Hey friends! So it’s been a long, long, long time since I did a Day in the Life post. Life today is less organized and more chaotic than it’s ever been. But I finally got around to recording a day, so here it goes! For those of you that are here for the recipes, they will be back next week!
Okay, so this was last Wednesday, and it was an unusual day for many reasons. I’ve started to realize that unusual is more often than the case than usual. My mom is usually here on Wednesdays, but her work schedule changed so one of my regular sitters covered the morning, and I booked with Busy Bees (a babysitter booking service local to Phx) for the afternoon. Okay, with that back story out of the way, here we go!
My day started at 4:45 AM with a cup of coffee with two scoops of collagen and a generous pour of ripple half and half. I drank my coffee while finishing the Air Fryer Chicken Tenders blog post. Mr. Hungry usually plays basketball at 4 AM, but since one of my sitters is sick this week, he stayed home from basketball so I could work a little extra in the morning. Every. Single. Time he stays home, the kids sleep in. Every. Time.
By sleep in, I mean that the baby was up at 5:40 AM and KJ was up at 6:30 AM haha.
After I nursed the baby, Mr. Hungry took over until around 6:45 AM, when he got ready for work.
I fed the kids breakfast. KJ ate a “waffle with chocolate,” and KK ate leftover three-ingredient pancakes (1 banana, one egg, 1/3 cup oatmeal blended and made into pancakes.) Then, around 7:30 AM, we headed out to take Nala for a walk.
The bulk pick-up had some awesome trucks working on picking up the trash in front of people’s houses which KJ LOVED, so we stopped and watched for a while. We returned from walking around 8:15 AM, just in time for the babysitter to get here.
I jumped on the computer and worked for about 20 minutes while eating a KIND bar and an Orgain plant-based shake from Costco. I checked my email to make sure nothing was on fire, created the beginning of the grocery shopping 101 bread reel, and sent it to my VA to add text. Then KJ and I headed out the door to walk to preschool. I got caught up until he reminded me we needed to leave, so we were a little late.
(KJ’s teacher sent me this picture. He doesn’t usually love crafts or painting, but anything with cars he is all about!)
After dropping in him off, I stopped and talked to one of his classmates’ parents for a few minutes before heading home. When I got home, I nursed KK and put him down (around 9:30 AM) while my babysitter helped clean up the house. She cleans up the kid’s rooms, takes the trash out, empties the dishwasher, etc. It’s a HUGE help to have her do that kind of stuff when KJ is in school. Sometimes she even does the kid’s laundry.
I finished up a few things with the Air Fryer Chicken Tender post and went back to the task list for the last few blog posts I’ve published to ensure it was complete or see what needed to get done. Then I worked on putting together a meal package for a friend who just had surgery and headed out to drop it off. While I prepped, I got hungry and ate some jerky.
I took a batch of uncooked but preseasoned Air Fryer Chicken Tenders (I included directions), plus a batch of Mediterranean Quinoa Salad. I also picked up dairy-free tzatziki, hummus, middle easter wraps, and dairy-free caramel ice cream from Trader Joe’s. And I sliced some cucumbers and put those in the bag as well. So I headed out to drop those off.
When I got home at 11:25 AM, I literally grabbed KK (the babysitter had woke him up at 11 and fed him a small snack) and headed back out to pick KJ from school by 11:30 AM (it’s very close – I was there on time.) I felt like taking KJ through Mcdonald’s for a treat, so that’s what I did! We don’t do Mcdonald’s very often, maybe once every few months, but it’s always fun to treat him when we do!
We called his Grandma and chatted on the phone during lunch. KK ate applesauce and some Bamba’s while KJ ate lunch.
Then we went in for quiet time at around 12:30 PM (30 minutes) before KJ’s TV time which started a little after 1 PM. But, sometimes quiet time is only marginally quiet, ha, ha.
He decided to watch Octanauts, and although he usually only gets to watch for 30 minutes at a time, I let him watch for an hour while I cleaned up the kitchen/house a bit, and KK played with Tupperware.
I also made a Smoothiebox smoothie during this time with almond milk and a scoop of SB vegan protein powder.
At 2 PM, the fill-in sitter got here. I showed her around, went through some initial rules, and helped get KJ a snack before heading in to nurse and put KK down for his second nap by about 2:20 PM. By the time I sat down at my computer, it was 2:20 PM.
- scanned email
- I worked on typing up this post
- ate a handful of peanut butter pretzels and drank an iced coffee
- checked on students on canvas
For dinner, around 5 PM, we had Mediterranean Pizzas. I tried simultaneously making dinner for us to eat and tried to film it for an IG Reel at the same time. Unfortunately, I lost light, and it was a giant fail, haha. But it’s one of my favorite dairy-free dinners of all time!
After dinner, it’s bath time and bedtime for the kids, followed by a shower and bedtime for me! The kids are usually in bed by 7 PM, and we’re in bed by 9 PM. This day was no exception!
Reflection on the Day
Since having KK, life has been so much less perfect than I’d like to admit. First, I want to say I don’t usually eat processed food like KIND Bars and a Protein Shake for breakfast, but it happens more often than I’d like to admit. Second, I want to say I don’t have protein powder/shakes twice a day usually, but again, more than I’d like to admit. I also felt weird and a little bad recording that I took my kid to Mcdonald’s or that I let him watch an hour of TV. These things are just a lot of vulnerability to admit, I guess.
I don’t eat perfectly, my kids don’t eat perfectly, and thanks to a change in child care, I hadn’t worked out in what felt like forever. So, I know that the reason it’s been over a year since I put a Day in the Life post up is that I kept waiting for things to get “back to normal.” So I could be a better example of healthy living.
But, life with two kids is different than having one, and on top of that, we’ve had some significant life changes (like moving) that have changed our usual routine. I’m okay with how things are right now. It works for us. We eat mostly healthy, even if the reliance on pre-packaged foods is more significant right now. But, me being okay with it and me showing the world are two different things, but I’m sharing today anyway in an attempt to show that being perfectly imperfect is okay!
I’ve still been consistent enough to lose 45lbs without calorie counting or insane exercise. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to keep trying, and 80% will get you farther than you ever thought possible!
So there it is, my first day in the life post in a whole year! Let me know if you want me to bring this back and make it more regular again!
Thanks for sharing! I’m also a dietitian and I have 5 kids. I’ve had to change my idea of what healthy eating for my family looks like too and I also rely on more processed foods than I would like. But I try to remind myself that they are still getting a good balanced meal, even when it is a little more processed.
Exactly!!!!! It’s a learning process that’s for sure!
Please do more! I have 2 kids almost the exact same age and I love seeing how other people do it. And my 3 year old gets one full hour everyday of TV time. No guilt. It’s a lot to juggle and that time gives us all a freak. Thanks for sharing!
Ha ha, I will! And yes he gets one hour of TV too, he had an extra hour of TV this day lol so that’s two hours, that’s where the guilt started to raise up a bit. But, gotta squash that Mom guilt just doing what’s necessary to keep things moving along