A Day in Our Life

Feel free to skip this post if details bore you. I am posting this for posterity… kind of like I did in this post from 2008. I’m focusing on a typical school day this time.

I start my day at 6:45. I get dressed in workout clothes, insert contacts in my eyes, and head to Katie’s room. I lay with her until about 7:15, then we start the day by praying, “Dear Jesus, please come into my heart today. Thank you for loving me. Amen.” We also say, “Good morning. I love you. We’re going to have a great day!” to each other. It helps set the tone for the day.

Katie gets up and makes her bed and gets dressed. I put sunscreen on her face, even though she whines about hating it every day. (Katie, if you’re reading this and you’re past the age of 30, I’m hoping that you are grateful to me for protecting your skin from sun damage and wrinkles!) We also clean her pierced ear holes with that stuff they give you when you get your ears pierced. She cried so hard the first time I took her earrings out that I won’t let her take them out anymore. Now we just clean them with Q-Tips.

Katie heads downstairs to start her breakfast while I head to Jackson’s room. He’s usually awake by 7:20, and has started fussing in his crib. I change his diaper and dress him on his changing table, then we say the same prayer and mantra that I already said with Katie.

Jackson and I join Katie for breakfast. Every morning, they ask for “Daddy’s blueberry muffins.” These are the mini kind that are four to a package and are so not great for a kids’ breakfast. I got tired of hearing them beg for muffins each morning, so I started buying individually packaged muffins at Wal-Mart. They are pretty small and there’s only one to a package. It gives them the muffin they crave and still leaves room for a good breakfast. Katie usually packs her muffin to take to school as a breakfast snack (the classroom gets a snack in the morning). Jackson wolfs his muffin down first thing, then asks for whatever cereal Katie is eating. I eat cereal and/or a banana and/or a Clementine (oh, how I hate when these go out of season!). Katie finishes her breakfast, checks the school lunch menu, and usually packs her lunch (I let her buy 2 days a week). She has a checklist on the wall that tells her what to pack: a pb&j*, a yogurt tube, a juice box, a fruit cup, and a vegetable (carrots or grape tomatoes that I pre-pack in a container for her at the start of the week). She brushes her hair and sometimes I put it up for her.

At 7:40, Katie gets her shoes and coat on and heads outside to the bus stop. We are blessed to have a neighbor who lets the kids stand in his garage or on his driveway, and keeps an eye on the kids. When it’s cold outside, I don’t go to the bus stop because I lose circulation in my extremities too quickly. (When it gets warmer, I’ll walk out with Katie and Jackson.) When Katie leaves for the bus, Jackson is usually done with his breakfast so we go to the window and watch Katie walk to our neighbor’s driveway.

As a birthday present to me, Dan and I joined a gym. The past three weeks, Jackson and I have been heading to the gym almost every morning. So when Katie’s bus has come and gone, Jackson and I load up and head out to the gym. I exercise for an hour or so while he plays – and it’s the first time in my life that exercise has ever seemed like a vacation to me. I also try to shower before I leave the gym, which is a doubly good pleasure. (Showering! By myself!) If we have an activity with my mom’s group, Jackson and I leave the gym and go meet our friends. If we don’t have an activity, usually Jackson screams and cries about leaving the gym because he doesn’t want to go home, and we end up sitting in the parking lot for about ten minutes while I wait for him to stop screaming. (I refuse to drive while he’s screaming at me.)

When we meet our friends, it’s usually an activity and then we have lunch together. I usually pack our lunch earlier in the morning. We leave our friends around noon, and head home to unwind before Jackson’s nap. Jackson plays while I unpack the lunch bag, then we sit in the LoveSac and read books together. Jackson’s nap starts at 1:00, and that’s when I can exhale!

I spend naptime catching up on email, folding laundry, maybe starting dinner, making calls, blogging, and sometimes I might even craft. (!!!!) On rare occasions, I might watch TV while I’m doing another chore (unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry).

Katie’s bus brings her home around 3:30 or 3:40, and she knows there is a list of things she has to do when she walks in the door. First, she gives me a hug. Then she hangs up her bag and coat and takes off her shoes and washes her hands. I am adamant about all of us washing our hands when we come home so we kill any germs before they enter the house. Katie puts her school folder on the counter for me to check and sign, and then unpacks her lunch bag and puts the containers in the dishwasher. She usually starts on homework or reading or does some project in the craft room. (At this exact moment, she’s filling out the Dr. Seuss book My Book About Me.)

Jackson usually wakes around this time – mostly no later than 4:00 – and we have a snack together. On Mondays, we load up the car and head to gymnastics class for Katie. Dan meets us there at 5:00 and takes Jackson home while I stay and watch Katie. She and I get home around 6:00 on those days.

On any other day (when there is no other evening activity planned), the kids play after snack and I get dinner started. Dan is home around 5:30 (on Tuesdays and Thursdays he goes to work early in the morning so he can leave in time to work out at the gym before coming home), and we eat dinner at 6:00. We’re usually done by 6:30, and one of us will bathe the kids while the other one cleans up the dinner dishes. We start a show for the kids by 7:15, and they pick Dinosaur Train or Word World or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Martha Speaks. At 7:45, we brush teeth (and Jackson cries about it every night) and then take each of them to their separate bedrooms to read a story and listen to one song before bedtime. The kids are in bed by 8:00, and we do whatever else needs to be done for the evening. We might finish cleaning up, fold laundry, pay bills, email, or catch up on TV on the DVR. If it’s a Tuesday night, we will ALWAYS be watching Lost.

We try to head up to bed at 10:00 and read a little before turning the lights out. Some nights we are up until 11:00, but we have every intention of being asleep earlier than that.

So… there’s a little peek at our daily routine. I hope I didn’t bore my three faithful blog readers, but I wanted to give my kids’ insight into their lives at ages 6 and 2. Thanks for humoring me, y’all!

*No, I do not make a fresh pb&j sandwich every morning for Katie’s lunch. Every other weekend or so, Dan or I will make a big batch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of an entire loaf of bread. We make an assembly line, then cut the sandwiches with the handy dandy Pampered Chef Cut-N-Seal tool. It’s a tool that makes the sandwiches into round sealed pockets, kind of like Uncrustables. I reuse plastic containers – like the kind you get for hummus or sour cream – and each sandwich goes into one of those then into the freezer. When Katie packs her lunch, she grabs one and it thaws in her bag before lunch time. It has been a great timesaver for us, it saves money (as opposed to buying the actual Uncrustables), plus we use whole wheat bread and natural peanut butter and reduced sugar jelly. It’s a healthy choice for her!