pretty much!

7:15ish: Bath time for Cade & Reese. They both love bath time and they love taking baths together. For now anyway.

7:45ish: Cade finally gets to "watch a show" on TV while he drinks his "pink milk" {strawberry pediasure} before bed. He watches a DVRed Disney Junior show while I nurse Reese and tuck her into bed. She won't fall asleep in your arms but prefers to snuggle down in her bed and drift off.

8:30PM: Brush Cade's teeth, read, and rock him for a bit. He likes to pray with you and sing a million songs before being tucked into bed. He's meticulous with his bedtime routine. Even though he sleeps in a diaper he will yell at me to get him up to go potty if he has to go before he falls asleep. Which is good...but annoying. His record is 3 potties and 2 poops before falling asleep. I swear he saves it so he can get as many trips up out of bed as possible.

8:45PM on is a blur for me. I don't know what I do with my time but I always stay up WAY TOO LATE. Usually because if Matt gets home late I have to stay up late to get to spend any time with him! But it's not his fault...I even set an alarm on my phone to go off at 10:30PM to remind me to start heading toward bed. No help though. I just catch a second wind at about 9PM I guess. I often go to bed earlier on a weekend evening than a weeknight because I have less to do to prepare for the next day. A sign of being old and uncool? Probably.

11:30PM: Reese usually wakes to nurse again and then I actually do head to bed.

There you have it! It was actually really interesting to think through. You still have six days left if you'd like to write your own "day in the life" and link up at Kelly's Korner! Do it! It's fun!