Being a working parent is TOUGH. There are always a million things to do in a day and only a few hours when you’re home to get those accomplished. More often than not, there are always a few pending items on my to-do list. But with a supportive spouse and lots of people in my village, I get most everything done that is necessary and usually have time for the fun stuff too! Here’s a look into one of my days…
5:00 am: Alarm quietly vibrates to alert me of a new, glorious day. Ha. Hit snooze about 3 times and make it out of bed by 5:15(ish). Hop in the shower and get moving. As a family of 4 in a house with one bathroom, my day seems to start ungodly early. Finish up and get out so my husband can get in. Depending on how my day is looking, I either sneak back into bed after my shower for a few minutes to catch up on anything exciting that happened overnight and/or play Candy Crush. Today I am EXHAUSTED. The holiday weeks always seem to go by so slow and I know vacation is just around the corner so I snuggle back in and close my eyes while my hair dries. By 6:15 I am ready to get my day moving.
6:30am: Wake up the kiddos. I take Jacoby to daycare and we leave no later than 7 every day. I like to give him a few minutes so he can feel like he’s in control of his morning. He seems to do better if I get him up with a little room to spare instead of just making him get up and go. Leo goes with his dad but I wake him up because he’s a slow poke. They both groggily start to wake up. I get a little booty dance from the big one because he gets to go to his summer sitter and he LOVES going there!
6:45am: Cringe because I know I’m running late. Grab my lunch and a pre-breakfast breakfast for my hobbit toddler who likes first breakfast in the car and second breakfast at daycare.
7am: Out the door. Kisses for my two biggest boys and zoom zoom zoom away we go!
7:45am: Clock in and stay at work until 4:45. The days usually pass fairly quickly and we stay pretty busy all year long. Honestly sometimes it seems like less work than what I would be doing if I were home and being personal chauffeur, chef, referee, etc. to my boys. Weekends and holidays are for the birds! I usually lunch from 12:30-1:30 so depending on if I have errands to run I either eat at my desk or head out the door. Thankfully nothing awaits me today so I sit and sort Campbell’s labels for PTO.
4:45pm: Head out the door. Leonard is picking up Leo from the sitters and I am getting Jacoby from daycare.
5:25pm: Make it home. Finally. Rush hour traffic is the worst! Of course the boys are STARVING so after I get changed I immediately start dinner. Thankfully I’ve thought ahead and dinner is homemade chicken strips. We’ll have sides of fresh fruit and chips. The perfect summer dinner! Or at least in our house it is! While the chicken strips are in the oven baking I unload the dishwasher and wipe down the stove top.
6:02pm: Dinner is served. Of course this is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever cooked (even though we’ve had it before and it was devoured) according to Leo so he chooses to only eat his strawberries.
6:07pm: Right after the above picture was taken as I was cutting the chicken the plate lost its balance and spilled all over the floor. Score one for gravity.
6:40pm: Dinner is over and cleaned up. I sit down to play Frozen matching with Jacoby. That lasts 2 games (approximately 7 minutes) and he is begging to play Paw Patrol Beach Rescue. We play one full game of that and I win by two bones and game two ends quickly after it starts with Jacoby stealing all my bones and just putting the discs on their spots on the game mat. Leo passes the time by sitting out with us but playing games on his Kindle.
7:15pm: I’m done playing games–Jacoby is not. He decides he wants some more grapes and to put together a puzzle. I sit down to blog for a bit. Jacoby is not entertained for long periods of time so we go back and forth between the puzzle and snuggling while watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
7:40pm: Bath time! Both boys take baths and it’s time to start winding down. I take a little time to snuggle with Leo and we watch American Ninja Warrior.
8:20pm: Leo tries to sneakily grab a Pop-Tart for a snack but I catch him in the act. He sulks and puts it away and decides to eat his chicken fingers.
8:30pm: Time to brush teeth and head to bed.
9:00pm: (yes it really takes us this long) We don’t really have a set bedtime and on two nights a week Leo has baseball from 7-8:30. Thankfully tonight we didn’t have any plans and so everything has gone pretty easily and not not as rushed as usual. I’ve been able to get a few things done around the house as the night has gone on so I have everything ready to go and since the boys are in bed I get to enjoy an ice cream sandwich in peace.
9:15pm: Get a little Candy Crush in and lay in bed watching TV.
9:30pm: Get up to tell the boys to be QUIET!
9:52pm: Jacoby gets up for the umpteenth time and tells me “I’ve still got pee in me!”
10:17pm: Good night!
