My Typical Day!

What's a typical day like in the life of a Stay-at-home-Mom of 3 precious little girls and a busy husband who helps to run the family business?

My alarm goes off at 7am, but I usually hit snooze at least once or twice, so I end up getting up around 7:15. Yes, I wait until the last possible minute before I have to get up!

The first thing I do is wake Madison and Kaylee up and get their breakfast. While they eat, I iron their clothes to wear. Yes, I iron every single piece of clothing that the girls and I wear. It's an obsessive-compulsive habit that I have always had, even before I left home, that I got from my Mom I guess. So, on a typical day, I will iron 8 pieces of clothing. (sometimes more if they have dance or softball that day)

After they finish eating, they get dressed and then they come in the bathroom so that I can fix their hair. While we're doing this, Morgan (my husband) is taking his shower and getting dressed for work (in a different bathroom, of course!). Around 7:50, they're all ready to go. Our chihuahua, Bella, gets really excited every morning and I have to pick her up so she can give high-fives to the girls before they leave for school, or "high-fivens" as they call it. She just wants me to hold her so she can put her paw on their hands. I don't even know how this got started, but we do it every morning. Ha! Then, since Morgan works right by their school, he drops them off at school on his way to work. I am very lucky that he's able to do that, so I don't have to worry about getting myself dressed first thing in the morning too. They have to be at school by 8:20am.

After they leave, I usually have about an hour before Lily wakes up. I always fix myself a cup of coffee and then sit down in the living room with my laptop and check emails/blogs. Once she wakes up, I get her something to drink and fix her breakfast. She likes to watch cartoons, so she'll eat breakfast and watch cartoons. I usually use this time to do the dishes, get laundry going if needed, etc. I never watch TV during the day. It's always on cartoons for her, if she wants to watch. Usually, she just follows me around to watch whatever I'm doing or she'll play with her barbies or whatever in the living room.

If we have errands to run that day, I'll take an early shower and try to get us out of the house right after lunch. We usually eat lunch between 11 and 12. Some days we might need to go to the bank and post office. Some days we might need to go grocery shopping. Some days we might have something at school going on with the girls. And some days, we might not have anything going on. On those days, I usually don't even get out of my PJ's until 2pm. I love it! But, I rarely ever leave the house without a shower, makeup on, and ironed clothes, so even on the days I have nothing to do, I make sure and do that before I leave to go pick up the girls from school. Lily usually plays with my makeup while I'm taking a shower and then I get my hair/makeup done and I iron our clothes and we get dressed.

Since I also have my own business, there are days when I have orders to complete, so I get those done while the girls are at school. Usually if I'm in my office working, I will turn on some music, and Lily will paint or color (or make a huge mess with her scissors, which she is obsessed with lately), or she likes to play with my ribbons or spools of thread.

Let me just tell you this.......I do not spend every day cleaning, that's for sure! If I have something coming up (like someone is coming over that I know about), I will spend an entire day dusting, mopping, vacuuming, putting toys away, and scrubbing. But, on a daily basis, the main things I do are keep the kitchen/dishes clean and I try to pick up Lily's toys in the living room, but it doesn't always happen. I just do not have time, or the desire to make time, to clean every day. Besides that, I can have this house spotless and in one day it's all messy again. I have decided that it's not worth nagging my family to pick up after themselves every day. Yes, I try to keep the bathrooms clean, try to keep up with laundry, try to keep the dustbunnies in the living room to a minimum (where in the world do those things come from anyways?!!), but I'm not perfect. I used to stress myself out and give myself migraines over trying to keep this house clean, and I'm not going to do it anymore! And my poor husband, bless his heart, has days when he lovingly asks me if I can please do his laundry today. LOL! And we won't mention the fact that my girls usually grab what they need out of their laundry basket, instead of their dressers upstairs, because Mom hasn't made it back up there with their clean clothes.

So, we leave about 40 minutes before the girls get out of school because they are at 2 different campuses, and if I don't make it near the front of the car line for picking up Madison, then Kaylee will be the very last one still waiting for me to pick her up at her school. We have a portable DVD player in the car, so Lily watches a movie and I read a book while we wait. That is something I look forward to every day because I love to read and I get a good 30 minutes of reading time in! Then we pick up both girls. By the time we get them both and get back home, an hour has passed just to pick them up from school! But, I love being able to pick them up. I would miss it if they rode the bus.

Once we get home, the girls get a snack and do their homework. I have always made them do their homework first thing, that way they have the rest of the evening to play or do what they want. I don't always cook. We have dance on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Kaylee is playing softball now, which means 2 nights a week we will have games to go to, and we also have bible study on Friday nights. So, some nights we will cook a quick meal, some nights Morgan will cook if I'm gone to dance, some nights he just picks something up on his way home from a local restaurant, some nights we just eat leftovers, and on Friday we eat at bible study. It just depends on what we have going on that night and what time we'll be gone. Usually, Morgan doesn't get home until around 7pm from work. Lately, he's been working at our church (helping to build out our new church lease space), so I've been on my own until he gets home around 8pm or even later. Many nights, he will come home and throw some meat on the grill and we'll work together to get some sides fixed to go with it while it's cooking. I really don't like cooking, so if I cook, it's usually taco salad, roast and mashed potatoes, or spaghetti. Alot of times, I'll pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and just throw some sides together to go with it. Or a frozen pizza........there, now you know my deep dark secret!

Unless we're gone, I try to have us eat around 7, bathtime at 8, and have the girls in bed by 9pm. During bathtime, I give Lily her bath and then while the older girls are taking a shower, I usually sing on the karaoke machine. Lily plays with her toys in the playroom or we'll all sing or dance around. I love that time of the day. Then, Morgan and I will catch up on our shows or whatever. He usually goes to bed around 11, and then I stay up until at least midnight. I love that time by myself. It's the only time during the day that I have to myself, because Lily does not take naps. I usually watch The Young and the Restless and write my blog posts during that time. Like right now, it's super late and I really should be in bed! I usually try to get in bed around midnight.

So, that's more than you ever wanted to know about my typical day! Being a SAHM is definitely not boring, low-stress, or all about being lazy and watching soap operas all day. Yes, there are days when I am lazy (but even people who work have lazy days.....I know, because I used to be a working Mom), but if that happened every day, bills wouldn't get paid, checks wouldn't get mailed, kids wouldn't get fed, picked up from school, or shuttled to activities, homework wouldn't get done, clothes wouldn't get ironed (gasp!), chores wouldn't get done, schedules and special events wouldn't be taken care of and prepared for, people wouldn't have cute onesies for their babies (LOL!), school projects wouldn't get done, Lily wouldn't know her ABC's or how to count, songs wouldn't get sung, dances wouldn't get danced, parties wouldn't get planned, and most of all..........memories wouldn't be made!!!

There was a time when I worked full-time and there was fulfillment that came from being a professional, independent, and making money, but now that I am a SAHM, I really don't think I would ever trade it for going back to work again, unless I had to. I love being able to be there for the girls, go to their parties and activities at school, take them to dance, be at their softball games, and most of all just spending time with them. I do struggle alot with the perception that some people have of SAHM's, but I am learning that those people just have no idea how much responsibility comes with having this job or how hard it is (or isolating, at times)! There are definitely days in the evenings when I tell the girls to please go play upstairs because Momma needs some quiet time (Haha!), but I really love this time in my life with them and I know I'll miss it when they're all grown up!

Visit Kelly's Korner to see what other people do during the day!