A Day in A Life . . . .of Me!

Today I am so excited to be joining these amazing other bloggers for the A Day In The Life series hosted by 11 Magnolia Lane! We are all taking you into our days and showing you what a real day looks like for us from getting ready in the morning, our daily schedules, how we organize our life and much much more. I know I will learn a lot about all these ladies and get some new ideas to simplify my daily routine even more. Now total disclaimer. EVERY photo I am sharing in this post is from my iPhone. I wanted this to really be as raw as possible. With what I do, no day is typical but this will really give you a good sense of how I manage a at home business, building our new home, raising a little one and trying (but not really!) to do it all. It’s not glamorous people! Alright so here we go!

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My Morning . . . .

tissue paper flowers | comforter (similar) | bedding (similar)  | headboard

My mornings generally look like this. My husband wakes me and my little girl, Lauren up about 6:30. As you can see she is a morning person. Me not so much. I sleep walk to the kitchen and make her lunch and help her get ready. They are off about 7:40 and then the house is quiet. This is where I have already had 1 cup of coffee at this point and need 2 more! I recently redid my upper cabinet above our coffee maker to make coffee time much more organized and efficient for us with all our supplies right at our fingertips. You can see the makeover right HERE.

Keurig | sugar bowl with spoon | coffee mug

Generally at this point, I sit down at my computer and get all social posts scheduled for the day on all our media channels. I checkin with my VA’s if needed to get them going for the day and just make sure there were no fires from the night before. Over the last 2 years I have REALLY tried (but not always successful) to not work at night. But you know how IG can just grab ya and suck you in!

dish towel (similar) | bowl | flatware

Once emails and social scheduling is done for the day, I make a little breakfast. I am not really a breakfast person but lately I’ve really been trying hard to do it. My husband lectures me all the time on how it is the most important meal of the day. I’ve been making this greek yogurt medley and it is super yummy. I’m not reinventing the wheel by any means but here are the ingredients: Chobani yogurt, granola, fresh berries and local honey drizzled on top. It seriously is SO good.

Then I take my breakfast and sit back at the computer until 10:30ish and then go take a shower.

Today is a little different of a day though. I need to rush through any computer work and get myself ready for the day early. My husband and I have a meeting with our contractor on our home we are building. You can read all about it HERE. There are so many decisions to be made but I think I am less overwhelmed than my husband since I used to do this for a living back in Los Angeles. I am a pretty detail oriented person so I have an electrical/lighting plan already done for the contractor. After this meeting we break ground!

camo jacket | grey t-shirt | jeans | shoes

My Afternoon . . . .

After our meeting with Andres, our contractor, I am running errands before I head back to my office. I play the dual part of business owner/stay at home mom and on school days I am limited on my time. I’ve got to be in carpool at 3pm so I’ve got to hurry.

Once I finish my errands, it’s back to home and making a quick lunch to eat at my desk. I check back in on my social channels and answer any blog comments/questions from our posts that launched that morning. At this point in the day, I generally have 2 hours left before I need to be in carpool if I am not running errands.

Today I am starting to work on my fall home decor for a upcoming home tour and using this time to style, online shop and gather my affiliate links for my post. This is a huge sneak peek of what I am doing this year! I probably will shoot the spaces in the next week or too when I am done. This is generally the time of day I photograph, edit photos and write blog posts. I get the best light in my living room at this time of day and really love the natural light to flood my photos.

After I get Lauren I run over to Kroger to get my groceries for the week. I use the online ordering most weeks because it really is such a time saver for me with how much work I am trying to pack in while she is in school. At first I felt spoiled using it and even thought maybe I really didn’t need to use the service but there are a few reasons why I can’t ever quite ClickList. First of all I am saving 45 minutes of my work time by not going up and down the isles AND I have been saving us money. So it does cost about $5 to use, but by the time I left the store I would have $20-$30 more of things I did not need and were not on my list. So in my book saving time and money is gold!

I make a little afternoon coffee and sit and write or do back end blog work (like update links, work on newsletters, etc.) This is quiet time in the house. Lauren gets 1 hour to herself to play in her playroom or with our new kitten Sasha. Then at 4pm, is homework time. Lauren just started 3rd grade so the homework is starting to pick up. She has to read for 20 minutes and then has about 15-20 minutes of homework from class she brings home. When she’s done, her reward is 20 minutes of iPad time while I am making dinner.

My Evening . . . . .

Tonight though is softball practice, so it is a quick meal and off we go! I honestly hate cooking dinner. I will bake any day but making dinner is such a chore for me. Luckily, my husband is very easy going about this and helps me. I typically cook 3-4 nights a week and then he does the rest whether it is bringing something home or we go out.

Lauren’s practice is about 2 hours tonight. It’s a bit later than we usually like for her to stay up but softball is only 2 nights during the week. I really love watching her play and wish my dad could have been around to see her. He was such a big ball player and this would have been a dream for him! Though it has been 8 years I still think of my dad every day and know that he would have loved to see this stage in my life.

If Lauren is not at softball practice, then after dinner she takes her shower. When she is done is our family time. We generally use this hour to watch something on tv together (our current favorite is America’s Got Talent) or play a board game. We make it such a point that she knows this is our very special time of the day to be connected.

After I get her in bed around 8:30, it’s my time to decompress. I’m in my jammies and ready to veg on the couch or bed (preferably the bed!) and watch some tv with Bryan. This is where IG sucks me in generally and I seriously need to break that habit. BUT I find that is when most people are sitting on social media and posting so it is hard not to interact with you all live in the evenings. I love talking to you right when you leave comments!

Then friends, I am done. Out. Until 6:30 in the morning when I can barely open my eyes!

My favorite things to get organized with:

I am super OCD and love to be as organized as possible to keep my days running smoothly and to not forget things. So I thought I would share a few of my favorite things I like to use to keep me organized.

1. Dropbox – Um this is huge. I have the app on my phone even. You can read all about how I use it for my business right HERE.

2. 11×17 Oversized Calendar – This is my go-to way to organize at a quick glance. I actually have this sitting under my keyboard on my desk and have my full month view at a glance. I absolutely love being able to see my whole month right under my fingertips. I also use it to scribble notes on when I am on the phone and jot quick things I will need to know for the month.

3. A Day Planner – Now this is how I organize my days/life long term. I am a paper person by heart and scheduling things on my phone is just not in my genes. I plan my daily to-do’s here and month by month plans. I also use this for tracking our social media channels trends to see patterns or increases day by day.

4. Magnetic Calendar – This is our monthly go-to family planner. It is on the side of our fridge and anyone of use can go to it to see what the month/daily schedules are. With Lauren’s sports, we all need this for a point of reference.

5. LePen Pens – These are my most favorite pens ever to write with! They write smoothly and don’t bleed through paper. Trust me you will never use other pens after using these!

6. Online Food Shopping – No need to explain more than my raving comments above. Just do it. Trust me! It’s life changing!!

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And don’t miss A Day In The Life of some of my amazing blogger friends. Y’all these ladies are super talented business/mommas and they all have amazing tips on how they manage their crazy busy days!