DITL, February 2022

by Amanda | Feb 16, 2022 | Family

I thought I’d share what a day-in-the-life (DITL) looks like for me these days, just for the sake of looking back on it in the years to come. Weekdays at our house are busy and very structured at the moment, and I honestly kind of like it. Weekends go a little more off the rails sometimes, but that’s what weekends are for, right?!

7:30 AM – Wake up. Make sure Myles is awake and getting dressed. Make Myles breakfast. Start a pot of coffee. Feed the cat. Feed the dogs and let them out. Get Lena out of bed if she’s woken up, put her in her bouncer or on her play-mat. Brush and braid Myles’s hair while he is finishing his breakfast. Put Myles’s lunch and school iPad in his backpack and make sure he has his binder and snow gear for recess.

8:00 AM – Mike gets back from dropping Ben off at school. Have a cup of coffee and chat with him. Play with Lena and get her a “baby biscuit” (teething rice rusk).

8:30 AM – Mike leaves to take Myles to school. Lena moves to her play-mat (if she’s not already there) to play quietly and eat her snacks. I grab my laptop and log on for work, sitting in my comfy chair in the living room. I start by checking and responding to emails and knocking out any quick tasks.

9:00 AM – Mike gets back from dropping Myles off at school and oftentimes running a quick errand (oftentimes picking up a grocery or feed store order). I move from my comfy chair to my desk to really dig in to my workday.

9:00-11:30 AM – Work at my desk. Lena takes a nap and hangs out with Daddy. Usually, sometime between 11:30 and noon Lena decides she wants to be nursed so I take a few minutes to do that.

Noon(-ish) – Depending on my meetings and Lena’s nursing schedule, I take a break sometime between noon and 1. I grab some lunch. Sometimes I start dinner if it’s something going into the crockpot or to simmer on the stove. I run outside to check on the goats and chickens. Just yesterday, we started giving Lena solids at lunchtime. She had banana-peanut butter puree for the first time!

1:00-5:00 PM – For me, this is work, work, work time. Mike packs Lena up in her car seat at 2:00 and leaves to go pick Ben up from school. From there he goes directly to the elementary school and picks up Myles too. Lena catches a nap while doing the school pickup-thing. The four of them get back home around 3:30. Ben never has homework. Myles gets a snack, lets the dogs out, and then he starts on his homework. He brings it to me to check over before he puts it into his backpack to return to school the next day. At about 4 PM, I usually need to pause for a moment and nurse Lena one more time.

5:00 PM – My workday is over. I get off the computer and go right to the kitchen to either finish dinner (if I started it at lunchtime) or to get started cooking. I try to have dinner on the table sometime between 5:30 and 6:30. Depending on how fussy Lena is (and how much of a break Mike is needing) I will either cook with her on my hip, or run back and forth from the kitchen to the living room to play with her and cook at the same time.

7:00-8:15 PM – We finish dinner any time between 6:30 and 7 typically. The kids do their evening chores: Ben unloads/re-loads the dishwasher. Myles takes care of the dogs. I run back out to the barn to close things up and top off hay and water buckets. After their chores, the kids play for a while. Mike gets some time to relax and work on his hobbies or just hang out. If Lena is content and playing, I’ll work on a project like my knitting or do some housework.

8:15 PM – Myles brushes his teeth and says goodnight. He goes upstairs to read a book with Daddy. They’re working on The Hobbit at the moment. Lena and I play for a little bit, and then she usually nurses and takes a little catnap right about now.

9:30 PM – Mike comes back downstairs any time between 9 and 10. Myles is in bed by 9, and Mike usually spends time reading or watching videos with Ben from 9 to 10, but recently Ben has been going to bed earlier, so sometimes Mike comes down sooner.

9:30-11:00 PM – Mike and I spend time together. Lena usually wakes up and plays for a little while on the floor with us and the dogs. We watch a little TV.

11:00 PM – Bedtime & do it all over the next day!