A Day in the Life

It’s another snow day here in Seattle (we’ve had ONE full school day in the last two weeks!!) and while my productivity is at an all-time low, I’m in my happy place watching these babes play outside, building snowmen together and using sledding as our main route of transportation. We’ve baked a zillion cookies, watching a lot of movies and had ALL the quality time one could ever want (my ultimate love language).

I’m going to share our normal routine with you guys, but forgive me if I have trouble remember it, because it’s been so long since we’ve actually gone through it. HA!

5:30 / My Alarm goes off and I roll out of bed like a beached whale (30 weeks pregnant is v v glamorous) and make my way to my office. I try to get a blog post written, a couple emails answered or just get my head organized for the day by adding to my to-do list or checking what’s coming in my calendar. Some mornings, I’ll take a quick shower and put my makeup on first. If I showered the night before, I’ll head straight to my desk and do my makeup later. Collin typically head to the gym while I do this.

6:45-7 / Kids start to wake up and saunter into my office parched/starving/looking for that one lego guy with the straw hat that was in your pocket 17 days ago - remember? where is it? help me find it now!? I turn on a cartoon to diffuse the situation and either throw a load of laundry in the washer, or do my make-up.

7:30 / I make sure I’m dressed & ready for the day by 7:30 and we head upstairs for breakfast. On school days, we typically do cereal, special yogurt, or toast for breakfast. If I’m feeling super ambitious (or late), we skip breakfast at home, and do Starbucks breakfast on the way to school.

I empty the dishwasher and make Baylor’s lunch while the kids eat breakfast.

8:00 / Time to suit up! I turn Alexa up, put something happy on, and go one by one and lay everyone’s clothes out and then tell them to race to see who can get dressed the fastest. Parenting is all marketing and this works 75% of the time. If nobody gives an eff about racing, it’s a little more challenging to get them all dressed. The big kids can fully dress themselves, and I’ll help Winnie & Norah. The girls come in to the bathroom for “hair salon” - Norah’s favorite part of the day. She sits in the sink, rolls all the oils on and says “PRITTY” repeatedly :)

8:30 / We load up backpacks, refill water bottles, get our shoes on, find coats and gloves and hats and fill the diaper bag and load into the car. The kids LOVE to run around outside in the morning to “breath the refresh air!” so if we’re not super behind, I’ll let them run around the yard for a few minutes. Simple pleasures :)

8:45 / We’re on the road. If I can swing it, I’ll run through Starbucks and grab a coffee on the way to drop-off (Norah screams CAY-POP the second she sees the green mermaid, which makes drive-thru life very dicey.) If Collin goes to the gym in the AM, he’ll usually come home with my coffee, which is just the BEST. Bellamy has school M-W, so if it’s one of those days, we drop her off first, at 9:00 and then take Baylor at 9:10.

9:10 / Once the big kids (or just Bay on TH/F) have been dropped off successfully, the rest of us run errands or just head home. Our regular stops are Target, Costco, the grocery store, the mall if I need something specific or if we need to just kill some time, or Home Goods/Marshalls. Sometimes we’ll go do something like a play-place (ROMP is our favorite!) or do a play-date with friends, but our windows int he morning are pretty slim, so we are somewhat limited with what we can do.

11:30 / We pick Bellamy up from school and head straight home for lunch!

11:45 / Lunch for the girls while I clean up the kitchen, load dishes, switch the laundry or pick up the living room.

12:15-12:30 / Winnie & Norah go down for nap time while Bella and I head back downstairs. I usually put a show or movie on for her so she an have a little quite time while I start working. Once that’s finished, she will color, play or do an art project in my office with me while I work. We try to keep this time as quiet as possible (because silence is better than golden when you have 4 kids). I really put my head down and try to get as much done as possible during these two hours. I typically eat lunch in my office as I work and keep distractions at a minimum.

2:50 / I wake the girls up and we load up the car with snacks for school pick-up (waking kids up without the anticipation of a snack is just torture). Depending on the day, I throw them in the car without shoes, etc. If we have plans after school, I try to freshen them up before getting Baylor.

3:15-3:40 / We sit in the pick-up line and wait for Baylor. I know, right? The girls watch a show or play in the car while we wait, sometimes we’ll clean out the car or just collect all the garbage. We try to make good use out of all the waiting time :)

3:50 / We’ve got our buddy back and we head home for the rest of the night! Once in awhile, we’ll stop at the store, or if Bellamy has dance, we’ll go straight there. When we get home, we just hang out, play, and get ready for dinner!

5-5:30 / Dinner! I keep dinners super simple during the week and try to prep/plan during the day so 4:30 is not such a mad dash. Collin usually gets home between 5 & 6 unless he’s traveling, in which case it’s later at night or he’s gone overnight. We wait for him if he’s coming home early enough, but I try to keep dinner time pretty consistent because as kids do when they’re hungry, mine turn in to monsters.

6:30 / BATH! We’ve wrapped up dinner and Collin or I do baths while the other one cleans the kitchen and does the dinner dishes. We’ve got this down to a science now and it works really well. We split the kids between showers and baths and just cycle through them. Once they’re done with their bath or shower, they usually head to the playroom and find something to do for a bit.

7:30 / Norah goes to bed with 700 baby dolls, 4 blankets, 37 baby bottles and very little complaints. She goes down SO well and is mostly happy as a clam to get into her bed. Collin will rock her if he’s home (when I say rock, I mean raps to her in the most lullaby-ish way) or I’ll put her down if he’s not home.

7:45 / We turn on one show for the kids before bed and snuggle up on the couch while they wind down. I’ll fold laundry or throw one more load in before the end of the day.

8:15-8:30 / Head back upstairs, brush teeth, brush hair and get in our beds. The kids will listen to music on their alexa’s, read books in their bed or even listen to an audio book on Alexa. We try to keep bed-time routines to a minimum because nobody has enough energy at the end of the day (at least i don’t!) for all the stories and books and shenanigans. Our bedtime motto: “feet on the floor, we shut the door!”

9:00 / In BED! Collin and I are in bed most nights by 9 or 9:30 at the latest. We watch a show, talk, read, eat ice cream (duh) and just wind down before bed.

10:00 / Lights out asleep. We used to stay up super late and work, but find that we’re much better if we get up early.

That’s it! Our days are full in all the best ways and I honestly wouldn’t trade it for anything!