a day in the life

as a blog reader, i love day-in-the-life posts. it's partly voyeuristic, like peeking into someone's purse or medicine cabinet. growing up as the daughter of a sociologist, i'm well-versed in the art of people-watching. and knowing how someone else spends their day makes me feel good; it pulls back the curtain on "how does she do it all?" my friend robin wrote a cracker jack post on how she's balancing her schedule as a working mom, and then invited others to write their own day-in-the-life posts. i got to spend all day truly thinking about how i was spending my time... and it felt great!

of course writing down what i'm doing with my day doesn't quite capture everything. you can't schedule cheering for a friend who had a great ultrasound, sneaking cruz's halloween candy while he naps, or covering london's face in kisses while we wait for cruz to finish his snack. but this is my life and my day and it made me feel satisfied to take a good look at how it all balances out.

so here's what i did.

5:45am. tovi's alarm goes off for his first client at 6am. i get up right after he does, brush my teeth, and head downstairs. i pour myself a glass of water and drink it while i read my devotional (currently i'm reading this one) and pray. i spend the next 45 minutes working on stuff for mops. mops is one of my favorite things to invest my time and energy in, and i give it the best part of my day.

8:35am. by the time i get home from cruz's daycare drop-off, london is up and hanging out with tovi. i nurse her, and then spend some time on work that won't require me to be on the phone. we lay on the floor together and i chat to her while i enter data. i'm glad we get to spend this time together, although sometimes i wish our one-on-one time would be more about playing with her than just keeping her occupied.

9:45am. london's back down for a nap, and i launch myself into work calls. my time is limited, so i try to be as careful about it as possible. i tell myself that i'll take a shower at 11:15 and i barrel through the next hour and a half.

12:20pm. cruz is home from daycare and i unleash him on the backyard. we play basketball for awhile, and then i put london down for her second nap. cruz vacillates between making layups and chalk drawings, wanting to play together or wanting to play by himself. this is his time to get really worn out, so i follow his lead.

1:30pm. my boss (who's also my neighbor and a friend) asks if she can drop by later in the afternoon. i get cruz down for a "quiet time" after we read a few books and do a quick clean of our downstairs. rugs get vacuumed, all the sports equipment is returned to their home outside. i get more work done and eat a quesedilla with goat cheese (thanks to bread and wine, i've learned that goat cheese is always the right answer). it's delicious and i savor my time alone... until lolo wakes up at 2:15. i get a little annoyed that her afternoon nap wasn't too long, but as i'm getting ready to feed her, i figure out the answer-- two front teeth are popping through! i cut her some slack; she's been surprisingly unfussy.

3pm. cruz gets released from his naptime jail. he has taken all the books off his shelves and lined them up along the floor. "it's slippery!" he tells me, delighted. for his birthday, our friends adam and leah bought him berenstein bears: the trouble with chores and now he's obsessed with doing chores, so he cleans up the room as soon as i ask him to (thanks, questads!). since we potty trained him, cruz has been resistant to wearing pants, so after naps are usually a good time check him out in his undies. we have a snack. we read some books. london is a little fussy, so i put her in the carrier for awhile. "put london in the ergo, not the moby," cruz instructs. ah, bossy and a modern toddler!

4pm. rachael stops by for a chat and brings cake. that's my favorite kind of pop-in.

5pm. it's been a goal of mine to get to know our neighbors better. one way i'm trying to do that is by encouraging us to play in our cul de sac more often. we head out front with our chalk and our neighbors are also out riding bikes. there are few things that make me feel more like a real mom than helping to supervise pre-dinner cul de sac playtime.

6pm. tovi steps in quickly, transitioning between soccer practice and one last client. i feed cruz his dinner and then send him into the studio for a few minutes. my sweet, tired london is ready for bed. i feed her and she falls asleep quickly.

7pm. tovi and i chat when he comes in from the studio, but we end up talking too long and it's past cruz's bedtime. he starts to melt down, and i carry him upstairs with less grace than i'd like. his screaming actually wakes london up, which is a bummer. i settle her back down and then trick cruz into brushing his teeth and putting on his jammies. i don't remember what happened after that... did we read a book? did we say prayers? did tovi take over bedtime and i fed london again? i think that's what happened. anyhow... he's asleep!

8pm. we eat bagel sandwiches and a salad-- we keep it classy around here. look, this is how i get it "all" done. there's just no such thing as "all" anymore. something always has to give and i'm trying to give myself the freedom to let a couple of things slide from day to day. today i cleaned. maybe tomorrow we'll eat a real dinner. when you're balancing work and taking care of littles, something will always have to give. we watch two episodes of friday night lights because it's awesome and so that tovi can have that extra coach-taylor power boost as the team heads into their last games of the regular season.

10:30pm. i type up this post in bed, feed london one more time, read a couple pages in my new book, and finally turn off the lights.

i'd love to see what your day looks like! i'm linking up with robin here... and you can too!