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. In last year’s post, I was 5 months pregnant with Naomi and we were buried under so much snow that there wasn’t much flower farming stuff I could do (plus we weren’t full-time with it at that point, so I actually did a minimal amount of work on it during the DITL post last year).
This year, we have an almost-9-year-old, a 5-year-old, a 4-year-old, and an almost 10-month old. I’m still pumping a bottle of milk every 3 hours (which basically means my entire day is dictated around that), and now that our flower farm is what is supporting our family, a lot more of our days revolve around that. (I really should do another DITL post in August during the actual growing season–then you can really see how crazy it gets around here!)
If you want to see past years’ DITL posts, click HERE.
Note: There may be affiliate links to books or products mentioned in this post.
Tuesday 2/20/24
6:30 a.m. I’m woken up by a strange clicking sound. It takes me a groggy minute or so to realize that it must be Hyrum playing with his magnetic tiles (best present EVER from this last Christmas, BTW) out in the t.v. room. I doze in and out of sleep for the next half hour, waking up more and more, especially once Matt’s alarm goes off (6:45) and Hyrum climbs into our bed soon after Matt goes and takes a shower.
7:00 a.m. My own alarm goes off. Prayers, bathroom, let the dog out.
7:10 a.m. I make the bed, get Mathias a drink of water (who’s just woken up), then get my pump stuff out of the dishwasher so I can pump a bottle for Naomi. I start pumping around 7:15 or so, and I always do a half hour pump first thing in the morning. While I pump, I check the farm’s social media, my email, and do the Wordle for the day. Then I play a little Spider Solitaire to wake up my brain. I also work on this post a bit. While I’m pumping, Matt wakes up Raven (who slept through her alarm), gets the kids breakfast, and then makes sure the older two get ready for school. It’s the kids’ White Ribbon Week at school, so we need to also find them hats to wear.
7:45 a.m. I start to get ready for the day once I’m done pumping, but then I remember that the kids need to bring their reading logs back today, so I go out to sign those. I realize that Mathias has two homework sheets we haven’t done yet (mostly because him having homework other than reading is a very recent development, so we’re still not used to it), and we have him sit down to do that. Matt helps him with that and takes our garbage can out to the curb.
8:05 a.m. Matt takes Raven and Mathias to school (and Hyrum tags along for the ride). They’re definitely going to be a bit late today, as Thias’s homework delayed us about 7-8 minutes. I finish getting ready after I give them all kisses goodbye.
8:15 a.m. I sit down to feed Naomi her bottle while Matt takes our van in to the mechanic (yet again). We hit a deer the other week (or, more accurately, a deer carcass that had already been hit by another car before us), and it messed up the bottom of our van. This is probably the 4th or 5th time we’ve taken it in with the same code, and we’ve already shelled out a few hundred bucks for it. Ugh. While I feed the baby, I read a book (The Self-Driven Child) on my Kindle app.
8:45 a.m. The baby is fed and playing in the front room while Matt sits with her and makes some calls/sends some texts about orders for the farm. I update this post and then start working on a social media post for the guy I’m doing some marketing for in tradeout for the specialized massage therapy sessions I do with him every month for my back. Hyrum interrupts me to print him out some coloring pages from their favorite online coloring site. I eat a couple sticks of string cheese for my breakfast while I keep working.
9:25 a.m. I finish the social media post for the company, and I start pulling out what I’m going to need for seed sowing today (Tuesdays are always seed sowing days around here!). Matt goes out to get me more potting soil and washes the trays for me, and I go ahead and sow five trays. Matt takes all our trays out to the porch that are hardening off and then gets the baby down for a morning nap while planting the new trays. A friend calls me in the middle of sowing, and I talk to her for about 20 minutes while I poke holes in the cells.
10:30 a.m. I take all the finished trays down to the grow room to put on the heat mats (if you’re ever curious about our growing setup, you can check out my other blog), and while I’m down there, I check on all the other seedlings and give them all a good watering. Matt and Hyrum leave to go pick up Mathias from kindergarten.
11:10 a.m. Matt and the boys are back and making lunch, so I heat up some leftovers for my own lunch and take a quick bathroom break. Matt washes my pump stuff for me so I can get going on that.
11:30 a.m. While I pump a bottle, I log on to watch the videos for the flower farming course Matt and I are taking right now. I eat my lunch while doing all that. Matt feeds Naomi solids while I pump.
12:10 p.m. Matt takes this feed with Naomi (while continuing to do some research/communication stuff for the farm on his phone), and I take the chance to update this post, update my seed sowing spreadsheet with everything I planted, and work on this week’s Weekly Frugal Wins post. The boys are happily playing together in the front room.
1:20 p.m. I publish the WFW post, then catch up on social media for both the farm and for the company I’m marketing for. Matt’s been playing with the boys and Naomi, and now he’s about to get her down for a nap. Typically on rainy days like today, we prioritize my work list over his since most of my stuff involves a computer, and on sunny days, like yesterday, he’ll go out for most of the day and work on prepping beds and putting in infrastructure and stuff like that. It’s a balancing act between the two of us for sure! Since he’s got the home front covered, I decide to keep plowing on with computer stuff and get our purchasing for the farm done for this week and taxes sorted out, since I plan to file those on Friday.
2:30 p.m. Matt leaves to go pick up Raven from school since it’s raining pretty hard (she normally would walk). Once she’s home, he heads out to a couple of stores to pick up some stuff he needs for a farm project. I start pumping a bottle, watching the flower farming course again while I do. Mathias comes in and wants me to print out some coloring pages for him, so I do that, too.
3:10 p.m. I take this feed with Naomi, which is perfect since my brain really needs a break anyway. I let myself just watch a YouTube video while I do. The three older kids have finished their snack time and are now happily singing and playing loudly together in the basement. After the baby’s done eating, I spend some time with her playing with toys and helping her to continue working on her sitting.
4:00 p.m. As I’ve literally ignored anything to do with the house all day, I figure I better do some focused time gaining back some basic order, so I put Naomi in her bouncer and do the dishes, clear off all the surfaces in the kitchen, and clean up 80% of the toys off the floor.
4:30 p.m. Time to start dinner. I want an easy Instant Pot meal, so I go on my Pinterest board for Instant Pot recipes, pick this easy one, and get it going. I also make a smoothie to go on the side since I know the kids will be more excited to try something new if they have a side they already know they like. While I’m cooking, Matt gets back from all the different hardware stores he was going to, bearing a Diet Dr. Pepper from McDonald’s for me. Bless him.
4:50 p.m. While I wait for the dinner to cook, I go back to the computer and continue to work on taxes for the farm.
5:25 p.m. Dinner’s ready! We always go around the table and everyone always tells us about their “good things and bad things” for the day. Not a single person had anything bad to report, which is always nice 🙂
5:55 p.m. I need to go pump again, so I go and do that while Matt starts getting all the kids ready for bed. Raven works on her homework during this time. She brings it in to me so I can check over it while I pump.
6:20 p.m. The kids come in by me so we can all say family prayers together. I finish up, then tuck Hyrum in and sing him his nighttime song.
6:40 p.m. Matt takes the feed with Naomi so I can get going on the dinner dishes and then I read a chapter from the book I’m reading aloud to Raven (The Candy Shop War). I take the older two kids down to bed around 7:15 to tuck them in and say good night, and then they are allowed to stay up until 8 reading in bed.
7:20 p.m. I go in to the computer again to put in two important orders for the farm that we need delivered as soon as possible. I also finish up the last of what I can do with our taxes before I go over them with my mom this weekend (who graduated with a degree in accounting). Once all that is done, I finish up all the dishes, start the dishwasher, and wipe down all the flat surfaces in the kitchen.
8:15 p.m. I sit down with Matt with a bowl of popcorn to watch a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory. We take turns cuddling with Naomi while we do so.
9:15 p.m. I need to do the last pump of the day. My brain is super done, so I just let myself play Spider Solitaire most of the time and respond to a couple texts from the guy I’m doing the marketing stuff for.
9:50 p.m. Matt always takes the final feed of the night since I take longer to get ready for bed. I finish updating this post first, then I go do the usual pre-bedtime routine — wash face, brush teeth, read scriptures, go to the bathroom, etc. I then read a little bit of my current nightstand pick (Tom Lake) before Matt puts Naomi down for the night and joins me.
10:35 p.m. Scriptures together, then prayers.
10:45 p.m. Lights out!
And that’s a wrap! I’ll have to see if I could put together one of these come summer, when we’re in full harvest season — I think it’d be pretty fun to see the difference!
