In the comments of my “How I Don’t Do It All” post, Amanda mentioned that she’d been thinking about asking me to do an “A Day in the Life of…” type post. I’ve done one before, but I’d been thinking about doing another one anyway, so I figured I’d go ahead and do it before our schedule changes again.

I made myself a note to do it this Tuesday (because otherwise I inevitably get halfway through the day before remembering that I meant to track our day!), and then I woke up at 2:00 am, to use the bathroom – again – and…I could not fall back asleep. It was horrible timing, as I had to get up at 4:00 am anyway because of a deadline, and so I had to decide whether to lay there in bed for an hour just to have the alarm go off after I finally fell back asleep or get up and get to work.

I convinced myself to get up, with the goal of going back to sleep and getting that extra two hours after I finished, and I almost scrapped the whole idea of this post because I really wanted to do it on a “typical” day. And then I realized that there really is no typical day in my life. Things always go wrong and throw off the schedule, and while it might not be a typical day, it was a good example of reality, so I stuck with the plan.

Here is what that day looked like:

2:00 a.m. – Make the decision to get up and get to work.

3:30 a.m. – I started to get antsy and switched to working on some blog stuff that I needed to take care of anyway

4:00 a.m. – Back to transcribing. Thankfully, my file was going very quickly at this point, and I set my sights on going back to bed by 5:00.

5:20 a.m. – Finally done and headed back to bed. Sweet Doodle was fussing in her bed, so I wasn’t sure it was going to last, but thankfully she went back to sleep.

6:30 a.m. – The girls woke up early. Of course. They never get up at 6:30, but today they did. I started off pretty irritated, but I decided just to make the best of it. I left them in their room to play and got myself ready for the day.

6:45 a.m. – Everyone was still happily playing upstairs, so I sat down to do the budget and pay bills.

7:30 a.m. – This is the girls’ normal wake up time, so I went up and got them, and then we went through our normal getting-ready routine of brushing hair and teeth, changing Sweet Doodle’s diaper and starting breakfast.

8:00 a.m. – By 8:00 everyone was settled at the table with their cereal and bueberries, and I sat down at the computer with mine to finish my post on Simple Nest.

8:30 a.m. – After seconds all around, I cleaned everybody up and decided to vacuum seal the chopped up apples I had frozen the night before (for oatmeal).

8:45 a.m. – We start our school day by cuddling and reading on the couch every day, and it’s my favorite part of the day!

9:20 a.m. – After reading, we moved to the table for some seat work. Pumpkin Doodle  worked on her daily journal entry while I did a few workbook pages with Monkey Doodle. I can’t for the life of me remember what Sweet Doodle did on this particular day!

9:50 a.m. – It’s time for me to get to work, but I got distracted setting up this adorable threading project for Sweet Doodle first. She couldn’t do it by herself, so I spent about 15 minutes helping her before she lost interest.

10:05 a.m. – I was working on a post for Organizing Your Way and got distracted (again!) for a good 20 minutes looking for a picture that worked for it. I hate when that happens, and I try to have all of my pictures chosen ahead of time for that very reason!

Once I got the post up, I got to work on some projects for Deal Seeking Mom, where I am now officially working as Tara’s Project Administrator!

12:00 p.m. – I got up to make lunch at noon, planning to make something easy and get the girls down for nap early, but the crescent rolls in the fridge were calling my name, so I made hot dogs & cheese wrapped in crescent rolls while the girls cleaned up. I had enough time while they baked to hang up the load of cloth diapers from the wash as well.

12:40 p.m. – Lunch is finally ready, and I get the girls settled at the table and then sit down to work on a post for Deal Seeking Mom.

1:05 p.m. – Everyone’s done eating, so I clean up the girls and get them down for nap.

1:15 p.m. – I intended to get right back to work, but I was so tired at this point, and I just kind of vegged in front of my feed reader for 45 minutes.

2:00 p.m. – Time to focus and get to work on more Deal Seeking Mom projects.

3:15 p.m. – I get Pumpkin Doodle up from nap to do her seat work before getting the other girls up.

4:00 p.m. – Everyone’s up at this point for snack. Afterwards, Pumpkin Doodle heads outside to play. Sean takes Sweet Doodle out on the porch for a little bit while Monkey Doodle gets a turn on the computer. I still have some more work to do for Deal Seeking Mom (partly due to the fact that I just could NOT focus at nap time!), so I work on that while everyone’s happily occupied.

5:30 p.m. – TV time for the girls

6:00 p.m. – I stick the girls in the shower while I start dinner (spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese bread). Sean finishes dinner while I get them dressed.  I have to say that I am so thankful for our shower. It’s the size of a small bathroom with a flat stone floor, so I can stick them in there to play without worrying about anyone slipping or getting hurt. I’m dreading winter, when it gets drafty and I have to move back to baths upstairs!

6:40 p.m. – Time to eat!

7:00 p.m. – Clean up time. I work on the dishes, laundry and packing our bag for the next day (I had an early OB appointment, so we left early with Sean and ate breakfast on the road) while the girls clean up their toys and get ready for bed. I think it was about this time that I started struggling with being so tired. I was definitely snappy and ready for everyone to go to bed!

7:45 p.m. – I take the girls upstairs for bed.

8:00 p.m. – Watch TV with Sean for a bit. I almost always plan to get something done during this time, but I rarely do. It’s the main reason I go to bed early and get up early, because otherwise I feel like I’m just wasting that time! It’s not even “quality relaxation” time most days because I’m SO tired by that point.

9:00 p.m. – Bedtime!

Now that I’ve typed that all out, let me just say that while that has been a fairly typical day for us for the past 6 months or so,  today is my official last day as a transcriptionist before my maternity leave (I’m hesitant to say for good at this point, although it very much looks like that will be the case!), and I am very excited about the prospect of cutting my work day almost in half.

Even this week I’ve been spending more time just sitting on the front porch in the afternoons while the girls play (it’s surprisingly cool in the shade when the breeze blows, despite the oppressing heat and humidity!) and getting more done around the house, and I’m loving it!

I’ll share my thoughts about quality versus quantity time with our kids and playing with them versus independent play next week because obviously that plays a big part in life as a work-at-home mom.