Every February for the past several years, I’ve done a traditional “Day in the Life” post just to show how much changes (and what doesn’t!) from year to year. I’d anticipated that this year’s DITL post would show a pregnant work-at-home mom of 3, but I recently had a missed miscarriage, which has been hard. However, I’m at least physically feeling better than I have in a couple months, so I am grateful to be able to do normal tasks and activities again without feeling like I need to throw up all the time (or take a nap every afternoon to get through the day).
Last year’s post showed telltale marks of the pandemic, as we went nowhere (other than Raven going to school and Matt going to work, both masked up) and saw no one outside of our immediate household. This year, things are opening up and looking a lot more “normal.” I’m also heading into the busiest season of the flower farm we own, which wasn’t really an official thing yet 12 months ago.
If you want to see past year’s DITL posts, click HERE.
Note: There are affiliate links to books and other products mentioned below.
Day in the Life 2/16/2022
6:45 a.m. I wake up to my alarm going off (an obnoxious rooster crowing sound) and immediately turn on my bedside lamp and sit up so I’m not tempted to go back to sleep. I can hear that Matt is already up and getting in the shower, and the two older kids are out playing with the balloons they got for Valentine’s Day (and the dog is in his kennel growling at the balloons they got for Valentine’s Day). I say my morning prayer, then quickly do a social media check to make sure I haven’t received any new messages for the flower farm.
6:53 a.m. I go to the kitchen to turn up the temperature in the house to 65, since the 62 degrees we keep it at night is just a bit nippy for daytime. I start pulling out bowls and cereal boxes for breakfast.
7:00 a.m. I can hear Hyrum squawking happily in his crib, so I go downstairs to get him out and change his diaper and clothes. He is generally super happy upon waking, which makes him a lot of fun to go “rescue” from bed. He tells me he wants a “pouch” (applesauce pouch), but I remind him that it’s not “gonk” (snack) time, but breakfast time. He just laughs and asks me for the toy car on the floor.
7:07 a.m. I take my morning bathroom break, where I do my daily Wordle. I always start with the word “arise,” which only nets me one letter this time. I decide to choose my second word with all new letters to try and get more of the letters. I now know three and am miraculously able to guess the word correctly on the third try (“caulk”). Not bad! I then read a few pages from my current ebook, Hunt, Gather, Parent (which is absolutely incredible so far–super high recommend).
7:17 a.m. Potty break over, I join the rest of the family for breakfast. Raven finishes first, so we send her down to her room to go get dressed for school. Mathias follows with their balloons, which livens up the process…and makes it take three times longer.
7:30 a.m. Hyrum and I are the last ones eating, mostly because he keeps asking for more. While he eats, Hyrum squinches his eyes shut and eats blindly, laughing as the milk dribbles everywhere. Once he’s finally finished (after three bowls), I start breakfast cleanup. Meanwhile, Matt has been taking the puppy out to go potty, getting the chickens fresh water and gathering eggs, and refilling the puppy’s food.
7:45 a.m. Raven and Mathias finally march back upstairs, balloons in tow, singing a made-up marching song. Mathias is still not dressed, even though I called down twice to remind him. I call Raven in to the bathroom so we can do her hair (she brushes, I do the half ponytail/braid). While she goes in to get shoes on, I keep cleaning up from breakfast and unload and load the dishwasher.
8:00 a.m. Matt and Raven are ready to go out the door to school and work. Everyone gives hugs and kisses and I love you’s, and they head out, with Mathias and Hyrum laughing through the window as they wave at them driving away.
8:05 a.m. I go and grab an outfit for Mathias to change him into. There is a minor tantrum because he didn’t get to choose it himself (with me reminding him that I told him twice to pick one and he chose not to listen), but he finally gets dressed once I tell him I need his help to put soap in the dishwasher and get it started, which we do after he’s ready for the day.
8:15 a.m. I need to clean up the front room because I have some neighbors coming over later, so I ask the boys to come help move all their toys out of there. They each fill play shopping carts with all the stuff and literally dump it into the playroom and then race back for more. Once everything is cleared out, we go back to the playroom and tidy up at least some of the mess that was just made in there. Then it’s time to vacuum.
8:45 a.m. With the front room tidy and the playroom at least walkable and not completely scary, I tell the boys they can start a movie while I go shower. Hyrum screams, “Cars!”, but Mathias reminds me that it’s his turn to pick and that he wants “the one with the yellow car.” Having no idea which one he’s talking about (since he doesn’t appear to be referring to Cars 3), I steer him towards the Toy Story collection, and he settles on the first one after I show him the picture of RC, the racing car on the back.
8:55 a.m. Boys settled in front of the movie and the puppy in his large kennel (so he won’t rip apart my kitchen garbage while I’m out of the room), I come in my bedroom to update this post, and then I go hop in the shower.
9:40 a.m. I’ve showered, dressed, put on makeup, and roughly blow dried my hair, so it’s go time. I change Hyrum’s diaper while Mathias sits on the potty, then I get on everyone’s shoes and get Onyx in his kennel. Then we’re off in the car to take the puppy to his first grooming appointment.
10:00 a.m. We get to the grooming place right on time, but I don’t really know what to do since I’ve never done the process before. Thankfully Onyx is calm and has no problem being handed over, and since I have no idea how I want his hair cut, I just tell them to cut it as short as they would recommend for winter and make him look “less crazy.” I think the people working there think I’M a little crazy, or maybe just clueless.
10:05 a.m. Leaving the grooming shop, I get a call from Matt telling me he forgot to bring his lunch, so we swing by the house real quick again to get that. Our front door lock has been weird lately so I’m locked out for a few minutes, but I finally figure it out.
10:15 a.m. En route to Matt’s work, we make our customary stop at McDonald’s for a treat since we’re “in town.” The boys want a breakfast sandwich, and I plan to get Matt and I some Diet Dr. Peppers, but…they’re all out. Major bummer. I just get myself a breakfast sandwich too and call it good. (I can’t get Matt one because they’re not gluten-free.)
10:25 a.m. We drop off Matt’s lunch to him at work, then the boys and I head to Walmart to do a smallish grocery trip, mostly for the little family vacay we’re taking shortly. We try to pack a lot of our own food when we travel and book a hotel that serves breakfast so that we only have to eat out about a third of the time. Our hotel room has a fridge and a microwave, so we’re just doing some basic meals in there, like hot dogs, tacos, and sandwiches. The kids are usually pretty good at the store, but both of them think it’s hilarious today to randomly make high-pitched wailing noises, which gets them a few stern mutterings under my breath.
11:25 a.m. We check out at the store and load up the car. I take a five-minute break after we’re all in the car to upload my receipt to the Ibotta app so I can get some cash back. After that’s done, we make the 15-minute drive (or so) back home.
11:45 a.m. Home again, home again! Mathias is particular about how he gets out of the car and through which door he exits, so that is all very drawn out. I unload all the groceries while Mathias holds open the doors for me. Then it’s time to unpack the groceries, take a bathroom break, and get lunch for the boys (super simple today — just Greek yogurt and fruit since they had the breakfast sandwich not too long before). Both of their faces are completely covered in yogurt by the end.
12:15 p.m. Lunch over, we’re entering an awkward time — I’m still waiting for the grooming place to call me to pick up Onyx, but Hyrum needs to go to bed soon. I decide to let the boys finish watching the movie and hope that the grooming place calls shortly. I also come in to update this post.
12:40 p.m. The movie is over and the place still hasn’t called, but they said the appointment should be over around 12:30, so I decide to drive over and see if I’m just supposed to show up. When I get there, they’re still working on Onyx and saying he’s “particularly wiggly” (sounds about right) and that it will be another 20-30 minutes. I decide to just put Hyrum down for his nap since the place is only about two blocks away, and I’ll just pick up the puppy when Hyrum is sleeping.
1:00 p.m. Hyrum is down for his nap and Mathias is happily playing make-believe in the playroom, so I catch up on email and blog stuff. I discover that my blog’s host is actually down and the site is not working, so I quickly put in a support ticket to get that fixed. I also review the info that came in about a seminar/guest lecture I’m giving next week at the local college on our first year of flower farming.
1:05 p.m. I decide to use this slot of time to start on some flower farming stuff I’ve got to do. I start off with getting some CSA bouquet subscription certificates ready to mail, and I check which seeds need to be started. I go out to the kitchen to find the seed packets and start to get everything set up to get those sown. I’m able to sow a whole tray of stock seeds before I get the call to come pick up Onyx.
1:45 p.m. Mathias and I go to pick Onyx up, and I almost want to laugh out loud when I see him — he looks so different! Nothing at all like the puppy we dropped off. He basically goes out of his mind when he sees me again and when we get back home a few minutes later, he bounds all around the yard in frantic bursts of energy, testing out his new coat and his newfound freedom from having to sit still so long for his grooming.
1:55 p.m. I send Matt a Marco Polo of the dog (which gives him a good laugh), and then I get back to seed starting. I have a narrow window of time (yet again) to do it, since I need to leave to pick up Raven from school in about half an hour. Once I’ve figured out what actually needs to go in the second tray, however, it’s pretty much time to go and I only have time to make the labels.
2:30 p.m. We leave to go pick up Raven from school.
2:45 p.m. All home again, I get the older kids snacks and go back to seed starting. I hear Hyrum wake up a few minutes later, so I get him out of his crib and then get him set up with his snacks as well.
3:15 p.m. Finally the seeds are sown and the kids are fed. I have a couple people from church coming over for a visit, so I tell the kids they can watch a show (whaaaaat, two shows in one day?! crazy). I hop on YouTube and catch up on some of my favorite flower farming channels while I wait for them to come over.
3:30 p.m. Two sisters from our church come over to visit and see how I’m doing. It’s still a bit hard for me to talk about the miscarriage in person, but it’s nice having such a good support system. We also talk about a lot of other things because we all happened to share a lot of similar interests, so the visit went for quite awhile.
4:20 p.m. Once they’re gone, I take a short bathroom break and then start thinking about dinner and researching options. I also take the newly sown trays of seeds down to the grow room.
4:45 p.m. I finally decide to make one of our old favorites — Hamburger Casserole — gluten-free. This used to be one of our favorite meals that I would make almost weekly, but once Matt was diagnosed with celiac nearly two years ago, we haven’t eaten it since. The tricky thing was finding a homemade version of tomato condensed soup, but I found a good one here, and the finished dish actually turned out to taste pretty close to the original. Win! Matt got home while I was making dinner, and after he said hello to everyone (and we laughed together about the puppy looking slightly ridiculous with his new haircut), he went out to the workshop to work on some of the pieces for the high tunnel we’re building for the flower farm.
5:30 p.m. Dinner’s ready! Hyrum barely touches his and Raven says she “kinda likes it and kinda doesn’t,” but Mathias eats three bowls, so…not a total loss. We also hadn’t told our kids about our vacation coming up yet at all, so we surprised them with the news at dinner. Whenever we’re doing something fun, we usually try to wait until just before we’re about to actually do it to tell the kids so that we don’t have to hear them asking every day how much longer they have to wait 🙂
5:55 p.m. Once dinner is over, I head into our room to update this post and discover my site has totally shut down again, making me nervous that I’d lost this whole post. I send in an urgent ticket to my host server, and they said it was due to a power shortage that should be resolved shortly. While I wait for the site to re-boot so I can check to see how upset (or not) I should be, I half-read a floral design book while the two boys jump on our bed. (Matt is out in the kitchen helping Raven with her homework.)
6:25 p.m. Homework’s finished and my blog is still down, so I start trying to get Hyrum to pick a book so we can start his bedtime routine. Unfortunately, as he’s twisting away from me, I feel my back twinge weirdly, which makes me immediately stop what I’m doing and go try to roll out my back before the problem gets worse. Because of the back injury I suffered about three and a half years ago, I’ve had major issues with pain and my back going out regularly ever since. Luckily after rolling it out on my absolute life-saver of a foam roller (seriously, best purchase ever) and doing some stretches, my back seems to settle more or less back into a more normal state, and I’m able to rejoin the family. By this time, Matt’s read to Hyrum and brushed his teeth, so I just give him hugs and kiss him goodnight before Matt takes him down to his room.
6:50 p.m. While Matt’s putting Hyrum down for the night, I’m starting the bedtime routine with the older two. We first read Mathias’s picture book of choice (Shoes), and then I read two chapters out of the family read-aloud we’ve been doing all month (Mr. Popper’s Penguins) while Matt brushes the kids’ teeth. We finish it off with a scripture story, then send the kids off to do their final potty trips, put on lotion, get drinks, etc.
7:20 p.m. We’re down in the kids’ bedroom, reminding them to be quiet and get dressed in their p.j.’s as they bounce around the place. Mathias has to run upstairs to retrieve his favorite pillow. Finally everyone’s dressed for bed, and we kneel together to say our family prayer. Afterwards, I sing both kids their special bedtime songs, tuck them in, and kiss them good night. I head upstairs to read my scriptures while Matt sits outside their bedroom door for about 15 minutes to make sure they stay in bed and don’t get too scared (and that’s when he studies his scriptures, too).
7:35 p.m. Scripture reading finished, we both convene in the front room to do our (very short) exercise routine we started very recently. We both were getting sick of being so out of shape and I knew that I needed to start strengthening my core and back again so I can stop getting injured, so we just do some light stretching for about 5 minutes and then each choose various strength exercises for the next 10-15 minutes. Tonight’s workout included squats, planks, superman pose, crunches, as well as some other random things. It’s not a ton, but it’s definitely better than nothing, which is what we were doing before.
7:55 p.m. I check to see if my blog is back up yet, and it is finally working again. Thankfully, I hardly lost anything in the power outage, which was a major relief. I work on updating this post.
8:15 p.m. Veg time! After we’ve gotten the kids in bed and cleaned up from dinner, we let ourselves watch a couple episodes of one of the shows we own (right now we’re currently watching season one of Chuck), and then undo all the exercise we just did and eat snacks 🙂
10:15 p.m. Time to get ready for bed. Wash face, use bathroom, brush teeth, etc.
11:00 p.m. Say prayers together as a couple, chat for a few minutes.
11:15 p.m. Lights out!
What would be interesting is if I showed you a DITL post from next month, when flower farming stuff REALLY starts to ramp up — then you would be able to see how very minimal cleaning gets done for about two months around here 🙂 Drop a comment below if you have any questions or comments about our daily routine!
