Every February for the past few years, I’ve done a Day in the Life post to see how much changes from year to year. Last year’s post was all about life with a preemie newborn, a toddler, and a preschooler, and although life was chaotic (because life with young kids just is like that), I had no idea how much was about to change, both globally for the world and for us personally.
This year’s Day in the Life found us still adjusting to and setting up our new house (esp. as it’s still under construction–you’ll notice that in all the kitchen pictures, we have no floor) as well as taking advantage of the time when our oldest is in kindergarten and the boys are napping to get in some precious “me” time. In years past, we’ve seemingly always had somewhere to go to when the random day hit, or some kind of gathering going on (or both).
In this year’s post, it’s fitting that we were home all day (other than when we dropped Raven off at school, mask in place) and that we basically saw no one outside our immediate household. Here’s hoping that by next February, we can get out and socialize a bit more!
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Day in the Life – 2/9/2021
7:00 A.M. – I’m woken up by my alarm, which this morning happens to be the dulcet tones of Red Hot Chili Peppers (my alarm is set to be a random alternative song from the 90’s through YouTube). About half of the time, the kids come upstairs and wake me up before my alarm, but this morning they’re all still asleep. Even though my body is fighting to go back to sleep with all its might (despite getting roughly 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep for once), I force myself to get up.
7:05 A.M. – Matt and I have the usual quick discussion of who should get in the bathroom first. Since I don’t desperately need to use it and since it’s a million times easier if Matt can shower before the kids wake up, I tell him to go ahead, and then I say my morning prayers and make the bed.
7:15 A.M. – I log on to my desktop computer to start drafting this post, as well as to check my usual sites in the morning (email, bank, blog feed).
7:30 A.M. – The kids are miraculously still asleep, so I start working on a different blog post.
7:36 A.M. – I hear the kids coming upstairs, and they burst through our bedroom door seconds later. Raven is all cheer and wanting to give me hugs and kisses, and Mathias is whining because he lost his pacifier in his bed sometime in the end. (We finally weaned him down to just using a pacifier during nap and nighttime, but he’s still waaaaay too attached to it.) After hugs and kisses, Raven says she needs to use the potty, which prompts Thias to say that HE needs to use the potty, too. He isn’t potty trained yet, but since we’ll be starting within the next few months, we encourage his desire to sit on it, so both kids go and sit on their potties (Raven on the real one, Thias on the little training one on the floor). Meanwhile, I go downstairs to get Hyrum, who I can hear happily babbling in his crib. I change his diaper, get a fresh diaper for Mathias, then come upstairs.
7:45 A.M. – Matt is out of the shower, so I let him take over with the kids while I retreat to the bathroom. Since the bathroom is one of my few escapes, I tend to take advantage of it and stay a little longer than strictly needful, usually to watch YouTube vlogs or read an ebook. Today I read a bit out of my current read on Kindle (Dirt by Mary Marantz).
8:00 A.M. – While I was finishing up my time in the bathroom, Raven called through the door and told me that Mathias had actually gone pee in his potty, which has only happened 3-4 times in a matter of as many months. Since his makeshift “potty chart” that my mom had made for him when we lived there was nowhere to be found, I decided to make his “official” one, complete with a certain number of boxes to be filled in with stickers and two prizes—a model car in the same series as the one he got from his grandparents at Christmas, and a trip to the zoo when he had started going #2 in his potty (and had done so at least 6 times). I had to do a bit of searching, but I found some cardstock that would work, grabbed a Sharpie, and just went for it. We then taped the chart to the kids’ bathroom wall, and Mathias proudly put on his first sticker.
8:25 A.M. – While I’d been working on the chart, Matt had let out the chickens and fed them last night’s kitchen scraps, and he was then working on making oatmeal for everyone. I started helping him butter all the toast for the kids (Matt and I can’t have any because there isn’t any gluten-free bread in the house) and then getting everyone up at the table.
8:40 A.M. – Breakfast! Matt has to eat his quickly since he’s leaving for work soon, and I alternate feeding myself with feeding Hyrum bites of his oatmeal (while he crams fistfuls of toast into his mouth in between).
8:50 A.M. – Matt gives us all kisses goodbye and heads, and Mathias wails for the next 5 minutes about how much he misses him. We all finish up breakfast, and I clean up the boys’ hands, arms, and faces from all the oatmeal smeared all over them.
9:00 A.M. – Mathias is acting like he’s about to go to the bathroom again, so I ask him if he wants to try sitting on the potty again. Still on the high of earning a sticker, he says he wants to try again, and much to my shock, he actually goes pee immediately in the potty. He is over-the-moon excited to have already earned a second sticker, and I go downstairs to retrieve the pull-ups we’d been reserving until it was time to start potty training, since it looks like I might have to start officially doing it sooner than I’d planned.
9:15 A.M. – I start cleaning up a bit from breakfast, but since the kids are playing together well for a moment, I decide to head off and get ready myself instead. However, about five minutes into doing my makeup, I start to deal with frequent interruptions, which come in the form of Raven coming to tell me all the drama happening outside my room — “Mathias opened up candy when he shouldn’t!”, “Hyrum got his fingers pinched in the barn door!”, “Mathias is in the bathroom trying to shut the door on Hyrum!” I’m constantly going out of the bathroom to put out fires so that a 10-minute getting-ready takes 25 minutes.
9:40 A.M. I am finally ready for the day, but Hyrum is wailing outside the door (I think he might be teething since his crying has been fairly constant all morning). I pick him up and then start the usual top-down search of the house to find where he put his pacifier (which has the extra bonus of making it much less likely for him to put everything from the floor into his mouth). I end up locating it on the kitchen counter where Matt must have put it earlier this morning.
9:50 A.M. – I make myself a cup of hot cocoa (my morning hot beverage of choice since I don’t drink coffee) and take it into my room to update this blog post (and lock my door so the kids can’t come in). The kids bang on the door frequently the first five minutes to ask if I can get their paints out or if they can have a treat, but I tell them to go play for a few minutes while I try to get caught up.
10:05 A.M. – I’m all caught up on this blog post and all is quiet except the sounds of the kids getting along outside the door, so I allow myself a few minutes to leisurely finish my cocoa and read a few blog posts.
10:15 A.M. – Break is over when I hear Mathias calling for help from the playroom. I go and get things sorted out in there, then I start to tackle the dishes and the kitchen. While I clean, I watch some of my favorite vloggers on YouTube. I send Raven and Mathias downstairs to get dressed for the day.
10:50 A.M. – Hyrum has now pulled all the books off one of the shelves twice in a row and is fussing, so I put him in his high chair and give him some cheese to munch on and then find the other two kids to ask them what they want for lunch. Mathias has a poopy diaper, so I go take care of that.
11:00 A.M. – I start prepping lunch — cheesy toast and apples — so the kids can get started eating. We used to never eat lunch so early, but now that Raven has afternoon kindergarten starting at 11:40, we basically have to.
11:15 A.M. – I heat up leftovers for my own lunch and sit down to eat with the kids. Hyrum has decided that he suddenly doesn’t like cheesy toast and is starting to chuck the pieces one by one to the floor, so I quickly put a stop to that by scooping up all the rest of them and putting them on a plate out of his reach. He starts fussing for my leftovers, so I basically just let him have those as his lunch.
11:27 A.M. – The scramble begins as we all get ready to leave to take Raven to school—she goes potty, I do her hair, Mathias finds his boots and grabs the rest of his cheesy toast to eat in the car, and I strap Hyrum in his carseat and fill Raven’s water bottle (since all the drinking fountains are closed in the school due to covid). I make sure she has her mask and her backpack and coat, and we all head out to the van.
11:32 A.M. – En route to the school, right on time.
11:40 A.M. – We get back from dropping off Raven, and I immediately put Hyrum down for his afternoon nap since he looks like he might have briefly fallen asleep on the 2-minute drive home. I tell Mathias to try sitting on the potty again before his nap, taking advantage of his sudden enthusiasm for it. He doesn’t go this time, but I put a pull-up on him and then put him down for his nap (with the usual song and snuggles before).
11:55 A.M. – I clean up the kitchen from lunch, which hardly takes any time since I’d just cleaned out the dishwasher and wiped everything down before, so tidying went fast.
12:00 P.M. – I take my own extended potty break, mostly just so I can watch YouTube vlogs (I watched What Vivi Did Next this time).
12:15 P.M. – I check to make sure Mathias is still in bed (he’s taken to coming out now that he can open doors and then doesn’t go down for a nap), but he’s still in bed, albeit still awake. Hyrum is softly babbling, but I’m sure he’ll fall asleep shortly. I sit down to update this blog post, then I work on another blog post that I’m wanting to put up next week.
12:35 P.M. – I take a break from blogging to see if our new rugs that I ordered have been delivered yet (these 3 were expected today – 1, 2, 3), and two of them are on the front porch! I immediately start clearing out stuff where they’re going to be put so I can see how they look, which also necessitates that I vacuum the floor first. I decide to use our brand new stick vacuum since it’s fully charged (we ended up getting this one), and count my blessings that Hyrum is asleep because that kid is deathly afraid of ALL vacuums. The huge 9 x 12 one is too big for me to put into place on my own (and I decide I’m actually going to change where I’d originally intended to put it), but the 8 x 10 for the front entry room is PERFECT.
1:25 P.M. – Unpackaging the rugs and vacuuming underneath where they were going to go and throwing away the packaging and just maneuvering the huge things kind of tires me out, so I take a break to read and plan to have Matt help me more with the rugs later on (because that 12 x 9 rug is HEAVY!). For this chunk of reading time, I chose to pick up Gaining Ground.
1:55 P.M. – I go out because I think I hear Mathias coming upstairs, and sure enough, there he is on the new rug, looking like it’s Christmas morning. I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty again (he does), but no luck.
2:05 P.M. – We hear Hyrum babbling, so I go down to get him out of his crib and change his diaper, then bring him upstairs. He is also apparently smitten with the new rugs. The three of us cuddle and play and chase each other around on them until it’s time to get ready to go.
2:20 P.M. – Time to get the boys ready to go so we can pick up Raven from school. I get boots on Mathias and strap both boys in their carseats, and we’re off.
2:30 P.M. – I see Raven’s class outside, and I cross the street to go lead her back to the car. Her teacher tells me that she got to be the leader today, and that she did an excellent job. She excitedly tells me about the important responsibilities she got to be in charge of, and when she gets in the car, Mathias possibly squeals in excitement—“WE GOT RUGS!!!”
2:40 P.M. – We get home from the school and the older two kids excitedly go to the mailbox, as is their usual custom (no mail today, though), then run inside to look at the rugs. The high emotions are apparently too much, as each one of the kids breaks down in tears at some point over the next 10 minutes over such grave matters as who got to close the door and where on the rugs everyone is sitting.
2:50 P.M. – Snack time swoops in to save the day! Pretzels and fruit snacks for Raven, Cheetohs and fruit snacks for Thias, and string cheese and a yogurt pouch for the baby.
3:15 P.M. – After I clean up from snack time and observe that the kids are all playing well together (a game where Raven pretends to be Mathias’s puppy who always wants to roll around in poop (?)), I sneak off to cross off some housekeeping tasks. First on the list? Getting a hold of a few local contractors who came recommended to us to see if any are available to come look at our kitchen’s subfloor, which needs repairing in one spot (and is the only reason we don’t have a kitchen floor right now). The first contractor is booked out for months, but the second is able to come by tomorrow to look at it and give us a quote! Such a relief.
4:05 P.M. – The witching hour has officially begun, as the nice play has suddenly devolved into some roughhousing and tears. I shout reminders such as “Make sure everyone is having a good time!” as I get out all the ingredients for dinner and start prepping.
4:45 P.M. – I’m almost finished with dinner prep, and Hyrum has been howling at my ankles the majority of the time I’ve been cooking. I put him in his bouncer so he won’t be underfoot (which makes him cry harder) because I have to finish up the chicken on the broiler and can’t have him by the oven.
5:10 P.M. – Dinner is finished (parmesan lemon chicken, penne noodles in a simple garlic cream sauce, and roasted vegetables), and I take Hyrum out of his bouncer to snuggle him and calm him down and then put him into his high chair with a few noodles to chew on. I dish out the food for the kids to give it a few minutes to cool down before we eat.
5:20 P.M. – Matt’s still not home and the food is getting cold, so we sit down to eat. I then get a text saying he’s going to be a bit late, so we go ahead and say a prayer on the food and dig in.
5:40 P.M. – Matt finally gets home just as we’re most of the way through dinner, and we catch up on everyone’s day. Every time Matt or I try to just talk to each other, we’re talked over at a loud volume by Raven or Mathias, who seem to keep wanting to discuss the same details of their days at the top of their lungs.
5:50 P.M. – Dinner is done, and we bring in the third rug from the porch where it was delivered just before we sat down to eat. The kids and I start cleaning up the playroom so that we can roll out the rug to see how it looks while Matt changes both boys’ diapers (he’s lucky enough to get two poopy ones…I love it when it works out in my favor like that!).
6:20 P.M. – The playroom is cleared up enough to remove all the packaging from the rug (which takes a surprisingly long time) and roll it out. The older two are ecstatic, but Hyrum just wants to pull all the books off the bookshelf (that I’d literally just put back on), which means he keeps getting put into a little time-out (where I hold his hands together and count to ten).
6:35 P.M. – Hyrum is beside himself and crying with tiredness, so Matt finally puts him down to sleep, where he almost laughs with relief as soon as his head hits the crib.
6:45 P.M. – Matt and I use our Food Saver (seriously one of my favorite Christmas gifts we’ve ever gotten) to freeze the chicken I’d bought a few days before. I hold the bag while Matt puts the chicken pieces in, and then I seal up the bags while he takes the now-empty chicken container out to the garbage. Raven and Mathias are shrieking with glee while they play some game on the new rug.
7:00 P.M. – While Matt reads bedtime stories to the older two, I load as many dishes as will fit into the dishwasher and get it started and finish cleaning up from dinner.
7:15 P.M. – I update this post quickly while the kids brush their teeth and go to the bathroom, where Mathias goes pee for a third (!) time in the potty. (I’m quickly realizing that I’d best start potty training quite a bit sooner than the summer or over Raven’s spring break, like I’d planned).
7:20 P.M. – Matt and I take the kids downstairs to help them get into pajamas and say family prayers. I sing my special songs to the kids first, then Matt sings his.
7:25 P.M. – The kids are officially in bed by now, though Mathias does come out once and almost loses his pacifier (which is his punishment if he comes out of bed when he shouldn’t). He gets off with a warning and gets back into bed, and I start my scripture study.
7:40 P.M. – I finish up my scripture study and come back to update this post a bit more, then I take a break to do some blog reading and check my email. I also watch a video on ways to be more successful at starting flowers from seed. Matt washes the rest of the dishes that need to be done by hand and then does his own study.
8:15 P.M. Ever since we treated ourselves to a Classic NES System for Christmas, we’ve taken to playing either Dr. Mario or Super Mario World 3 every night after the kids are in bed. While we play Dr. Mario, I catch up on the Marco Polos that have been left in my friend group.
9:30 P.M. We take a break from Dr. Mario so Matt can use the bathroom, and I take the time to quickly update this post.
9:45 P.M. – I can’t leave the Dr. Mario game where it left off (my controller had issues, I promise!), so Matt indulges me and we play one more (which I win).
10:00 P.M. – Since Matt needs to leave early for work tomorrow, I decide to hop in the shower now so I don’t have to try to squeeze it in sometime the next day when he’s not around (which means it more than likely won’t happen). I don’t love showering at night, but sometimes it’s necessary. #momlife
10:30 P.M. – I’m out of the shower and start my bedtime routine.
10:45 P.M. – I often will let my hair air dry, but I can’t stand to sleep with wet hair, so I blow dry it.
11:00 P.M. – I catch up on this post, then read a few pages in my book (Winter Solstice this time).
11:15 P.M. – Matt and I say prayers together, then it’s lights out!
Compared to years past, it was kind of a boring day-in-the-life since we didn’t go anywhere, but like I said, that’s pretty indicative of what life has been like for the past 11 months as we all know!
Thanks for following along with our day 🙂
P. S. For past Day in the Life posts, click HERE.
