Usually I label my day in the life posts with the kids’ ages (currently 6 years old and 3 1/2 years old BTW). However it just felt more fitting this time since I’m documenting my life, to label it with my own age. It’s crazy how once a couple years pass, it’s hard to remember what being a certain age looks or feels like. I’m grateful I have a record to look back on, to see how I’ve grown and changed over the past (almost) eight years I’ve been writing here. So now I’m going to a break it down- 24 hours in the life of a wife/mom/daughter who is 34 years old.

1:00 AM: I wake up and have to go to the bathroom. I keep my eyes closed, trying to convince my mind I’m not really awake. Though I’m back in bed two minutes later, my mind didn’t listen. It’s up and running thinking about everything and nothing all at once.

2:00 AM: Still awake. Sigh. I reach over and change my alarm from 4:35 AM to 6:00 AM. Looks like I won’t make it to the 5:00 AM Burn Boot Camp after all, but at this moment, more sleep wins.

6:00 AM: I’m up. I hear David in the shower. I strip the bed and go throw the sheets in the washing machine before making my way to the kitchen. I pour some turmeric tonic for both of us and grind some black pepper on top (it helps with the nutrient absorption), then turn on the coffee machine, bracing while it grinds the beans and hoping it doesn’t wake up Kaitlyn. Whew, it doesn’t! I head to the office to answer a couple emails and plan my day.

7:15 AM: Sitting in the office I hear the creak of a door followed by the usual “mommy, there’s a 7 on my clock.” I finish writing a to-do and don’t answer. A little louder now- “Mommy, there’s a 7 on my clock.” I smile to myself at how she always waits for confirmation. I ask her if she’s still tired and she says no, so she walks down the stairs and climbs up into my lap with her lovey, an old bunny we call Mimi. We talk about how she slept and what the day entails, then I carry her to my room.

I get dressed for the day and tell her that she’s going to stay home with Hailey and me this morning (germs are everywhere and we have a trip coming up- no chances!). She’s excited and asks to stay in pajamas. Sure, kid. Then we head to the kitchen and eat breakfast together.

8:05 AM: As I mentioned in my kids and sleep post, Hailey is still snoozing, so Kaitlyn and I go in to wake her. I’m grateful she wakes up smiling, which isn’t always the case. I plug in the space heater in the playroom, then we all head back to the kitchen. While Hailey eats breakfast, I empty the dishwasher, move the laundry, and eavesdrop on the girls’ conversation- something about fairies being more powerful than monsters.

8:45 AM: I send the girls up to get dressed and brush their teeth. I know this buys me about 20+ minutes of downtime depending on how distracted they get, so I sit on the couch, talk to Instagram, scroll through some social media, and psych myself up for school with both girls. Then I put my phone away. Keeping it in another room lately has been great for my focus.

9:20 AM: We all head to the playroom, ready to start school. We start with the circle time center, taking our time with each section. We start with the date and day of the week, and slowly make our way around the board. Kaitlyn is particularly into rhyming right now and wanted to match up all the cards. I remind myself the goal isn’t speed, and settle into a slow rhythm.

We move onto math. It’s mostly review, so we pull out the manipulative pieces and several worksheets from Math-U-See. Hailey has simple addition down and takes pride in using the colorful blocks to show Kaitlyn how to build and solve the math problems. Then she lets Kaitlyn color the answers. I smile because it’s pretty cute.

After a worksheet or two, Kaitlyn loses interest so I pull out the Magnatiles for her while I continue with Hailey. We finish the addition, do a little work on counting by 2’s, and patterns. Then we put it away. Hailey rushes over to join Kaitlyn and they start building cribs for their baby dolls. They are both super into it, so I let them play for about 20 minutes while I clean up and cut out paper trees for the craft.

We use marshmallows to paint snow onto the winter tree scene, and eat a couple (paint-less) marshmallows along the way. We talk briefly about snow, how each flake is different and how when water gets really hot it turns into steam, but mostly we just listen to the kid songs playing from the CD player.

After we clean up, we all pile onto the giant bean bag to read. Kaitlyn picks The Circus Ship, truly one of our favorite books, and Hailey chooses Little House on the Prairie. Kaitlyn hangs for a page or two of Little House before she takes off to grab a puzzle, but Hailey curls up next to me while we read about Ma hurting her ankle while trying to help Pa build the log cabin.

12:00 PM: I’m fried. The kids are fried. We’re all hungry. I make lunch.

1:00 PM: This is usually when the girls have quiet time, but instead of sending them upstairs, I let them bum on the couch and watch a couple WhistleFritz Spanish Immersion DVDS. I’ll be honest, I’m not always consistent with having them watch these, but they like them when we do.

1:15 PM: Hailey turns around every 10 seconds to tell me everything they are watching (MOM! Globos means balloons!) while I start making dinner. I can tell the girls are tired because we have a pretty big sectional couch, yet every 5 minutes I hear a whine (heyyy get off me) or a fake cry (Kaitlyn). I ask if they’d prefer to go sit in their rooms instead of watching TV and that quiets them down. For a few minutes at least.

2:00 PM Ding dong! Katie is here! For the past year+ I had a wonderful babysitter that would come all day on Wednesdays. In December she accepted a new job and we had to say goodbye. I was going to go it on my own, but David really pushed me to look around for a little help. Well I really lucked out and found a great sitter in the neighborhood who comes twice a week for 4 hours.

The girls run to the door to greet her and I warn her that they are pretty exhausted and not to be afraid to lay down the law. Katie laughs then takes the girls up to the playroom and I retreat into the office.

I spend two hours working on various things and could truly keep working another two, but after missing Burn, I felt like I really needed to move somehow someway, so I change into yoga gear, throw some brown rice in the rice cooker, and hop in the car. I make a quick stop by Publix (snow is forecaster and I needed bread, clearly) then head into the 4:30 slow flow yoga class.

I’ll be honest, the class wasn’t all that great. I’m not sure if I was tired, or had too much in my brain, or if the class was more clunky than flowy, but at least I got out and moved my body, right? Overall I’m very happy to be back to yoga (it’s my third class in a little more than a week).

5:45 PM: I’m back home and Katie has miraculously calmed the girls. They are playing with the dollhouse when I get home. We say bye to Katie and head to the kitchen for dinner.

The butternut squash and red lentil stew is warm and comforting. I eat two bowls with rice and a slice of sourdough bread from the freezer. We go around the table and all tell our highs/lows/gratefuls while David and I trade off saying “back in your seat” no fewer than 15 times.

Sometimes we do the bedtime routine together and sometimes we divide and conquer. I’m feeling beat, so David takes the kids and I take the kitchen.

I clean the kitchen and the coffee maker, load and set the dishwasher, wipe down the counters and sweep the floor because rice.

7:40 PM: I tell David I’m going to take a bath (a new-to-me habit that I’m slowly falling in love with). As I say that, Kaitlyn opens her door to ask something important like how any days is it until she is four, and I smile quickly at David then dart off to start the bath (which is pink from the bath bomb), leaving him to handle it.

8:20 PM: I’m warm, dry, and on the couch. David tells me how Kaitlyn poked her head out of her door about 3 more times with nonsense before he was able to shut it down. See, right after I talk about our sleep rules, my kid goes crazy. I know she’s extra tired and silently vow to try and get her to nap tomorrow. We watch an episode of The Middle and I can barely keep my eyes open.

9:00 PM: We crawl into bed. Though this is a bit earlier than usual, my body is needing sleep, which is evident because I’m fast asleep within about 10 minutes.

And that’s a Tuesday in life right now! I love writing these and was happy to hear y’all say on Instagram that you liked them too. And now, onto Wednesday! Oh, and that predicted snow? It came. And the girls are both already up and squealing. Here we go! 😉