a day in the life Working Mommy Post - Julie

Hello all!!  My name is Julie…and I don’t blog (insert gasps here!  haha!).  I used to blog (many years ago), but just have never found the motivation to keep up with it.  However, I read many blogs and get lots of good advice and ideas from them, so I was excited when Melissa did this series again!

We live in Kansas and I am a full-time working mom.

I am married to my amazing husband, Grant.

And mommy to our sweet, smart, spunky, and hilarious “little girl (always) with a big bow”, Elliott – she just turned 2 in July.

A Day In Our Life

My alarm clock goes off at 5:30 am, I started getting up this early a few months ago in an attempt to get some things done in the morning while the house is quiet and I don’t have a 2-year-old constantly needing me!  (now there are still mornings that I hit snooze and stay in bed till 6:00, but it’s a work in progress!).  Some mornings I go hop on the treadmill and catch up on the morning news/social media while I walk, or I throw dinner in a crock pot, pack my lunch or change out the laundry or just sit and read in quiet!

I jump in the shower and start getting ready for work.  I usually can get showered, makeup on and at least my hair dried at this point.

At about 6:30 am, the other 2 are waking up.  Grant and I take turns being responsible for getting E up and dressed each day.  We have done this since I went back to work after maternity leave (when she was an infant and got up way earlier to take a bottle) but still do it because it gives us each a few days a week to have extra minutes to get ourselves together in the morning or sleep in a bit.  We love interacting with her in the morning because she is so awake and energetic!  We stop to help her with the puzzles, blocks or other toys that she plays with between her room and ours every morning.

Grant grabs breakfast (and coffee!) and is out the door with E by 7:15 am…This is when I finish getting ready.  We are lucky in that both of our families live in the same town as us, so E goes to one of her grandma’s houses everyday while we work.  Grant’s mom also does in-home daycare so she does still get interaction with other kids, but definitely gets spoiled by them both!!  I get out the door by 7:40 am and usually eat my breakfast on my way or at my desk when I arrive.

[insert long workday here!]

I leave work around 5:00 pm and go pick-up E since Grant usually is off work later than I am.  I get home and changed into comfy clothes, and we decide what to do for dinner.  I won’t lie, I don’t cook that much (I am trying to get better and have actually planned 4 new recipes for this week!) so we eat something that is quick to make.  We do sit down as a family and eat EVERY night no matter what we are eating.  I think this time is really important and E is our built in dinner entertainment!

The rest of the evening, well it depends on the night…one night a week we take her to gymnastics, sometimes we go for a walk, play around the house or outside, get chores done with her “help”, etc.  By 7:30 pm, we start winding her down for the night…bath, pj’s, prayers, books, night night by 8:00 pm!  We again take turns with who is responsible for all that, but the other one is usually close by helping or just entertaining her J

After she is down for the night, that’s when we get time to relax together or do things around the house.

We are both usually in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 (I know, exciting night life we live!!  Haha).

And are up the next morning to do it all again!

How do household tasks get done (laundry, dishes, bills, errands, etc.)

Well, what started as a joke a few months ago has stuck AND worked!  One night Grant was proclaiming his hate for doing laundry and I jokingly said that I will forever wash, fold and put away the laundry if he forever washed and put away the dishes…and he agreed!  Now I know it won’t last FOREVER, but for now it’s working for us!  I keep up with the laundry by doing several loads a week instead of all at one time and love that I don’t have to do anything with the dishes J  As for everything else around the house…I am blessed with a wonderful husband that is very helpful and we basically both are responsible for cleaning, trash, etc.  We are both totally OCD and crazy neat freaks so the house never appears to be messy (even if we haven’t dusted in a few weeks!).  Elliott has taken on those traits and is really good about cleaning up her toys and putting them away. 

Spending quality time with E

You won’t find us doing much in the evenings/weekends that doesn’t involve her, we take her everywhere with us!  We figure that we are away from her all day Mon-Fri, so we squeeze in as much time as possible with her.  Our quality time with her on the weekends is just playing around the house or taking her out to eat or running errands or going grocery shopping… we rarely go anywhere on weeknights unless we have to.  It’s hard to only have 5:00-8:00 to have her awake during the week, so we make the most of it!

Spending quality time with Grant

We are really bad about making this a priority. Grant and I are both natural homebodies, so when we spend time together, it is usually at home!  After she goes to bed, we take that time to catch up on the DVR or work on a home improvement project together (we are currently painting 5 pieces of furniture for a certain little girls “big girl room”).  Some nights we just sit in the living room and chat about our days and other happenings or do our own thing.  We try to go on a date night once a month, and usually just go to dinner or shopping!  We are again lucky to have both our moms and my teenage niece in town that can watch her for us.

Spending time with friends

This one is hard!!  I keep in touch with many of my girl friends through text or phone calls throughout the week.  But, we rarely find time to actually do stuff with our friends (I know that sounds horrible!), but we both have large, close families with 10 nieces/nephews so we spend a lot of our free time with them and attending their activities.  I have started a mom’s group/playgroup with 5 other working moms that I know from different parts of my life (some from Junior League, some from school, etc.) and we are going to be meeting one evening a month.  I really think that it will be nice to have a group of ladies to surround myself with that have the same life happenings and for E to interact with all their children.

Finding balance with life

It took me a long time to adjust to life after I had Elliott.  But now it’s just our normal! 

I try to run as many errands as I can during my lunch hour so that I don’t have to worry about them in the evenings and get lots of little tasks taken care of throughout the day at my desk.

  We remind ourselves many times a week that everything is just a phase and it will pass (just as another challenge comes along!).   We are in a season of our lives that doesn’t give us much time for anything outside of Elliott, but I know that it won’t always be that way, so I make the best of it and treasure it with her while I can.  All the laundry, dishes, housecleaning, girls nights, date nights,etc. will happen eventually…just not at this moment! 

Thanks for reading my ramblings and taking a peek into my working mom life!!

Follow me on Instagram – mrsgould36 or e-mail me at – julieann327@hotmail.com