Your Questions, My Answers: A Day in the Life

One of the questions I was asked was what our days are like. How do I manage to take care of my family, work and run each day? What are days like when we have the boys at home and when we don't? So, to answer your questions, here's a typical weekday for us.

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

5:35 AM: I wake up without an alarm clock and contemplate going to the gym before work.

5:40 AM: I hear Kaden calling from upstairs and groggily drag myself up to check on him. As soon as I lay down beside him, he's right back to sleep. I decide to lay there a few minutes and hit the gym at lunch.

6:00 AM: My alarm goes off downstairs. I hear my husband turn it off. I get up and head back down to our room and jump in bed for about ten more minutes (If you can't figure it out, I'm not good at just jumping up. I need a few minutes to wake up.).

6:10 AM - 6:40 AM: I take a shower, put on makeup and dry my hair.

6:40 AM: I turn the oven on for cinnamon rolls then head back to our room to get dressed.

6:45 AM: I'm dressed and in the kitchen putting cinnamon rolls in the oven and some sausage links in a pan on the stove. Kevin goes upstairs to wake up the boys. While the food is cooking, I pack my gym bag, get out my shoes, grab some plates for breakfast and pour the boys some chocolate milk. Kevin helps the boys get ready while I'm doing this. (We get the boys' clothes out for the week on Sunday afternoon usually. It really helps in the morning to have them out and ironed. They get ready in our bedroom.)

6:55 AM: Kaden walks in the kitchen, happy, for his breakfast. I seriously think breakfast is his favorite meal of the day. K.C. and Kevin soon follow.

7:05 AM: We're all at the table eating breakfast. We really try to all sit down together for breakfast and I love that.

7:15 AM: Breakfast is done. KT and I put the dishes in the dishwasher, the boys play and put their shoes on and I pack K.C.'s lunchbox as well as mine. (I put lunches together a few at a time so I don't have to make them all every night.) K.C. gets a ham and cheese sandwich cut out like a dinosaur, some chips, a Rice Krispy Treat (with a note on it), string cheese and a drink. I packed some lettuce, taco meat, cheese, guac, salsa, blue corn chips, water and fruit for myself.

7:25 AM: I'm curling my hair while calling for the boys to come brush their teeth. We help them get their teeth brushed, I put my shoes and some earrings on and we double check to make sure Kaden's bag has a snack in it. I throw a banana and some granola in my work bag, pick up my gym back and purse and put them in the car.

7:35 AM: We're loaded in the car, kisses and "I love you's" exchanged and the boys and I are chit chatting on the way to school.

7:40 AM: We're in carline at K.C.'s school. He's talking about what he's planning to do, gives Kaden and me another kiss and he's out, always saying "I love you, see ya tonight!" Kaden and I drive through the bank on the way to his school.

8:00 AM: I drop Kaden off for early morning at his school. He's the sweetest as he gets out of his seat and always says "See you tonight, Anna Belle! I love you!"

8:15ish AM: I get to work, late. These first few days this week I knew I'd be late as Kevin has to be at work at 8 and the earliest we can drop Kaden off is 8. He gets out of school Wednesday, so it's not a big deal. I spend a few minutes listening to She Reads Truth: Nehemiah on my drive and say a few prayers. (This is one area I have to work on - consistent prayer and Bible time.)

8:15 AM - 12:15ish PM: Work. This morning, I proofed a big design job, worked on a few small tasks, went over a project with a colleague and got some things together that I wanted to work on during the afternoon.

12:15 PM - 1:10ish: Since I didn't go to the gym this morning and I know we have a busy night, I know I need to get a workout in during lunch if I'm going to do one. I ran 4 miles on the treadmill (28:12 with five 1/2 mile intervals averaging 2:57 each - starting to do some speed work again) and did 8 Minute Abs before showering and getting back to my office.

1:10 PM: I'm back at my desk and get started on the afternoon's work. With only four work days all summer, I have to make sure I manage my time and get things done. Plus, we're going on vacation soon and I don't like to leave any ends untied. I munch on some guac, organic salsa, blue corn chips (I am addicted - Nature's Place is the brand) and some strawberries and blackberries for lunch.

1:10 PM - 5:25: I spend the afternoon doing a variety of tasks. We're working on an upcoming season, so I do some research for that, look at some advertisements, talk with a colleague about a new project, prepare for a meeting the next day, brainstorm billboard ideas, proof some more, answer e-mails and return phone calls.

5:25 PM - 5:45: Commute. I talk to KT briefly to tell him I'm on the way home and then talk to my mom during my drive. I've found that the best and easiest way to keep track with all my loved ones is to talk when I'm driving.

5:45 PM: I'm home! Finally! We normally have baseball for the boys at this time on Tuesday nights, but since we've had a lot of rain, the games were cancelled. We take advantage of it and have a great night. I give all my boys kisses, ask about their days and sit down for a minute and just listen. I unload the dishwasher and get dinner out.

6:00 PM: I warm up some taco meat I had cooked the night before (Kevin's parents ended up sending us some dinner they had leftover from a meal their Sunday school class took them Monday night. It was good!), get plates out and make tacos for all of us. We sit down together to eat dinner. The boys finish first and start playing while KT and I finish our dinner.

6:20 PM: Kevin cleans off the table and does the dishes while I put up the leftovers that he'll probably eat for lunch the next day (Did I mention that his new job is approximately two minutes from our house so he can go home everyday for lunch?). I change into shorts and a t-shirt and throw on some flip flops.

6:30 PM: We're outside. The boys want to play ping pong, so we do on the table that we opened up in the garage. They play, then Kevin and I play (and I got as close as I've ever gotten to winning against him!) while they play a few things. We decide to ride down to the river, so Kaden drives the Gator and K.C. rides his bike. When we get home, Kaden and I stay outside for a few extra minutes.

7:55 PM: We're inside and I decide to interview the boys. I love seeing how their responses change and since Kaden's last day of preschool was yesterday, I asked him about some of his favorite preschool-related things. I then ask K.C. the same questions.

8:10 PM: It's bath time. While I give the boys a bath, Kevin gets their pajamas out. I sit down and check Facebook and my e-mail while they play for a minute. Once they're ready to get out, we get them dried off, I brush their teeth and Kevin helps them get their pajamas on.

8:20 PM: Everybody is clean and the boys pile into our bed to watch some of Peter Pan (their new favorite movie). While they're watching TV, I folded some laundry. I need a few "quiet" minutes each night and folding laundry on the floor beside my sweet family gave me that.

9:20 PM: We take the boys upstairs to bed. This is later than usual, but they were relaxed watching their movie. We read a Bible story, say prayers, and tell a story. I normally stay awake until they're asleep so I can go downstairs and relax some, but this night, I was beat and ended up falling asleep and waking up after midnight to get in bed.

If it happens to be a day the boys aren't home, we have a slightly different schedule.

I don't usually get in the shower until about 6:30.
I usually eat Chobani yogurt and some granola for breakfast.
I run on the treadmill when I get up and/or hit the gym for some weight training. (With my summer work schedule, I haven't figured out yet how to get to the gym in the mornings and get the kids ready and to school. I think I'm going to have to start getting up at 5:30 or 5:45 twice a week to do a weight workout. I'm going to try that to see how it works next week.)
I normally run during lunch 2-3 days a week. The other day or two, I spend my lunch eating and doing my Bible reading/prayer, reading a book or magazine or catching up on blogs/blogging.
At night, I'll either make something like a steak for us for dinner or we'll go out to get something or get some take out. We usually take a walk or do something active, catch up on DVR'd shows and just relax. We're normally asleep by 11 or 11:30.

One of the questions I've gotten asked countless times is about custody and how often we have the boys. While I don't think it's appropriate to discuss that, I will share the following things with you that I (we) think about in regards to the fact that they aren't home with us 100% of the time. If you have specific questions, feel free to e-mail me at thethingsimlearning@gmail.com.

I try not to schedule outside things when we have the boys. Inevitably, there will be a work function that I have to attend from time to time (I'm in marketing and PR and have some events that I have to attend and then there are the others I go to because I feel like I should be there.).
We don't have set aside "date nights" on nights the boys are home. We have the opportunity to have dates when they aren't home with us, so we don't send them off to grandparents or get a babysitter so we can go to dinner and a movie when they're home. When we have other children and children at home all the time, this will definitely change as I know how extremely important it is to keep your marriage first.
While there are the normal household tasks that have to be done each week, I try not to do major cleaning like vacuuming and mopping when the boys are home. With that said, we don't avoid doing these things because it's really important for them to see how we both do things, but rather, I try not to make a habit of doing this every week and weekend they're at home. They both like to help though!
I try to get their clothes out for the week every Sunday before they're home so that we don't have to spend time doing this each night. It's also nice to have them ironed and ready every morning. It makes things much smoother. I've tried it both ways and this way definitely works best.

There you have it: a day in my life! If you've got any tips on how to be more efficient, send them my way! I'm always looking for ways to improve and make things simpler!

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