A Week In My Life: Work From Home Mom Edition
I am going to be honest, I had no idea what to post this week. Then I came across another blogger who recently posted a week in the life for her career! It matched what I had vlogged about and I put out a poll on Instagram where 100% of you said I should post something similar, so I thought why not! It is a little different than my normal stuff, but I feel like I am being open and transparent with this post. I want this space to be just that: open, transparent, and down to earth. So here I am, recording all the things I did this week to give you a little inside scoop of my week.
Side note really quickly! If you like the behind-the-scenes content like this, be sure to sign up for my weekly journal! It’s a little piece of happy mail that will come to your inbox once a week where I dive into personal details, behind the scenes, favorite recipes, tips, tricks, and so much more!
Now, for those that are new to this space - I am 24 years old. I do product photography once a week, run my blog, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, and I am a full-time stay-at-home mama to our energetic 1.5 year old. I am also a photographer and enjoy spending time capturing the joy of my clients. It’s a full load! When I’m not in work mode, I thoroughly enjoy the outdoors. We love all things adventure, homesteading, reading, and creating. I love to pick up little hobbies, when I have the time, and practice them until I am ready to learn something new!
Well…are you ready to see my schedule? Let’s go!
Sunday
The weekends are usually when I get the most work done, if I wasn’t lucky enough to get it all done during the week. My husband, Charlie, works a 9-5 programming job, so he will usually watch Evelyn for a few hours on the weekends while I get some work done. Our weekends vary week by week, but this particular Sunday started out with a hearty breakfast and a trip to the sledding hill. Every other Sunday, I have game-nights with friends online. So before our game started and after it finished, I did any work I needed to get done! Usually on the weekend after everything gets published, I create Pinterest pins and schedule them out for the next two weeks.
Monday
Lately, I have been setting my phone in the living room to charge overnight and unlocking Evelyn’s baby gate right before I go to bed. This has helped me stay off my phone and wake up bright and early with my own personal alarm clock! I wish I had the opportunity to wake up before her and get a few things done around the house. But as soon as I sit up in bed, she does too! Anyone else have a strange connection to their child where they just know when you’re awake?
So anyways! Her and I have been starting our mornings bright and early at 7:50 am. From there, we let the dogs out, make a quick plate of fruit and any breakfast I have meal prepped for the week, I start a pot of tea, and sit to enjoy our morning together. While my tea is warming up, I enjoy a cup of water with collagen powder. From there, we get ready to leave by 11 am to head to my parent’s business. I am a product photographer for my dad’s store and we are so very thankful for this opportunity because they watch Evelyn while I work!
After I get home around 4:30 pm, Charlie takes over watching Evelyn and they usually make dinner together.
Task for tonight: Batch my LiketoKnow.it posts for the next couple weeks and begin working on one blog post for the week. Lately, I will dedicate only a few hours a night to work and then Charlie and I will finish the rest of the night with quality time (our version of quality time is currently spent playing Divinity).
Tuesday
Per usual, Evelyn enjoy our morning routine! I like to keep screen time to a minimal, so I like to have our Google Home play a little relaxing music in the background. This is actually a habit my mother got me into when we came home from the hospital with Evelyn. She recommended never letting the house be quiet, so we used to play a classical piano playlist during the day. Now, I will have Google play relaxing piano, classical music, acoustic covers, Studio Ghibli pieces, or anything I am feeling that morning. Adding a little music into our day has helped with intention setting, mindfulness, and keeping my spirits lifted throughout the day (it’s the little things). After breakfast is done, Evelyn and I spend some one-on-one time doing an activity of her choice! Today was language learning time. She likes to watch Nick Jr. Canticos and Super Simple Songs (in various languages) on YouTube. Since she wanted to start with that, I squeezed in a little workout while she watched and danced to the songs. Afterwards, we sat and read through some of her bilingual flashcards and books. Today’s language: Japanese
Today was our first day of independent time! I was so nervous, but also so ready to get back into getting a much needed break in the middle of the day. I set up a reading corner, her weekly toy rotation, turned on some relaxing tunes, and pulled up her baby monitor to keep an eye on her! While she had independent time, I decided to take my laptop and our left overs from lunch into the bathroom for a bath. I spent much of my time in the bath working on scheduling the posts that I had worked on the day before for Liketoknow.it
Please don’t mind the bath crayon everywhere! lol
Playing with her KiwiCo crate!
After our 30 minute timer was up, we headed to the kitchen to prep this week’s breakfast: muffins! (I’m including the recipe in my weekly. Don’t forget to sign up!) By the time we were done prepping (and snacking), it was time to trade-off work time and I headed to the home office.
On the agenda:
Finish writing up one blog post for this week
draw the Instagram giveaway winner (for a giveaway I did with some girls back in the end of January).
Create Pinterest pins for the post
Check all settings: description, SEO, tags, schedule
I actually finished with enough time to enjoy Evelyn’s bed time routine and hop into bed to enjoy a book before lights-out!
Wednesday
I look forward to Wednesdays because they are our playdate day with our good friends, The Choi Family! We had just received a bunch of snow AND the sun was out, so we decided to take the kids all sledding for the first time. Evelyn ended up not enjoying it and desperately did not want her friends, nor I, to go down the hills. We ended up staying almost the whole day with them because we lost track of time! Afterwards, we visited Charlie’s grandparents for his grandfather’s birthday.
So not much work was accomplished on this particular Wednesday, but we got some much needed socialization in with our close friends and family.
Thursday
Catch up day! Evelyn and I did our morning routine, exercised, she chose language time for her activity again and we practiced Spanish, she took a bath, and then had some independent time. During her independent time, I caught up on any final revisions (if needed) of a blog post, made sure both posts were ready and scheduled. Then, I began editing for the next weeks vlog. I always try to stay at least one week ahead on editing vlogs to minimize stress.
Enjoying her books in her reading corner with her 2ft elephant that was gifted to her from close friends
We ended up having a lot of birthdays this week and visited my parents after independent time to celebrate my cousin with a birthday dinner. My parents then surprised us by asking Evelyn to spend the night! This usually happens about once a week, but not always.
Friday
Since Evelyn spent the night at her grandparents, that means she won’t be home until independent play time (1-2pm). So I worked ALL morning until she came home!
Agenda:
finish up video editing
create a thumbnail
schedule the video
check emails/messages
edit pictures for any clients.
begin next weeks blog posts
Saturday
I have been looking forward to this day since we planned it back in November! I spent most of the morning working on social media, but I met a client for a photo session around 3pm. Afterwards we had some wonderful dinner with our friends! We have been trying to spend more time with close friends and family because this past year has done a toll on everyone’s mental health. We keep our clan small and try to see them regularly, which has helped all of our health!
So there you have it! My days are jam packed being a mom and squeezing in work whenever I can. There are a lot of late nights, a lot of leaving certain messes for later, and a lot of hobbies put on stand-by for now. But I always like to take a break when I know I can and indulge in creating for myself. Creating is my obsession and I LOVE what I do! I am so thankful for all of the support I receive from each one of you because each ‘like’, ‘comment’, ‘subscribe’, and ‘share’ help support our little family and allow me to keep sharing the things I love.
I know not every mom schedule looks the same, so tell me in the comments below what yours looks like?