In the past 3 years, my life has changed drastically. I went from being a very, very stay at home mom of two sweet tiny boys living in Charlotte, NC to being a mostly stay at home mom of almost 4 boys living in Indianapolis, IN. It sounds so similar, but it feels very different.
I’d love to share with you what my days look like as a 90% stay at home momma who also runs two crazy businesses. It’s wild, it’s fun, it’s busy, it’s full…and it’s good. It’s also hard, and loud, and sometimes difficult to manage…and it’s good. My buddies Jessi and Casey are sharing their days, too.
On Mondays, I get all the kids ready and then get my oldest on the bus for kindergarten. Then, I head to the grocery store and grocery shop with the two littler boys from 8:30-9:30am. After that, I swing by my grandparents house. They live about 2 miles from us and bless me hugely by hanging out with Cooper and Asher every Monday. I wouldn’t be able to get to do what I do without their help. There is no time to stay and chat, though, I have to head home to my weekly 10am meeting with Casey, Jessi, and Kacia. We talk life, business, and the Lord. It is good. The rest of the day on Monday is spent producing content, conducting meetings, or doing intensive planning that needs lots of focus. I try to use my childcare days the best I can. I work when it is work time and often don’t leave my desk chair for hours on end. I try to plan my day in advance to squeeze every bit of work out. I take care of the things that are much, much harder to do with the kids. I want to be a wise steward of my work days so that they days when I am with my kids I can be more with them.
Tuesdays are different days all together! Let’s look at a typical Tuesday.
6:30am–My middle Cooper wakes me up. It’s early. I fight the temptation to pop on social media right away. Instead, I head over to the YouVersion app and catch up on the latest She Reads Truth devotional. It’s perfect for this season in my life when laying down, in the dark quiet, trying not to wake my other kids up trumps schlepping to a desk to open up my paper Bible. Cooper watches a show on the iPad while I do my devos. I snooze as long as he’ll let me after I finish reading.
Around 7:30–My oldest Noah bumbles in having awoken to his alarm clock. Sometimes he’s dressed and ready to go for school already. Those days are my favorite. He and Cooper normally talk about their dreams from the night before or their plans for the day. Sometimes they’ll finish up watching whatever Coop had on the iPad. Then, they grab some breakfast. Unless we are in a silly hurry, I encourage them to prepare their own breakfast. I don’t want to be one of those moms of all boys who raises men who can’t do anything independently. ;) Plus, it makes my morning that much easier (if slightly messier).
While they are eating, I’m busy packing Noah’s lunch and checking his school things to make sure I’m not failing as a school mom. :) At 7:55am, I shoo Noah towards the door to grab his coat, backpack, and shoes. If he doesn’t get to the end of the driveway by 7:59am, he’ll most likely miss the bus.
8:00am–Noah is on the bus and I take a brief deep breath. I feel like I’ve cleared the first hurdle in my day. Then, I hear Asher banging around in his crib upstairs. His favorite thing to do is stand up and shake the crib rails, he can efficiently move his crib around the nursery this way. It’s loud, it’s obnoxious, and it’s unsettling. Any suggestions?? :) I grab him up and get him dressed for the day. If Cooper hasn’t managed to get himself dressed by this point, I encourage him to do so.
8:30am–Drive Cooper to preschool.
9am-11:30am–I work on Tiny Twig administrational stuff. Emails, planning, writing, collaborations. I’m also probably rolling a ball back and forth with Asher, or possibly he’s sitting at the table snacking while I’m working. At some point, I get Asher down for a quick morning nap.
11:30am–Leave to pick Cooper up from preschool. I wait in a line of 10 minivans or SUVs. I feel very much like an adult. Cooper hops in an immediately starts chatting my ear off about his day. He has wild stories about all the things they’ve done. I try to be super present with him and let him take his time telling his stories. I’ve found that he feels unimportant if I don’t take the time to let him fully detail his day.
Noon–Time for lunch. I find if I sit down with the boys during their lunch time and really talk with them and enjoy a meal, then they are much happier to spend time playing independently later in the afternoon. Next up is play time around the house for the boys, and I do wifely work–laundry, dishes, paying bills, making appointments, etc.
12:30-1:30pm–We spend time running errands, playing around the house, and getting other bits of things done. I may do emails here and there, or maybe I’ll do some social media catch up on my phone. But, most of this time is spent just “as a mom”.
1:30-3:30pm–Time to work on The Influence Network. This is a particularly fun time of the day for me! I love that we are in the ideation phase–that’s the best for me!
3:45pm–Noah gets off the bus and we hit the flurry of snack-time and full on brother-time. It’s loud, it’s crazy, it’s chaos. It’s a lot. I try to escape their presence for a bit during this time and just let them enjoy each other’s company (and save myself some sanity!). I’ll pick up around the house for the day, start thinking about dinner, etc.
5:30pm–Husband gets home and my work time mostly ends. We’re pretty adamant about our time together, unless their is a pressing deadline looming that cannot be met otherwise. We talk while he gets changed from work, he wrestles around with the boys while I finish up dinner, and then we eat.
6pm–Dinner. We always ask each other what the best part of our day was and what is one thing we did to serve someone else. We ask about serving, not to encourage them to boast about it, but to encourage them to be mindful of others throughout the day. The boys hate if we forget to ask these questions, and there is normally some sort of negotiation about who should ask the questions that night.
7pm–Kids in bed. Bliss. Quiet. Ahhhhhh.
For the rest of the evening, Mike and I generally chat about our days. We talk about business (his and mine), goals, big family dreams. We may do what we call “parallel solitude time”–where we either do work side-by-side or study the Bible on our own but sitting together. It’s one of the ways we stay sane. By about 9:30pm, we’re snuggled in a “nest” on the couch and catch up on some Netflix or Hulu before I fade away to sleep. We cherish our time together in the evenings–and if we’re doing business it’s planning and dreaming, the fun stuff for us. We’re working on our business rather than in our business. No tasky things for the evening time.
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I’d imagine your days look something like this sort of juggle. It’s just that this juggle is mine. Not better, not worse, just mine. On Friday, Jessi, Casey, and I will be back to share our takeaways and what works for us as mommas who juggle a lot.